Our ship docked just outside of the town of Rostock, which is located in former East Germany.
We boarded a train and headed for Berlin (a 3-hour ride). The train cars were old & each had separate passenger compartments (with glass doors & wood walls enclosing each compartment) that could fit 6 people sitting. The seats could be converted into beds. We shared our compartment with a couple from Manchester, England. We tried to explain baseball tothem & they tried to explain rounders and cricket to us (I still don't quite understand cricket).
During our train ride, one of the workers/hosts sat down & chatted with us. She grew up in Rostock & was old enough to remember what it was like to live there before the reunification of Germany & told us a bit about the differences, etc. between then & now.
One thing that she did say was that the people of Germany (east & west) are just now starting to not feel like they have to apologize for their heritage due to WWII.
Left: Once we arrived in Berlin, we met our tour guide & went across the street to see the Berlin Wall. There are few portions of the wall left standing. I believe that this was the longest stretch of it.
Right: In areas where the Berlin Wall used to be, there are markers on the ground in brick, brass & stone.
Our tour guide grew up in West Berlin, which was surrounded by East Berlin & the wall from 1961-1989. During that time, if her family wanted to leave West Berlin & travel to other parts of West Germany, they would need to apply for special visas & either fly out of West Berlin or travel directly through the East German checkpoints (and get thoroughly searched & pay a certain amount of $ for each day they would spend there). Fortunately, things have changed!
Amazingly enough, Berlin is still rebuilding from all of the bombings from WWII. There was construction areas everywhere & many bombed-out buildings were still standing. Because of this, there is a mix of very old and very new buildings all over the city.Left - The remains of a church that was bombed during WWII with some newer construction to the left.
Right: The former Nazi headquarters. The architecture was extremely different from all of the other German buildings.
Above: Checkpoint Charlie - During the Cold War, this was one way out of the American sector to the Soviet sector of Berlin. It is now a tourist trap.
Right: The Brandenburg Gate
Left: The inside of an actual spy tunnel. Both Russia & the USA have admitted to building & using these tunnels to spy on each other during the Cold War.
Right: Lori's car dressed up as a taxi. In both Denmark & Germany, these have been used as taxis.
Left: World Cup fever was still everywhere in Berlin. This is a picture of a television tower where the round part had been painted as a soccer ball.
