A seasoned tourist like myself will tell you that trying to take in all the sites in a new city is never a good idea, but somehow this knowledge goes out the window every time I enter a new city!!!
BERLIN! :-D
First stop this morning, naturally was the Berlin wall, or what's left of it anyway. Interesting enough but rather underwhelming; to be fair though, most of it was torn down so there's not much left to see. I hear it is such a tourist favourite that parts of the old wall are being rebuilt again... Yeah, I know: crazy! After the token photos on both sides of the wall, I rushed off the catch the last remaining movie of the Berlin Film Festival, but due to having to make so many changes on the underground and over ground public transport I was 15 minutes late and I could not get in. Boy was I disappointed!! Being directed by Ralph Fiennes and featuring him and Butler-what's-his-name, I had hoped to spot, and maybe get an autograph but well... I walked back down the street towards the metro again so dejected my shoulders were actually drooping; the fierce windy cold only added to my misery :-(
I finally managed to pick myself up again and move on to the other attraction on the agenda: The Jewish Museum. More changes of trains and things and out I came of the underground at the specified station, and sure enough there was a sign saying "Jüdische Museum Berlin: 550m". After a few minutes another sign: 450m; then 300m. On I walked. Bitter cold. My cheeks and forehead are burning despite pulling down my hat almost over my eyes. My feet are freezing as well and I feel as if they are literally contracting within the shoes because the shoes begin to feel a little loose. Up ahead I see the distinctive "U" sign indicating another metro station, and with a sinking feeling realise I walked all this way when I could have come out one station further. Ah well. I walk past it and keep looking around. I am thinking that surely I should have arrived by now so I stop and look back down the street I just walked up. I imagine, being such a big attraction, it would surely have been easy to spot; I think of asking a local but they all do not look too inviting... Finally I spy another one of those forked sign posts and walking up to it I find that it says the Jewish Museum was 750m the other way!!! What? Did I read the other sign wrong? Had all that walking been for nothing? Sighing but still determined to press on, I made a half hearted attempt to begin walking back but my painful feet had other ideas: I found myself back in the underground and headed back to the hotel before you could say Yom Kipuur!! The Museum would have to wait.
After resting a little and getting some lunch, I felt revived enough to head out again about three hours later to join a pre-organised tour of the historical section of the city. I have to say that although it was even colder by now (-11° accounting for wind chill), this tour more than made up for my earlier frustrations; I came away with tons of information about the history of the city and saw some magnificent old and new buildings. Nevertheless, my most enduring memory of Berlin, probably because I spent so much time in metro stations and looking out of the train windows, will be the graffiti on practically every available wall space. The inhabitants of this city certainly have a lot to say that they simply cannot put into words, and considering their hard history (from World War I, to Hitler, to the Berlin Wall), I do not wonder.
