---

Berlin is a lovely place to spend Christmas. The Berliners seem to take great pleasure in being outside wandering through Christmas markets with their families.

They also seem to always be in good cheer as evidenced by the profusion of stalls providing that good cheer.

Gluwein comes in many guises. Sometimes, if you ask for “more”, they simply drop in a shot of rum, whiskey or amaretto. At the more sophisticated sidewalk stands, they pour liquor over a tray of sugar, light it on fire and let the resulting mess drip into the pot.

You can also get lots of great food to warm you up as well. There is an abundance of sausage, soup and other gloppy cold weather food.

Berlin is also a great place to view history, both regal and glorious, and vile and ignominous.

The Brandenburg Gate is the center of the city, as well as the site of JFK’s “Ich Bin Berlinner” speech and the location of the 1989 – fall of the wall TV images.

Some of the more recent history still leaves questions …

… and tourist opportunities. You can go to these places now and have a good look. Much of it is free, but there are lots of museums as well. Checkpoint Charlie is the third of three main Checkpoints going to East Berlin. Checkpoint A was at the border to East Germany and the beginning of the West Berlin corridor. Checkpoint B was at the city limits of West Berlin. Checkpoint C – Charlie – was at the entrance to East Berlin.

Nearby are the remnants of several sections of the wall. Whether a twist of fate, or a brutal reckoning of their past, the remainder of the wall and reminder of the brutal dictatorship of East Germany, stands in front of the “Topography of Terror”, a museum that focuses on the worst crimes of the Nazi era.

Nearby stand reminders of other walls still standing in the world.

Berlin is full of memorials to the victims of its past leaders. The Jewish Memorial, next to the American Embassy, and a few meters from the Brandenburg Gate is another.

As one wanders into the memorial, the seemingly tranquil, undulating surface quickly overwhelms the visitor, who then becomes lost in the deepening maze of random-sized blocks. At the center of the memorial, the blocks tower up to ten feet over your head, symbolizing how the Jewish victims were so easily lost to humanity.

Berlin’s memorials range from the larger-than-life statue of the Russian soldier, commemorating those Russians who lost their lives in the conquest of Berlin in 1945, to the humble Stolpersteine. These small blocks mark the houses from which Jewish victims of the Nazis were taken. These two mark the house of a couple. The bottom reads, Deported 9 / 12/ 1942 to Auschwtz. Murdered.

Other testaments to Berlin’s former schizophrenia include the Ampelmann…

… to the Trabant – perhaps the worst car ever made … after the Lada.

Berlin also has the ultra-modern Reichstag, or parliament building. The central dome, transparent to represent transparency in government, also reflects sunlight into the main hall. The shade rotates to help deflect direct sun.

Berlin is supported by an extensive subway system. During the division, some trains still ran under East Berlin providing a source of income for the city. Potsdammer Place was one of the last stations before East Berlin. It is also near the Reich Chancellery of Hitler, and next to the former wall. After being totally devastated at the end of the war, it remained a wasteland until 1989.

After all that rather dreadful history, it is time to go for a walk in the gardens of the Charlottenburg Palace, built in the early 1700s, and then …

… go shopping on the mean streets of the Kurfurstendamm, Berlin’s best shopping district.