Aug 23 2025

During our research for the trip we discovered that the majority of the Berlin Wall was in the process of being transformed into a bike path. While we felt the full 100 miles was a bit beyond us, we nevertheless signed up for a bike tour along a segment. 

We both commented to the very informative guide that our meagre recollection of the events of 1989 was that the wall sort of just suddenly came down. The full story was even more bizarre. Our first stop was at the Platz des 9 November (it turns out this was a significant day recurrently throughout German history). This was also where there was a major border crossing between East and West which was the site of where the fall of the wall ‘started’. The short version is that it was bureaucratic bungling from a minor functionary, Gunter Schabowski, who didn’t pre-read what he was supposed to present at the news conference. So when an Italian journalist asked about the proposed changes Schabowski hastily read out a part that had been underline for him “Effective immediately”. And the rest is history.

The various parts of the wall have been thoughtfully and artfully preserved or marked. One was a guard tower that one man squatted in (and then paid someone to squat in) for several years to prevent it being knocked down as a memorial to his brother who was killed trying to cross there. So much more we could write about what we learned and how the memory is being preserved. 

Upon completing the tour we continued the history of East German communism theme with a visit to the DDR museum before making our way to our hotel for a pre-dinner and show rest.

Dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel was a revelation. Pizza scissors!. Why had we never seen this before? The _only_ way to cut pizza slices!

For the evening we had booked one of the typical “for the tourists, classical greatest hits” performances at the French Church. We made our way there vie Checkpoint Charlie as I wanted to visit it on behalf of my Dad who has this rather bizarre story about crossing there back in the day on what sounded liked the flimsiest pretence of visiting the East German Law society office to complain about some machine that didn’t work.

The venue and the concert was as lovely as expected. With a Canadian soprano no less! And the lateness of the hour meant this time we got to see the light show on the river…and enjoy seeing the riverside dancing on the way back.