today we went to checkpoint charlie, which is not named for a person, but named because it was the 3rd checkpoint along the wall, and the 3rd letter in the military alphabet is charlie (it comes after alpha and bravo). you can buy a version of this sign on magnets, or key chains, or postcards, or t-shirts, or...

but i was there in real life, see? proof. 

i love that the mcdonald's is located in the american sector. we ate here one day- don't judge me until you've had german food for a week. then we'll talk. 

wall of passports...

a lot of the checkpoint charlie museum is dedicated to finding out how people were smuggled over the berlin wall. this car had a phony trunk in which people would crawl, lie in the fetal position (and i'm assuming pray like hell) and hope that the car wasn't stop till you were over the border...

see? the tire goes right on top. 

the checkpoint charlie museum takes the view that the soviet occupation really became inevitable when hitler invaded russia. you might remember claus von staffenburg because tom cruise played him in that valkyrie movie. don't let the fact that tom cruise was allowed to play him stop you from thinking this guy was a hero. he was. tom cruise, on the other hand, is not. 

(and if you can't read the quote from staffenburg, it says, "nobody is obliged to observe his oath of service towards a person who has broken the oath a thousand times over.")

oh yes, this is very sad. parts of the wall had automatic guns with shrapnel bullets in them. these x-rays were taken from the chest of the ONLY person who survived triggering the guns. after 4 operations, he had to live with the last 2 bullets, which doctors could not remove because they were too close to his heart. 

that little box there-- that's what the bullets looked like. 

and that's the gun that would shoot them. 

another escape, but this one's not so nice. the man in the top picture left was separated from his wife (on the right) when the wall went up. so.... what would you do? well, this guy met a girl who looked just like his wife, and started dating her. then he took her on "holiday" to east berlin. then he stole her passport, and smuggled his wife back over to west berlin. the poor, unsuspecting girlfriend spent 3 months in soviet prison before her parents were able to secure her release. 

this is a better story. these ladies are sisters, who look very alike. their husbands also look alike. both families have an older daughter and a younger son. so.... the family that lived in west berlin went to east berlin on holiday. then they reported their passports were stolen... but before they did that, the east berlin family was over the wall and free. the soviets were so apologetic to the first family; they suffered no consequences. 

that's a speaker. the lady inside has the same height and weight as i do. she stayed in that box for five hours. when her dutch boyfriend went over the border, the guards complimented him on his stellar stereo equipment. suckers....

oh, i love this. okay, these people (none younger than 70) wanted to help some neighbors who were tunneling under the wall. the people digging said that there was no way; that the old people would not be any help, and besides; their wives would have to crawl on the ground because the tunnel would be so narrow. so they dug their own tunnel, and made it high enough for their wives to walk right to freedom. and they did, too. after they arrived safely, they said their work on the tunnel had made them 10 years younger. 

this little boy's mother, who lived in east berlin, had taken early retirement, and so she was allowed to travel once a year. she and her husband were divorcing, and she knew that he would never allow her to smuggle their son away, so she did it without his permission. she gave her 4 year old son sleeping pills, put him in a shopping bag, and covered him with a blanket. she figured if the bag wasn't zipped, the guards wouldn't look too closely. the cover was ALMOST blown when the little boy began talking in his sleep, but fortunately, all went well, and they both made it to freedom. 

a portable submarine. the man that invented this made it denmark....

where he was apparently quite popular with the ladies. also, he became rich because everyone wanted a patent on his personal submarine. escaping soviet germany, while getting ladies and big bucks? WINNING. and i don't mean charlie sheen's version, either. 

brandberg gate used to be right in the middle of a dead zone. so when the wall started coming down, it was the first place that berliners' flocked to. the gate became a symbol of the city's reunification. 

first car to drive through the former chekpoints...

david hasselhof. he was apparently instrumental in tearing down the wall. and now he doesn't even have the motor skills to eat a hamburger.... 

back to the east. 

these bricks run through the city, showing where the wall used to be. 

potsdammer platz metro station in soviet days. it was a "ghost station", meaning that while the train stopped there briefly, the doors were not opened, and passengers could only watch the soviet guards as they passed. they stations are still decorated as they were in soviet times; i'll show you a real photo later. 

after checkpoint charlie (and the DDR museum, that was this morning), we decided we hadn't learned quite enough history. so we walked to the topography of terror, which is a museum on the site where the main nazi building used to be. fun fact-- the allies destroyed every site of nazi history that they could find, so that people wouldn't come and build shrines. for example, the place where hitler committed suicide is now a parking lot.

but the place where these major nazi buildings (including the gestapo station) became a part of the wall. when the wall came down, they turned the remnants of these cellars into a museum about the nazi terror. 

this picture is showing how some people resisted hitler's rise to power: the circled man is not giving the nazi salute. this kind of behavior would get you arrested later on...

the photo that haunts me most. 

the photo that haunts ryan. 

and that's about all, because it turns out that 3 museums about history in one day is too many. my brain started to break. 

more bad news...

