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17 July 2009
Our arrival in Berlin was a little disorganised, as the Campground, that we wanted to stay at, didn't exist.
Just when we were considering that we might have to spend our first night sleeping in the car, we stumbled across an excellent alternative camp. The next morning we were away early, riding a tram to the S Bahn, and then the U Bahn to the Central city.
The public transport is amazing in Berlin, and very good value.
Last time we were in Berlin (1988), the wall dominated the city, and we had to drive along the corridor road from west Germany to reach west Berlin, and then cross through “Checkpoint Charlie”, to the East Side where the shops were empty, and the streets deserted.
This time round we could stroll through the Brandenburg Gate , past the Reichstag, down to the Berliner dom, and there were no visible signs of a split city.
It was very interesting to learn about life in East Germany in the DDR museum, and hear about the actions that brought about the fall of the wall.
Gorbachev was the reforming catalyst, that seemed to spark the process, allowing soviet states a little more self determination.
Word spread, and initially a small number of people defied the curfew, that banned gatherings of more than 6 people, and within a week 300000 people were on the streets of Leipzig.
The actions spread to Berlin, eventually seeing the gates in the wall opened, and people power had triumphed over the Soviets.
At lunch time we decided to Lunch in the gardens, and as we unpacked our sandwiches, we looked around to see that we were the only ones on the grass with clothes on.
The men of East Berlin are into public nudity, and seemingly this has always been the case, and is linked to the suppression they suffered under Soviet rule, and was their way of getting at least some freedom.
The gardens were well set up with showers located for the sun worshippers. It was very strange to see them get up and put their suits back on and head back to work.
The other interesting thing we noticed were the allotments in the suburbs, where people had small blocks of land growing vegetables and flowers, and a little summer house to sleep in, a welcome retreat I suppose from the concrete jungle apartments.
Next morning we packed up wet tents and headed north again aiming for Denmark.
Driving through East Germany is like a different country from the Western parts, with run down ,unkempt villages, lots of apartment blocks beside large industrial complexes, and the people spoke less English, and appeared suspicious of westerners.
As with the Czech Republic, huge areas of grain crops dominated the landscape, alongside modern wind farms.
We were to camp on the Baltic coast, but every East German and his bike, seemed to be going the same way, so we changed tack, and stayed in the port city of Rostock, before heading to Putgarden and the ferry to Denmark.
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