More from Berlin

I left off on Thursday with the promise of a swimming trip and an interview the next day.

Well, one of them happened and my bathers have just finished drying. The other, well less of a success, but hopefully it will be rescheduled (the connection did not work).

So, Friday began slowly as I waited for my mobile to ring. When I do start work next year I won't forget running round the hostel at 8am trying to find a quiet place! It's been very tough arranging jobs from afar, but I've definitely got some good stories which I'm sure will be very funny in the future....

After a two hour wait by the phone I gave up and decided to head to the German Historical Museum. This was a fantastic museum and as I got swept away in the reassuring weight of history my frustrations of the morning were soon forgotten. The exhibition started when Germany did and continued through the rocky paths of German history from rags to riches. It was in many ways a typical German museum- very educational, quite text heavy with lots of literature and art work on display. But a very comprehensive and classy exhibition. I learnt a lot but also enjoyed consolidating my knowledge on things I knew a bit about- seeing items from Martin Luther's time for example right up to the modern history section about WW1, the 20s and WW2 as well as the Cold War and the reunification.

Following my educational morning I met up with the Australian I met on my first day and we set off on the Wannsee train line to a huge lake where we cooled off on another gorgeously hot day. We met a lovely 92yr old on the train who we chatted to our broken German and his broken English (he apparently lived in Aus for a while when he was young). Within minutes he was showing us his photos: he and his wife on their wedding day, photos from various holidays they had, his budgie who he claims is 34 yrs old. The way he affectionately stroked his wife's photo made us wonder if something had recently happened to her.

The lake was enormous and we swam from one side to another as well as walking the complete circumference of it- maybe 4-5 km. There were heaps of people enjoying the weather, swimming, rowing hired boats or just sitting in the sun. The number of nude couples (homo and hetero sexual) made it clear to us: we really were in Berlin after all.

We caught the train back and headed for dinner near Amy's (the Aussie girl) accommodation. There we enjoyed a feast of a huge serve of pasta plus a basket of Turkish rolls for the princely sum of 2.50 Euro each. Fantastic as I am once again continuing the 'eat for less than 5 euro a day' challenge.

Over dinner we decided it was way too early to go home and decided to check out some of the remnants of the Wall near where we ate dinner, then head into the Reichstag building as we had been told the queues at the Reichstag were shortest at night or early in the morning.

We thought we'd be gone for an hour or an hour and a half so decided to walk to the wall to enjoy the summer evening. Luckily we did walk: the whole way there (along Bernauer Straße) was kind of a 'wall trail' which provided plaques signifying various historical events related to the wall such as escape attempts. The old path of the wall was traced on the footpath and it was clear to see where it used to run: the houses were set back about 10-20 metres from the road. In front of the houses was this no-mans-land of shrubby grassland that was the old 'death zone': the place where would-be escapers could be shot.

Eventually we got to a striking wooden chapel which we discovered was rebuilt in 2000 to commemorate a church that had once stood there (ironically, it was called the Church of Reconciliation). The wall had been built around the church such that it was in the death zone cutting off the parishoners from the church and each other. I believe West Berliners were allowed in, until it obviously got too hard and the church was destroyed in the mid 80s. There was a cemetery nearby which was also in the death zone and these graves were dug up and moved. East Berliners with relatives buried close to the wall had to get special grave permits to visit.

Near this church was a complete wall section left in place: the West side wall, raked sand to detect escapers in between, barbed wire then the East side wall. It was imposing standing on one side of and imaging what it would be like to live with this in your street. I can't imagine the heartbreak of knowing you were 3 houses too short to live in West Germany and that you could get shot attempting visit your luckier neighbours.

Following our evening of recent Berlin history we then dived back into time a bit by making our way to the Reichstag. Or at least we tried to.

Emerging from the closest train station, near the Brandenburg Gate, we were surprised to discover the street blocked up and police everywhere. Turns out they were having a dinner for Berlin Fashion Week just in front of the Reichstag building. Seems my invite got stuck somewhere between here and Oslo, but it must have been amazing dining whilst enjoying an orchestra in front of the Brandenburg Gate as the sun slowly set.

We eventually found a way around this obstacle and continued on our quest for some culture. However, emerging on the other side of the Gate we found ourselves caught up in a sea of athleticism as people wearing lycra and sporting numbers suddenly appeared everywhere. Always happy to get free stuff we wiped the invisible sweat off our brow and headed into the crowds. Turns out there was a corporate walk/swim/roller skating race for all the big companies in Berlin. We did managed to score some free stuff (including a bottle of wine at a chocolate wheel!) and enjoyed strolling through the crowds. I had to laugh, everyone was still in their athletic clothes as they ate company picnics and skulled their huge beers! Erdinger Weissbeer must have been a sponsor and instead of tables of water there were tables of alcohol free beer at the finish line.

