Saturday, 16 Nov – Berlin

We are on a break between tours and I thought I would attempt to get this out.  Our bus tour guide was the first tour guide from the West.  He is a lifelong Berliner, born 1954 and raised in West Berlin.  He had many interesting stories about life in West Berlin.  He told one story where he was trying to drive to Italy and had to go through East Germany to get there.  He was stopped at the border to West Germany and interrogated for several hours.  West Berliners had it pretty good, since the Allies were not going to give it to Stalin, and since the air corridors were guaranteed by the Potsdam conference which Stalin signed.

Anyway it was a bleak day and we went around and got off in two places, one near a section of the now-graffitied wall, and the second at the Brandenburg Gate.

Here are some scenes in the first part of the drive.