Still jet-lagged, I’m just waking up to where we are and what happened here. Most people on the street are just trying to get on with their lives while their parents and grandparents are likely still reverberating from the past – first the war, then the occupation, then the Cold War, and life behind the Wall. Anyway, we start the day by going back to the Reichstag.  

There we walked up the helical ramp to the top of the glass dome. 

From the rooftop we had a good view of Berlin and the Tiergarten, Berlin’s public park. 

Ross, Marylou, and Jerry back at the bottom of the ramp.

Next stop was the Potsdam Platz, site of many redevelopment projects. 

In front of the train station were sections of the Berlin Wall on display. 

Another item of interest to Ross was this colorful Trabant, or Trabbi. Made in East Germany, it was essentially the only car available to East Germans prior to the reunification. People frequently had to wait as many as 10 years to get one so they took really good care of it; the average lifespan was 28 years. Maintaining nearly the same design forever, it was a two-cylinder oil-burner made of Masonite with a top speed of around 60 mph. 

We later walked by the longest remaining segment of the outer wall. 

Next stop was the “Topography of Terror.” This museum is located on the site of the former headquarters of the Gestapo and SS which was destroyed by Allied bombs near the end of the war. The museum contains information and photos of Gestapo members, their political prisoners, and the Nuremberg Trials. 

Inside the museum we saw several groups of what appeared to be students visiting with their teachers. 

Finally we stop at Checkpoint Charlie. It was one of the best- known crossing points between West and East during the Cold War. Today a replica of the first wooden shed is there for tourists to see along with actors portraying American soldiers. We didn’t have time to visit the museum but Ross has read Buckley’s Fall of the Berlin Wall which also describes efforts and methods of escaping from East to West. 

We have dinner at an outdoor cafe and return to the hotel to rest our tired feet. Eight miles today.