Berlin - the wall - the war - the impact

Berlin was a huge city. We were there 3 days and didn't see all of it. While we were there - we visited Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is the checkpoint where people would cross over from East Berlin to West Berlin or visa-versa. The checkpoint is now a museum memorializing the wall, and the fall. It houses actual items that were used to smuggle people across the line and stories of people being separated from loved ones.

I may need to do another post about Checkpoint Charlie because I think the rest of the pics are on Judith's camera.

As we walked through the city - you could see where the wall used to be. There are marks on the sidewalk that were left after it was taken down, and they literally go straight through the middle of the city.

Something else that we saw in Berlin was this church. It was bombed in the war and now stands as-is as a memorial. Next to the church are two or three towers that house 100's of glass mosaics. The glass is what was salvaged from the ruins. There is everything from small slivers of glass to large pieces. Again - I will have to post more pics when I get the ones from Judith's camera. Here are the pics I have that show some of the damage still visible today.

This was one of the most powerful parts of the trip for me because it really showed the reality of was - and we were standing right there!