Germany Holiday 2001 - Berlin

 This set contains the visit to Berlin. We stayed here for most of the week - in a hotel not too far from the Airport. It's a history buff's dream......

Virtually everyone would have heard of Checkpoint Charlie, but I doubt if Checkpoint Alpha rolls off the tongue as easily. This is the place where West Germany met East Germany - the checkpoint allowed access to the narrow corridor into the allied sectors of West Berlin. Nowadays this is a motorway service area. Times change.

Here I am walking on the foundations of the Berlin Wall, just next to checkpoint Charlie.

Me and mum on the old Checkpoint Charlie Gatehouse..... I felt naked without a Browning .50 cal.

Mauermuseum (Wall Museum) has to be one of the best museums in the world. Here you will find many chunks of the wall (in fact, it's the one thing you will find for sale all over the city despite it being a protected monument), uniforms and the many attempts that east Berliners made to get out of the East (tunnels, ladders, cars, balloons and just good old fashioned making a break for it - like the guard on the left hand side of the ticket is doing above).

The iconic sign that used to hang on Checkpoint Charlie. This is in postcard form and I sent this to many people around the world.....

Some of the many fibreglass bears that roam the city (and it is the bear that gives Berlin its name). Recent visitors to Manchester will see the same pattern repeated in fibreglass cow form.....

The allied war cemetery in Berlin - this is the grave of The Colditz Fox - the escape expert.

A DB Train at Zoo Station - the station that U2 borrowed to name their opening track on Achtung Baby.

A Russian T34 Tank at the famous Soviet War Memorial. Legend has it that this tank is filled with the ashes of fallen Russian Soldiers.

The other Soviet War Memorial - this is what would have been the Eastern half of the city and the Swastika being smashed with a sword by the statue in the middle of the picture is one of only two places in Berlin that you can see a Swastika (the other is at the old Olympic Stadium).

Staying in the East of the city, this is the old television mast that was built by the East.

Old railway Station about to finally be demolished in 2001. The combined efforts of RAF, USAF and the Red Army have left it a little careworn.

Old section of the wall

The famous graffiti ridden section of the wall.....

Mum and dad with old Russian hats.....

The old Stasi HQ in the East. When the East was toppled in 1989, people were allowed access to the miles of records that were kept here. However, this was stopped when a few people mentioned in the records as informers were subject to a little payback!

Stauffenberg Strase - site of the old Army HQ and renamed for the officer who attempted to take Hitler's life in the bomb plot.

A little bit of war damage - most of the old buildings that are still standing (and there are not that many) are covered in battle damage from 1945.

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