West Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany
Schlangenbader Strasse

This building was the site of our first apartment in Berlin.  Ours was on the top floor (other side of
building) and we had a fabulous balcony to relax on.  We spent a lot of time watching the construction of
an absolutely HUGE building, but never found out just what it was going to be.

This is where I worked while stationed in Berlin.  The site is built on top of one of the rubble heaps
that were produced at the end of WW2 as the city rebuilt from the bombings.  T-berg was an
absolutely fascinating place to work, really.

We used to joke that if the Russians ever actually got around to invading the city, we were all going to
put on the red/orange suites that the Turk (as a rule) street sweepers wore, grab a broom and sweep
our way to the West.  Probably wouldn't have worked, but it sure was a good idea.
Brandenburg Gate

Quite an eye opener.  This is probably one of the most famous photos of Berlin -
seems like everybody that ever went there has at least one of them.  Somewhere
around here I have a pic of me, in uniform, taking a picture of the East German
guard in the tower opposite me taking a picture of me taking a picture of him taking...

Well, not to make a really bad pun, but, you get the picture.
Charlottenburg Palace

Wonderful place to see in Berlin, we went several times and I don't think we ever saw all of it.  One time as we were
leaving (in our VW campervan) we'd no sooner gotten onto the main street than we had a dozen Berlin Polizei
surrounding us with their sub-machine guns pointed right at us.  After a short and super cautious inspection of us
and the van they let us go - no problem.  We found out on the news that evening that several members of the Bader
Meinhof gang had escaped from jail that day and driven off in a van just like ours.

I think I aged about 10 years that afternoon.
The Berlin Airlift Memorial
(The Hungry Fork)

Erected by the folks of Berlin in honor of the allied airmen who lost their lives during the Berlin Airlift, this memorial stands
right outside Tempelhof (TCA).  I think the nickname is particularly appropriate.

My personal "thanks" go to the people of Berlin for this memorial.
The Ku'damm
&
Kaiser Wilhelm Church

Oh, the shopping!  Berlin offers a nearly unlimited array of shopping complexes, along with enough "tourist"
sites to keep one busy for the rest of your life.  The Ku'damm is probably the best known of any of the shopping
areas - stores galore.  Of course, there's a lot more to the Ku'damm than just shopping but, for me, that was the
main reason for going down there.

The church sits right there on the Ku'damm.  It was once a beautiful building but the bombing of Berlin pretty well
took care of that.  It's a wonder as much of it is still standing as is - tells you just how good they built the place.
The Wall

I guess no website on Berlin would be complete without at least one shot of the wall.  We had a pretty good view
the guard towers.

Personally, I saw it as a prime example of man's stupidity - more than glad that it's down.
Just one time, did we manage to make it to Nurnburg - and that was during
the annual Kriskindelmarkt, the Christmas market period.  We stayed in a
very old hotel in the middle of the old city and spent several days traveling
and touring the area and market - of course, trying out the new things (to
us) like lebkuchen, and gluwein, a specially herbed warm wine that is
famous all over Germany.

Nurnburg is really some kind of town!

Gotta get back there someday!!
Reichstag

Once the Parliament building, I guess the Reichstag will live forever as the symbol of the Nazi party.  Visited it
once with my father, I don't know who was more bothered by seeing it, him or me.
Russian World War 2 Memorial

I don't know, maybe I'm the only one in the history of the city that ever found this particular location.  It was
just over to the side of the Reichstag but nobody I knew ever seemed to go there.  Personally, I found it
fascinating!  Manned by two Russian soldiers at all times, I found this memorial to be one of the most
impressive and thought provoking places in all of Berlin.
Nurnburg Trip - December 1977
My Parents In Germany

Mom figured she finally had enough money to do it up right, she gave me a call.  Once they arrived, the 6 of us (Holly was just a couple months
old) traveled all over the city - they really couldn't get enough of it.  After a week of touring everywhere we could think of, we loaded into our
1970 VW campervan (same one I got stopped in at Charlottenburg) and down the road we went, through the checkpoints and into the West.

You know, they were impressed and horrified, at the same time, by Berlin and its past/present.  This trip through East Germany absolutely
stunned them.  I don't know what got to them most, the passing-through of the checkpoints, seeing so many Russian military vehicles on the
highway between Berlin and the West, or seeing the devastation that still showed throughout East Germany, nearly 35 years after the war had
ended.

Anyway, once we got to Frankfurt, we dropped off the van and took the trains all over the place.  Mom loved the trains!  We went to all the
usual places, Frankfurt, Munich, Salzburg, Burchtesgaden, Zurich; but the one place that I, at least, will remember for all time was a little tiny
town on the German/Austrian border - Freilassing.  This is where I blew it and Dad got his best memory.

Freilassing has absolutely no significance in the great scheme of things.  It's just a little town in the mountains of southern Germany.  But, I
mis-read the train schedules and we ended up spending the night on the benches of the train station, waiting for the first train South in the
morning.  I was Horrified!!!!!!! Dad was highly entertained - he laughed about it for years afterward.  In the middle of the night, he
spotted a man standing on the other side of the train station (probably doing the same thing we were) and mentioned that the man looked an
awful lot like a guy he'd worked with some years before.  Fate is a strange thing - it turned out a couple months later (out of sheer curiosity) that
Dad called the guy, just to find out for sure ---- wouldn't you know,

IT WAS HIM!

He remembered thinking, that night, that Dad looked pretty familiar too.  What are the odds of seeing someone you know 5,000 miles from
home in the middle of the night?