Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie with actors pretending to be soldiers with the Museum in the background

Checkpoint Charlie is a stone's throw away from Leipzigerstrasse, where I stayed in Berlin. The building you see in the photo is a copy of the original from the 1960s. The actual building and signboard that were removed during reunification in 1990 are currently in the Allied Museum.

We passed the Checkpoint while walking along Freidrichstrasse for the famous doner kebab. There were tourists there - many of them - like me, who had come to look at what once was a very important crossing between East and West Germany.

I wondered that night if anyone of us visiting would ever be able to even come close to imagining what it was like for the people who were shut-out from part of their city/country whether they liked it or not. It must have been painful and terrible.

I suppose all any of us can hope for now is never to let history repeat itself. 

The signboard that meant a lot when the wall was still up

It's nicely decaying don't you think?

Lessons we learn from history

This is how The Wall is remembered throughout the city where it divided the city in half

Part of The Wall that's still standing... with The Topographie des Terrors in the back

I suppose I mustn't publish the photo below, because it's not quite in keeping with the theme of The Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. However, it was my dinner that night and it did give me the energy to walk across town to Potsdamer Platz for ice-cream!

The doner kebab from the shop around the corner

You scream, I scream, We all scream for ICE-CREAM!