A week of travel with the three of us, and mostly off work.
We visited Berlin, for the first time in 10 years, and with our 8 year old joining us.
During the train ride, a direct connection from Amersfoort to Berlin, I participated in the weekly session of the personal knowledge management training I am following. Also wrote and edited some newsletter items for a client. Later during the week I did a few things w.r.t. project management of a client project, and in preparation for our new colleague J who will be joining us next week. Specifically she will be joining me on my European data policy work, and I look forward to that. And there was e-mail I stayed on top of, as well as some invoicing to do and payments to make.
The days were for our visit to Berlin though. It was fun to travel together, I think we’re pretty good at it.
We started the evening of our arrival with a nice Italian dinner near our hotel in the vicinity of Checkpoint Charlie.
On our first day we walked by Checkpoint Charlie, showing Y my pictures of my May 1987 visit when the wall was still very much in place. Visited the Dussmann book store coming out with two books and a list of over 30 titles to look more closely at later whether or not to buy them. Walked along Unter den Linden past the Russian embassy to Brandenburger Tor, walked in the Holocaust memorial, and had lunch at busy Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz where before the wall fell there was only deadly emptiness as I saw in the 1980s. Afterwards we walked through the Mall of Berlin and on to our hotel exploring the streets in between.
Our second full day was dedicated in the morning to the Botanical Gardens, at the request of Y who had heard about them in a fiction book she enjoyed where a special plant was needed to solve a problem. It was way more fun and interesting than expected, and I’m glad she took us there. Afterwards we took the S-Bahn to Bahnhof Friedrichstraße, where we had lunch on the banks of the Spree. From there we visited Hackescher Markt and Hackesche Höfe. After dinner at the hotel we went to Alexander Platz to see the TV tower at night.
Our third and last full day started with a visit to the East Side Gallery, a 1 km section of wall along the Spree that is left standing, between Ostbahnhof and Oberbaumbrücke, followed by coffee in Kreuzberg. For contrast from there we went to the Kurfürsten-Damm and the Kaufhaus Des Westens.
Friday morning we visited Alexander Platz again, this time during day light, because Y wanted to look more closely at the world clock there, which also figured prominently in a book she had read. She was sad the clock isn’t considered iconic enough to feature at all in the Berlin souvenir shops, except on postcards. Around noon we took the train back to Amersfoort, getting home around dinner time.
No visits to musea (the Pergamon is closed for renovation) or exhibitions this time. Just walked around the city, taking in the vibe and where impulse took us. It is not easy to explain to an 8 year old what the division of the city has meant. Or how my visit in the 1980s to both East and West Berlin that impressed me strongly as a teen still colors my perception and emotional experience of the city.
It makes me wonder if, 35 years after the Wall came down after standing for 28 years, Berlin will be able or even want to make that period of division a permanent fixture of its identity without it becoming kitschy like it already is at Checkpoint Charlie. They have succeeded in providing ample space to remembering the Nazi period, fixing it into the fabric of the city. What will remembering the DDR dictatorship and the Wall become over time?
There’s not much in Berlin I would call beautiful, it’s gritty and busy. But there is so much too that is fascinating, inspiring and worth to remember and reflect upon. I really should try and line up some events to visit there again.
Upon our return the weekend was used to visit cousin M for his 16th birthday, finally finishing and submitting the 2023 income taxes, and taking a walk while it was sunny outside.