so, while i've got the camera situation figure out, the free wi-fi in our prague hotel is SOOOOOOOO SLOOOOOW, and not loading pictures. no really-- i tried for about 30 minutes, and then all my patience was used up. 

so-- i promise that once i have a solid connection, the blogs will be up quickly, and it'll be okay. but it might be a while. just as well, really--give me a project for our return to reno. thanks for reading!

walls come tumbling down...

so, ryan wasn't sure how much actual sightseeing he'd get to do in berlin, because he is playing the european poker tournament here. so today had to be the things that he really, really wanted to see, because it might be his last chance. so he picked some berlin wall stuff. 

this guy stamped our passports with all seven of the vintage stamps that you used to need in order to cross over into the different sectors of the divided city. he says it's fine and you can still fly home. i sure hope he's right. anyway, i'll show you when i get home. it's pretty awesome. 

this is a memorial to victims of the berlin wall. 

this young man, chris gueffroy, was the last person to be shot crossing the wall. he was under the impression that guards were no longer shooting to kill. later that year, the wall came down. 

this is the memorial to the politicians who opposed hitler. 

see, each slab marks the name, date of birth, and date and location of death for these brave men and women. this monument is in front of the reichstag, the german parliament, where they worked. 

here's something you should know about the reichstag-- you can't go in there without an appointment, and they're booked through may. VERY DISAPPOINTED. ryan's mom and dad went to berlin a few years ago, and they highly recommended going inside the new dome. but we could not. so much for the clear transparency of government; not even german citizens can get in without an appointment. 

i thought it would look better just a few inches to the left... 

see? that dome is a recent addition to the building, which went largely unused between 1933-1990, when the new design was built. the idea is that the dome is clear, so that the people in germany can always keep an eye on their government-- except, you know, not without an appointment. 

the river spree!

we're having a spree on the spree! whee!

this is what my classroom windows would look like, if i had floor to ceiling windows, and was allowed to paint them. 

this is the I.M Pei annex on the german history museum. ryan took this photo; it looks just like the one on the wikipedia page. he's pretty expert...

a man attacking a male lion...

and a lady attacking a lady lion. but... her horse is toast. 

did you want a real fur hat? soviet soldier cap? mock soviet medals? cheap, cheap matroyshkas? no? ok. 

this is the ddr museum, which deals with life under the soviet regime. it's one of the best museums i've ever been to. the entire thing is interactive, there's all kinds of stuff to play with, and it's awesome. for example, you can watch films, sit in an actual car from the time, go into a mock kitchen and smell the spices in the cabinets, try on factory worker's outfits, etc... etc... etc..

ryan just bought that sausage from a guy with a cart. he's so german. 

that's a trabi, THE car of eastern berlin. it was the soviet response to the VW bug, but they weren't known for their longevity...

hey-o! just driving my trabi, no big deal...

these are soviet sponsored children toys. the strawberry is supposed to encourage you to go out in the woods and forage. i don't remember what the others are for. 

COLLECTIVE POTTY TRAINING?!?! WTF??? and, guess what else? they had these long potty benches for kindergarten classes, and NO ONE could get up until everyone had gone to the bathroom. it's supposed to set you up for collective thinking. as someone who until recently spent a lot of time with recently potty-trained children, i think this is a TERRIBLE idea. and science backs me up.

i can't tell if the one on the left is crying or making a silly face. 

oh, gnome! gardening was quite the thing in the DDR, despite the soviet's dislike of leisure. most east berliners had a dacha, or countryside garden, where they would go and relax a little. with gnomes. 

typically soviet apartment..

very stylish synthetic fabrics...

oh yeah, this is great-- there was a HUGE nudism movement in east berlin under the soviet regime. while the soviets tried to ban and fine nudism, most people who wore bathing suits on the beach took them off because THEY felt uncomfortable. 

even the babies. there are photos of real people, but i think i better stick to the figurines. come on over if you want to ogle, you perv. 

so, you pick up the object on this desk and place them in a free spot, then you touch the labels and more information spreads out on the desk. it's way cooler than it sounds; i have video. 

trabi jokes... lol..

in east berlin, the first group of people who were allowed to travel outside the borders were pensionors (women over 60 and men over 65), but they could only go to family member's, and only once a year. gradually, restrictions loosened.... before the wall went down, they were allowed to visit people they weren't related to! whoot!

there's a holiday for every day of the soviet calendar. this is my birthday. 

on this game, you design a good soviet worker. ryan's didn't win because he gave his guy beer instead of making him spend his free time in sport, so he can be strong for the nation. ha ha. 

yeah, and you can see what it's like to go into a soviet prison cell. when you close the door, an audio clip of a metal door slamming and locking shut plays. it's a bit creepy. 

he's thinking about what he did!

math lessons for soviet children. no, really. how many soldiers can you kill with the grenades, etc...

and some toy soldiers.

this protest was happening outside. if you can tell me what it was about, it'd be great. this isn't a contest though. 

and lunch....

this is the queen of table waters, and i have to say, i felt almost like kate middleton while tippling. 

on our way to checkpoint charlie... 

and then we passed this rack... coincidence? i think not...