Berlin
We had different reactions to Berlin. My wife said it struck her as similar to Prague, but somewhat more laid back. I got pretty much the opposite impression: like Prague, but bigger, more crowded and altogether less charming.
Sam asked, before the start of the trip, if there was a statue of Hitler in Berlin. I actually thought that was a pretty good question for a 7 year old. It pointed up to me something that is obviously, glaringly true but I’ve never really thought about it before (or, if I did perhaps, when I was 7, I’ve forgotten about it). Statues and monuments are not there to teach us about history, they are there to glorify those bits of it that people are actually proud of.
When I asked a German man, standing in front of a map, where the wall was, he looked at me rather strangely and said “The wall hasn’t been there for 20 years.” Perhaps I asked it wrong, my German is really extremely limited, but he still should have known what I meant.
The 1st thing the kids noticed that they really liked was a replica of the Statue of Liberty in front of the Hauptbahnhof. Hey, look, we’re in New York, ha ha. Kids are so easy to please, sometimes.
The tour boats on the river Spree looked pretty much exactly like the tour boats on the Vltava, but Berlin’s added an innovation which I think Prague, and in fact all river cities, should implement. They had lounge chairs set up along one bank, like 50 or 60 of them, and they had waitress service. We didn’t stop, and I haven’t had any alcohol for 10 years, but I’m sure that having a nice, cold beer while lying back on a lounge chair along the bank of a river is one of life’s great pleasures, and more people should have an opportunity to partake of it.
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