I travelled with the family to Berlin over the bank holiday weekend. I’ve never been there before and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay. The city is at the social, historical and physical centre of Europe. I’d hoped to avoid much of the history; its a sad tale of totalitarian success and much democratic failure but the Berliners have found ways to celebrate their resistance and successes and its hard to avoid, from the remaining bullet holes in some walls, to the new & rebuilt landmarks of the past and the remnants of the wall, the many T34s and Check Point Charlie.
I’m certain I’ll return, the pictures are in the slide show below, although, as a preview treat here’s one of me, Marx & Engels, with our backs on Eric’s Lampshop, the ruined remains of the GDR’s Palast der Republik
. Marx, the inspired author of Das Kapital
& The Communist Manifesto
, Engels, his friend, financier and collaborator, Hot on Socialism, Poor at Musical Chairs
.
One bright spot was the friendliness of the Berliner Taxi drivers; I found it easier to talk to them than their co-workers in California last time I visited and I haven’t studied German for over 30 years. They also had the knowledge
, a more limited commodity in California. Here’s the slide show, a couple of the pictures are from a later visit.
ooOOOoo
Originally posted on my sun/oracle blog, republished here in Feb 2016. They, strangely have the picture, but not the slide show, the widget for which was published much later.