Berlin and Beyond

Our family group is back in Hanover after a 4 day road trip. We started in Berlin; unfortunately our arrival wasn’t too brilliant – we spent about 3 hours driving around looking for a camp to stay in – finally we were directed to one about 20kms out of the city and it was a great camp – right on a canal and nice and quiet. The Enterprise was really bulging with the six of us but luckily Tanja & Darcy had brought along a tent and we didn’t get any rain so we were able to spill outside. There was a funny incident soon after we started out though, when we came across an accident and were sure that the police at the scene were going to pounce on us for only having four seatbelts for six people – needless to say they barely glanced our way.

Fiona, Gus and I in particular found Berlin fascinating; I think our generation grew up with so much news about the Berlin Wall and the ‘Iron Curtain’ that it was extraordinary to be where it all happened. Now there is something I will explain - a lot of you will understand this already, but something that the three of us had got wrong in our minds. Berlin is in East Germany, not on the border of East and West. The Berlin Wall surrounded West Berlin and people had to travel through part of East Germany to get to Berlin. All of us had thought that the Berlin Wall was at the border of East and West Germany and I could never understand how the Wall could be long enough to stop people just going around the end of it! Apparently there was a fence separating East Germany from West. The Brandenburg Gate is now a beautiful symbol of freedom. It was one of the few gates in the wall.

We also visited Checkpoint Charlie, which is still there just to show where it was, and they have lots of information on panels about the history of the wall going up; people attempting to get through (both successfully and unsuccessfully); and the wall coming down. The path of the wall is still marked by a line of bricks; in places it goes along what are now busy roads. It feels strange that you can now cross it as easily as crossing the road.

There is a memorial to the Jews murdered in the holocaust. It takes up an entire city block near the centre of the city. It’s quite abstract but definitely intriguing. When you sit in one corner, on the lower blocks, it looks like there are just a few tall ones in the corner. Once you walk amongst them, however, it grows like a forest and you realise how huge the whole thing is.

Berlin’s history, of course, is also far older than the Berlin Wall and it has beautiful cathedrals, museums and fountains as well.

It’s now a vibrant city with great shops, Gus and Darcy really enjoyed the car showrooms, and a thriving urban culture.

One little quirk I found interesting too was these exposed water pipes. Apparently they used to run all over the city but now most of them have been put underground.

After Berlin we drove on up to Rugen Island, Germany’s largest island, in the Baltic Sea. Tanja had left nothing to chance this time and had booked us into a great camp at Altefahr. We were just a short walk from good restaurants and the ferry to Stralsund. We caught a ferry across to Stralsund, a very pretty port town.

Darcy and Tanja made friends with one or two of the locals! I must mention too that eating out, travelling by bus and train, even camping – just travel generally is so much easier when you have a German speaking guide with you! The rest of us just tagged along behind Tanja and got on and off trains, buses and ferries when she did, so easy, Thank You Tanja!

We also drove up to a holiday town called Sassnitz – they had beautiful houses along the waterfront. It crossed my mind to be surprised that they have such nice houses in East Germany, but reminded myself that it was only ‘East Germany’ for a very short time in the scheme of things. These houses would definitely be pre-war.

On the way back to Hanover we stopped at Lubeck, another really nice city. Once again so much history it’s inconceivable. The icon is this city gate; it had a distinct sag in the middle but is very beautiful for all that – I had thought it was a castle when I saw a postcard of it – some gate! So back to Hanover and tonight we’re all going to a barbecue to meet Darcy’s in-laws.