Berlin Wall

What an amazing experience it was to go to the Berlin Wall. I had never really thought to much about it, I was only 3 years old when the wall came down in 1989, but I am amazed at all that I learned. It was also quite shocking that this wall only came down about 20 years ago. It's like I was standing in the making of history. Usually in our history lessons, we talk about something that happened many many years ago, but this is history that the people of Berlin are still trying to work through. Unreal.

So we went to three different parts of the wall during our stay in Berlin. First, we traveled to a part where you could see the separation between the two walls and all of the obstacles that one would have to go through to escape. They also had a look out tour that you could climb up into so that you could get a bird's eye view of what it looked like as a whole.

We then headed over to Checkpoint Charlie (the American checkpoint between East and West). There were pictures there showing how people used to try to fit into compartments in cars, disguises, anything to get across to the other side. We even heard a story of a man who took a woman across who looked like his wife, stole her passport and brought his wife back instead (a date gone really wrong)!

Saving the best for last, we then headed to the largest remaining part of the wall that is now called the 'East Side Gallery'. Many artists have come from all around the world writing and painting inspirational murals on the walls. I would say it goes a good mile long and demonstrates the freedom and 'life' that the East Berliners now have. Beautiful.

We also wanted to learn a little more about the Communist lifestyle and how it affected the East. So we stopped by this great museum called the 'DDR' (Deutsche Democratic Republic). It was such an interesting Museum that explained the 'Brain Drain' and how the Communists tried to keep everyone under them. They censored most types of music from the West, all newspapers that did not share their political views and were only allowed to travel in other Communist countries. Again, I cannot believe that this was going on right here in Germany just 20 years ago. Unbelievable.