A Moment In Berlin

Low waters on the Elbe forced a one-day rearrangement to our itinerary, resulting in an earlier visit to Berlin than planned. We arrived late Saturday afternoon, did a quick unpack, had another scrumptious dinner (breaded pork loins, kraut, boiled potatoes, veggies and incredible black bread), and headed out into the brisk night.

Of my many favorite cities, Berlin ranks near the top. The three years I lived in West Berlin while in the Air Force were among the most fulfilling, despite enduring the paradox of helping to sustain personal freedoms within a walled city. This is my second return to Berlin since the unbelievable turn of events in 1989 that brought down the Wall. Here's "Our Hero" by a slab of that former structure.


The contrast between a lively, vital West Berlin and the drab, unreconstructed East Berlin, to which I had unlimited access, was once incontrovertible. This current united city possesses the aura of Paris, with much of the former Eastern sector now converted to modern, stunning architecture. Energy is palpable, and no longer restricted by barbed wire and concrete.

Our hotel, a new high-rise building in bustling Potsdamer Platz, is a short walk along cobblestone markers denoting the former path of the Wall, directly to the Brandenburg Gate. How well I remember this unapproachable stretch of "No Man's Land" when I lived here. Now, access is open, and once again we can stroll through the bright Gate topped by its Quadriga chariot, and down the wide Unter den Linden boulevard, past new embassies and plush hotels.

The evening, and for that matter this visit, was too short. But the following day found us touring a small segment of the City's highlights, including Checkpoint Charlie, which saw a lot of my traffic over the years. Gone are the security mazes, but still present is the eerie reminiscence of having to traverse from one unfettered existence into the strained, uneasy atmosphere of totalitarianism, then back again.

We spent a few hours at the wonderful Pergamon Museum, with its full-scale Greek altar, Roman market wall and Babylonian processional way and Ishtar Gate. Then it was goodbye again to Berlin, and a motor trip to the town of Lutherstadt Wittenberg, better known as Martin Lutherland. Here is where we met our ship, the River Allegro, for the beginning of our Elbe experience.

Tomorrow we visit the church where Luther posted his "95 Theses," and find out what the Reformation was all about.