Cool Graffiti Art on the Old Wall

There was a large piece of the Berlin Wall that had remained intact down on the East side that was well worth a visit.

2009 is the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This part of the wall was now branded the ‘East Side Gallery’ as artists from around the world had been invited to paint their art on the wall. IThis piece of the wall probably ran for about 800-1000m, filled almost completely with art, although some blank spaces were left for new art. The east side of the wall had been painted first as it represented the overcoming of the repression of artistic & cultural freedom.
The wall was originally raised to stop mass emigration of the people to West Berlin. But many of the people, after having left East Berlin that night in 1989, came back home within a week. They didn’t really want to leave their home - what they did want was the freedom to be able to travel & leave if they so desired. I kinda like that freedom too.

Free Berlin History Walking Tour???

I’d read my Lonely Planet guide the previous eve & had picked out my must sees & circled them on my Berlin map. It had also mentioned a free tour - yes, that’s a FREE tour - that departs outside Starbucks at Brandenburg Gate at 11am.
I had a look at the Reichstag, the parliament house where Hitler came to power. It was almost overpowering in its stature. Unfortunately the dome inside was closed to tourists on this day, so I decided not to wait in the line for an hour to get in. I then went & had a look at the memorial for those that had lost their lives trying to escape East Berlin - a simple but effective memorial.
Then I wandered over to Brandenburg Gate & found Starbucks just in time to get a ticket for the tour. Deal was, if you were happy with the tour guide, you tipped them at the end. The tour would take us past all the key points in the city centre, & Nikolai (a man whose Bulgarian parents fled the east for NY when he was a child) was our guide & provide much insight into the history of this place. He explained that Berlin was the site for the declaration war for both WW1 & WW2, as well as being the site of the end of the Cold War - WOW!!! And you can really feel the depth of history here - it permeates everything.
We visited the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Jewish Holocaust Victims Memorial, Hitler’s Bunker (also the site of his suicide), the headquarters of the Luftwaffe, the Berlin wall/s (actually two that ran parallel to each other a few metres apart), the Berlin University, Book-Burning Memorial site, & the old palace, amongst other things. The tour ended up taking 4½ hours, & I was exhausted after it. I met a couple of Aussies on the tour, & one woman, Anna, & I went to the Pergamom Museum after the tour. Our focus was in viewing the Gates of Ishtar which supposedly were from the ancient city of Babylon.
After the museum, we went & had a drink before heading our separate ways back to our temporary homes.