So deterred once again on our mission, but this time we made it to the Reichstag and were inside within 20 minutes or so. The Reichstag is the seat of the German Parliament and is an impressive building which had been rebuilt the odd time or two (most notably after the controversial 1933 fire). On top of the building is a huge glass dome: visitors can walk in spirals to the top of the arch giving great views of Berlin and an even more interesting view down into the parliamentary gallery. The glass also is very eco friendly- a pane of mirrors directs light into the gallery, a heat recycling system is in place and solar panels adorn the roof.

We got to the roof of the building before going on the arch at about 10 as the sun was starting to set and had a fantastic 360 view of Berlin before ascending the spiral walkways whilst listening to the free audio guide. Our 30-40 minutes there gave us great views, an interesting summary of history and the sights in the distance and an insight into the German parliamentary system. And best of all, it was all free!

One thing that impressed me was the number of stunningly designed new civic buildings in Berlin. The main station, many of the parliamentary buildings, many of the buildings near Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and a whole host of other buildings are at least less than 10 years old and most are less than 5 years.

Finally after an exhausting day we headed our separate ways and made it home to bed.

Today was an even fuller day, if that's possible, as I had a huge list of things I still wanted to do in Berlin. I started off with a visit to the Checkpoint Charlie museum where I indulged my interest in the Wall further by reading about the escape attempts. The museum started very soon after the wall went up and very early seemed to become important to all Berliners as many of the escapers have given their escape paraphernalia to the museum. So it contains a fascinating collection of cars with false pockets, dummies hidden in speaker boxes and some of the more outrageous escapes: two surfboards with special ridges for concealing someone, a hot air balloon, gliders, you name it!

Following this museum I raced across town to an underground station where I joined a tour of 2 bunkers from the Cold War run by an interesting society: I think its name translates to Underground Berlin. My tour took me to a WW2 bunker that was converted for use during the Cold War, should the need arise, and a subway station that had been designed to seal off to become a nuclear bunker, even utilizing trains for extra seating space. We went through the airlock, checked out the bedrooms, the infirmary, the 'suicide proof' toilets etc.

This tour was wonderful- something completely different exploring a very recent past. If you know anyone going to Berlin I'd highly recommend they look up this group- they have other tours about underground escape attempts, the development of the subway system etc. They are a not-for-profit company surviving on donations to keep the history of Berlin alive. They also run a museum about Hitler's grand plans for Berlin and even have 2 plays which take place inside one of the bunkers we went to today. The tours and the museum are reasonably priced, and the tour was (in English) informative and entertaining- we really got an idea of what it would be like in the bunker. At one stage they turned out the light and we had to work out how to manually power the air filters and lights! http://berliner-unterwelten.de/home.1.1.html

Following my tour I headed back to the section of the wall we visited yesterday as there was a visitors centre and viewing tower that had been closed the night before. This gave a view over the wall so you could see inside the 'death zone'. Bernauer Straße has become a symbol of the impact of the wall- as well as the wall splitting the street in two, many famous pictures were taken here and I believe there were something close to 10 deaths from people attempting escape along this one street alone. Between November 2009 (the 20th anniversary of the wall coming down) and August 2011 (the 40th anniversary of it going up) they are consolidating and organising the history of the wall in Berlin. Before, the urge was to get rid of the wall and to move on with life. However, now I think enough time has passed that things have healed enough to think about the permanent reminders and memorials the city wants of the wall.

A quick stop at Potsdamer Place on the way back saw me marveling at how different it was from the pictures I've seen at the end of the 1980s. Then, I met up with Amy again and we went to the East Side Gallery to look at the 1.3km stretch of remaining wall which was covered in artwork following the fall (this would not have been allowed in the days of East Berlin). The original artists are currently repainting their works to freshen it up for the upcoming anniversary.

We decided to head to some streets with a nice atmosphere that she'd heard about to cruise and find some dinner. However, we'd just gotten off the train and were 3 min into our walk there when fat, heavy raindrops began falling. Dressed in summer clothes we stood no chance so we decided to go eat dinner instead. Hopping from veranda to veranda we found a great cheap local burger place. After dinner, however, I headed home too wet and foot sore to continue, but more than satisfied after an educational and fun day.

Tomorrow will be more relaxed I think, having done most of what I wanted to do in Berlin and wore out some serious shoe leather in the process. Then tomorrow night I'm off to Aschaffenburg (or The Schaff as I've affectionately nicknamed it), near Frankfurt to spend some time with Lena and her family.

Bye for now!

Anneke

PS Photos will come at some stage, but it's not easy in a hostel. Sorry.