Russ&Suzie

Trip Log
2004-07-19 08:26:16 (UTC)

Berlin

First, to tell about the last part of the Bavarian segment
of the journey, we took Wulf and the Salter family to a
restaurant on the Ammersee, a very large once-glacial
lake. Got to know all better and showed the kids,
especially Phillip, the trick with a pencil nestled in the
thumbs. Frank and Wulf were absorbed in it too, Frank
recalling the correct move and then losing it. Wulf taught
everyone. There's very little sibling rivalry. I
conjecture that this has happened because the younger ones
do not challenge the status of the oldest. The girls are
younger. Sibella, the mother, feels challenged lately by
her son whom she experiences as full of himself, like a
prince. Wulf told wonderful stories and is a font of
information. Had his hip replaced just in March and is
just back from a 3-week trip to the Black Sea which he did
on motorcycle with his younger sister, whom he essentially
raised when his parents divorced, so he has a special bond
with her.

Then the next day, Saturday, Frank took us to the subway
and we went via their very efficient system to the Munich
main station and went by train to Berlin. I could plug in
and so worked on my HBES presentation while listening or
participating in a conversation with a Palm Springs (CA)
couple who are Republican but against Bush. Very
educational to experience how they see things. They don't
like Bush but can't see themselves (so far) voting for
Kerry. He, a retired insurance salesman, feels conviction
on the government wasting his tax dollars. I suggested
that the Republican strategy of starving the beast is
working: limited state budgets means service cutbacks,
such as libraries. His wife feels strongly on the
importance of libraries. She's in charge of displays at a
defense contractor convention. Feels good about her career
that spurted ahead as a result of her mentor's advice to
get a degree, which she did in art, telling us in detail
about each project.

We are staying at Pension Peters on Kantstrasse. Wonderful
location near a major train station. Ate at a restaurant
recommended by Jacob, the son of the owners, and had a
pleasant meal outside, before the rain storm, the first of
two that happened during the evening-night, leaving us
with a sunny day yesterday, the first for many a day. They
feel cheated of their summer.

Went on a four hour walking tour that started on the west
side and involved an initial train ride to the east side
where all the history is. Our guide, a short dynamic woman
named Sarah, tells a good story and we learned an enormous
amount of the Nazi era and then that of the Communist
regime including a view of "the wall" as well as a
splendid mural from the Communist times that showed the
dream belied by the reality of oppression and violence.
June 17 Avenue stretches through part of, and then west
of, the Tier Garten. It commemorates a East German
uprising that was then brutally suppressed by USSR tanks,
of which there are large photographs, on the exterior of a
Nazi era building.

AFter the tour we ate at a restaurant in the interior
garden of a splendid old building. I had mushrooms and
scrambled eggs and Suzie a salad. WE split and she visited
the parliament building while I walked through the charity
hospital photographing the statues of famous figures in
medical history (Virchow, Fisscher, Koch) on the way to
the Hamburger BAhnhof, now a museum of contemporay art and
enjoyed the avant garde work of Joseph Beuys and an
installation by a 30 y.o. from Munich who studied in
Dusseldorf, Bjorn Dahlem. Then I walked home the several
kilometers involved taking great pleasure in the walls,
bridges, Tiergarten, avenues, water and people having
great fun on their rare nice Sunday. Barbecuing in the
park for instance. The Victory Tower and the complex
statues commemorating Bismarck provided a background of
complex reality.

WE met up at our pension, showered (we dripped sweat) and
then a simple beer and sausage did us for dinner. We
encountered Ivor, and had coffee outside before the
impending rain and thunder took us to the pensione again.
We met his nephew and ourselves took to bed, sleeping very
soundly. This morning saw Ivor for breakfast and had a
good conversation. I do find myself worrying about the
fascistic tendencies of our present American government
and there's nothing like visiting here to see that
progress can be subverted to malevolent ends.




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