Hameln & Berlin June 10-13

Our first night in Germany, we camped by the Rhine river in a small town just across the Border with the Netherlands. It was very pretty and quite enjoyable. After dinner, we sat on the deck of the restaurant and had drinks (beer for me) and played cards. It was real nice.





The next day we moved on to the town of Hameln. We find a nice camp ground and go explore the city. This town has a very old town center. The buildings look like they are in a fairy tale. In fact, this town is the center piece of the fairy tale, The Pied Piper. As the story goes, the Pied Piper was in this town and led all the rats away from town. The town did not pay him for his services, so he came back to town and led all the children away. This story is still the center piece of the town. Every where you go there are statues of rats and they are sold in all the souvenir shops. At the town hall, several times a day, the Glockenspiel goes and plays music and the story of the Pied Piper is played out by the glockenspiel. It was a nice day wandering around town.

The next day we moved on to Berlin where we couch surfed with Annie. She had a lovely flat in the heart of Berlin. She was kind enough to leave the keys at the local bakery and we got settled in and walked around the neighborhood to find a pub for the USA versus England World Cup match. We found a nice pub and enjoyed watching the US fight to a 1-1 draw with England. A good result. Go USA!!.




The next day we walked to the center of town. Our first stop was “Check Point Charlie”, the old border crossing from the American sector in Berlin to the Russian sector of East Berlin. Near the check point there are a lot of information boards which provided some history about the cold war and the Berlin wall that separated East and West Berlin. Next we ventured to a section of the wall that is still standing. It is hard to imagine life within a city separated like this and with two completely different life styles. We’ve heard quite a few stories from locals about the day that the wall came down. Sounds incredible and quite the party.

Our next stop was a new exhibit in Berlin called the Topography of Terror. This is a wonderful exhibit chronicling the rise of Nazi power in Germany through the course of the war until the fall of Berlin. I was surprised at the information regarding the end of the war and the amount of the Nazi leaders that were not punished after the war. Many were convicted of crimes and then released from their sentence early, spending only a few years in jail.

As you walk around Berlin, the results of the fighting in the city in World War II are still evident everywhere. In many areas you have new buildings where everything was destroyed and then rebuilt. When ever you see old buildings, there are parts that are new and the remaining parts have bullet and blast marks all around the windows and doors.

We cut our touring short to make sure we got back to the flat in time to make dinner and then return to the same pub as the night before to watch the Germany v. Australia game. This time the pub is full and we sit outside on the sidewalk. It is a great game and Germany dominates Australia 4 – 0. Every time Germany scores, you hear loud explosions. People set off fireworks on each goal. Even people from our pub run into the street and light off M-80’s. After the game, cars are driving by honking their horns and waving flags out the windows. Quite the celebration. During the game, we met a lovely family with a 13 year old daughter Lilly. We had a wonderful conversation with her and hope she comes to visit us in Seattle.





The next morning we pack to leave and then head back to the city center to catch a few more sights. We visit the Brandenburg Gate, the Bundestag (current Parliament building, formerly the Reichstag), and the memorial to the Holocaust.

The gate is wonderful, but full of tourists. The Bundestag is an amazing building. The construction is massive stone blocks. It was heavily damaged during the war, but even withstood the brunt of a major onslaught during the battle for Berlin. We toured around the outside, but decided not to wait several hours in the line to climb up into the glass dome covering the top of the Parliament room.



It was a short visit to Berlin, but we enjoyed it very much. Our evening and morning talks with Annie were fantastic and opened our eyes to a number of new ideas about some things. Always great to see and hear other peoples perspectives. Annie’s hospitality was wonderful.
~Jeff~