Hot in Berlin

It is hot in Berlin! Yesterday evening when we were on our way back to our hotel after dinner it was still 34 degrees at ten o'clock at night!
However, l will go back to the start of the day. James and I got up at 4 a.m. for our flight to Berlin and all went smoothly; we met Heather and Ewan at our hotel at 10 and soon we were on the streets. The fact that I was absolutely melting with the heat did not impede my enjoyment of the day; I drank copious amounts of water and also splashed myself constantly with water from my bottle and from fountains that we passed, sometimes climbing right in. I could tell that this looked more than a little bizarre by the quizzical looks that James was giving me, but I didn't care because it worked and kept me cool enough to appreciate this amazing city. I love Berlin! Although there were plenty of other visitors, there was somehow a pleasant air of calm in Berlin; it wasn't as frantically busy as London was on Friday. Heather and Ewan have been in the city since Wednesday and know their way around very well. They kindly took us round some of their favourite highlights - we would never have found our way to these places with such ease without their help.
Our first visit was to the Brandenburg Gate. This is Berlin's most famous landmark topped by its Quadriga sculpture of the goddess of peace in her horse drawn chariot. Needless to say lots of armies have marched around there at times of war. It's set in an attractive open area where there are lots of embassies.
Ewan expertly guided us to Hitler's underground bunker. It is a now a car park. There is nothing to see of the bunker above the ground now, although parts of it still exist under the ground. Until recently it was not marked at all, but now there is an information board. I think I would find it a bit eerie if it was the car park beside my house, what with its grim history.
The nearby Holocaust memorial was strange and thought-provoking. It consists of a large field of dark grey blocks of varying heights. As you walk into it the blocks get higher and sort of surround you, and you start feeling drawn in and sort of oppressed. However Heather and Ewan's walking tour guide a couple of days ago had explained to them that this is something that everyone should experience in their own way, so I won't say more about how I felt. I did feel that it was a fitting and moving memorial.
I also found the Berlin Wall memorial to be very moving. I felt that I already knew quite a lot about it from various documentaries over the years, and I remember feeling very emotional when I saw the scenes of the wall coming down in November 1989 when I was pregnant with Jamie. But actually being there was very different. Two sections of the wall have been left standing so you can walk through the "no man's land" in the middle. There are some exhibits and explanation boards, and there is a recording on a speaker that gently speaks the names and ages of the 163 people who died trying to escape from East to West Germany between 1961 and 1989. It is very sad. Many more people were killed trying to escape from East to West in other parts of the border of course but this particular memorial is for those who tried to get across in Berlin. Every time that someone was successful in escaping the East Germans would step up their security. For example Heather and Ewan told me that some of Berlin's Underground stations were in the Russian Sector and they were closed in 1961. They became "ghost stations" and some people tried to escape by going down there and hoping that one of the underground trains would slow down enough for them to cling on and thus escape to the West. And this sometimes did work. But when the Russian authorities found out, the stations were completely bricked up. I felt that the whole philosophy of the Cold War era, which lasted all of my life until I was twenty-six, was so wasteful and stupid. I was glad to find out more about it.
Lunch was at the very modern and smart Potsdamer Platz, which has restaurants, shops and cinemas. We dined in a pleasant Australian restaurant where I took the opportunity to have a cooling wash down in the Ladies' Toilet!
We continued to Alexanderplatz where the radio mast is - the centre of the old East Berlin. Even though it was such a sunny day we could tell by the stark architecture that it must have been pretty bleak in the East. We jumped on a tram and had drinks in a pleasant outdoors café across from the Reichstag, where Ewan had kindly booked a tour for 3.30p.m. - but just as we approached it was closed! The temperature inside had reached SIXTY degrees and they weren't going to let any more visitors in! I told you that it is hot in Berlin - news reports proclaimed that it was the hottest day for 54 years!
Later on we visited the Gendarmenmarkt, a lovely square which Heather and Ewan told us is considered to be the most beautiful in Berlin. It has a French Cathedral which the Germans built to make the refugee French Huguenots feel welcome when they fled there in the late 17th century. To say thank you the Huguenots then built an identical German cathedral on the other side of the square, and these twin churches look very beautiful. In between them is the Konzerthaus, a former theatre which was damaged in World War 2 and was restored as a concert hall. We had drinks in a beautiful café in the square. On the way back to the hotel we visited a great chocolate shop, which Heather and Ewan had found out about when they went on their walking tour. There were chocolate sculptures of Berlin Landmarks and an impressive chocolate volcano! I couldn't resist buying some chocolates - raspberry, blueberry and passion fruit!
Back at the hotel James and I checked in, it's a really excellent hotel and we would look no further on a future visit to Berlin; air conditioned, comfy, very clean and elegant with a nice wee bar downstairs. We had showers and a rest and then we all set off for dinner, calling first at the famous Checkpoint Charlie, which is very near to our hotel. There is a small checkpoint building but most of the surrounding paraphernalia and other border barriers and buildings are gone. However, nearby hoardings have pictures of what it used to look like. There are also metal plates on the pavement marking where the border used to be. I think that it is right that it should be remembered as a warning to the future of what can happen.
We all felt that German cuisine would be appropriate for our dinner together in Berlin to celebrate Heather's birthday, and Ewan came up trumps with the Nolle restaurant just round the corner from the Friedrichstrasse station which turned out to be just perfect for the occasion. It was set in an archway under the S-bahn so it had an elegantly curved ceiling and was decorated with Art Deco paintings and mirrors. The menu was German and we had a delicious dinner and a lovely chat. We could even hear the trains going overhead - the staff were friendly and it had a great atmosphere. The evening was rounded off by drinks back at the hotel. Strangely enough, by this time I had become almost used to the heat, but suddenly the other three, who had managed the heat much better than me all day, became visibly overheated! It must have been because we were digesting our hearty dinner, which can heat you up. What a marvellous day it has been!