We drove on four hours to Berlin, Western Sector, We spent the afternoon looking along Kurfurstendam. Berlin is all new and modern “5th Avenue” shops, movies, sidewalk cafes, etc., along a quite elegant wide boulevard built with U.S.dollars. We stopped in a sidewalk café for a Berlin specialty – Berliner Weissmit Himbeer (white beer with a fruit syrup foamed into it). Tastes sort of like strawberry champagne.
We visited the Kaiser Wilheim Mrmorial Church, an ultramodern simple steel and glass octagonal and bell tower built around the ancient gothic styled, bombed and shattered remains of the old church. Only the shell of the old tower remains, new church surrounds it. Also remaining is one statue a huge marble Christ, which now wears the unknown artwork of someone scrounging in the rubble during the bombing. A red face and a red hammer and sickle across the robe. The Church is very impressive.
We drove to see the Brandenbeurger Ror (Gate) from our side (you can drive up to it but can’t get out) and past the huge Russian Monument with tanks and soldiers guarding it. You can view it from behind a large expanse of rolled and tangled barbed wire fence. We saw the West Sectors Victory Column, 215 feet high with a gold winged victory on top, ate currywurst for dinner , then went to the hostels. Two downtown were full so we had to go to one way out in the sticks on the edge of Western Sector – in the forest. We figured this would happen since in Germany cars are forbidden in hostels. This means we usually park around the corner. Lat night we parked about 100 meters down the road and walked back to the hostel.