The Infamous Berlin Wall

When we left Checkpoint Charlie, we wanted to go get lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe there in Berlin, but with the marathon going on, all the main roads were blocked off. We were trying everything to drive AROUND the madness, but no matter how far North or South we drived, we just couldn't find a way to get around it. But as we were driving, we were finding all sorts of beautiful buildings. I have no idea what these buildings were, but they were beautiful.

Then we found a little garage full of Trabi cars. Trabi's were the only car allowed in Communist Germany after the war. The government gave everyone a car & so everyone drove a Trabi. If you look at old pictures of post-war Berlin, you'll see parking lots full of the exact same car. It's kind of interesting. Trabi's are teeny little things (they remind me of old fashioned mini coopers). Anyway, this place was a place where you could rent Trabi's to drive around Berlin. We thought that was pretty funny.

Then, shortly after that, we turned a corner & there was a wall directly in front of us. It took us a second, but then we realized we had happened upon a full block of the Berlin Wall. We didn't realize part of it was still standing. I knew there was a memorial somewhere, but I imagined it would have a piece of the wall behind glass or something. But this whole stretch was just there in the middle of everything. It had a little gate around it, but you could walk up & touch it if you wanted to. We were shocked that it was there & that we just happened to run into it. We parked the van on the sidewalk & took as many pictures as we could before people started honking for us to move out of the way. We thought it was SUPER cool that we got to see it up close & personal!