Saturday, June 4, 2016

First Days in Europe 2016

First Days Europe 2016
Days 1 and 2

Our journey to Europe was routed through Denver, which is not unusual, but there was much fanfare about the long security lines.  Due to overnighting in Denver, we had to navigate a big city airport.  Those passengers having Pre TSA, which we joined a few years ago, are supposed to have a quick time navigating security.  I timed us, and it took all of 5 minutes to get through security.  Notice the smile on this happy customer.  



With extra time to check out the airport, we noticed the modern design and caught it on ‘film’ during a thunderstorm.  It was a little unsettling seeing signs for tornado shelters, but we only saw rain clouds.



Our first destination on this month-long vacation is Berlin, where dear friends Janna and Philipp live.  We met Janna as a high school exchange student over twenty years ago in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.  We met Philipp when they traveled to the U.S. in 2009 and visited us in St. George.  They have a darling daughter named Lara, who, like her parents, is very friendly.  



The picture also shows our first German meal.  The most prominent item is the white asparagus.  Germans love asparagus, and we do too!

While our main reason to visit Germany is to see friends, we also came to see Berlin.  Most of you know there once was an ‘iron curtain’ during the cold war that ended in 1989 (during our lifetimes).  Janna and family live in a part of Berlin that is within 100 yards of the ‘curtain’ or Berlin Wall as it was called.  Berlin, like Germany, was divided into 4 parts after WWII, and the Russians, or Soviets as they were previously known, built a wall in 1961.  They called it the ‘Anti-Imperialist Protection Wall’ to protect East Berliners from Western Europeans and the U.S. and our imperialist ways.  They supposedly built the wall to keep others out.  In parts of Berlin there are metal posts showing the wall location coupled with the history of what happened to some of the people who decided they preferred an ‘imperialist’ lifestyle.



One of the ways people escaped East Germany was to tunnel under it.  The location of many of the tunnels is delineated by stone markers like the ones for Tunnel 57.  The number of people using each tunnel was fairly limited because the police closed any tunnel that they discovered.



Thousands of East Germans found ways to get to the West in spite of the wall.  Lots of time and money was spent on creating and patrolling the wall.   It makes you wonder whether walls solve as many problems as they create.  In 1989 during the Reagan presidency, the wall was torn down, and East and West Berlin, as well as East and West Germany, were united.  
There are actual remnants of the wall that are left.  Here is one small section.  The wall is now protected from those wanting a souvenir of it.



Near this small piece of the wall is Checkpoint Charlie, a rare controlled exit/entrance in the wall.   It was the site of a famous clash between U.S. troops and Soviet troops in the cold war. Sergeant Shari in her ‘civies’ was on guard during the picture.






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