Greetings...
I'm transmitting tonight from Berlin where I just finished a very intense day of sightseeing. It's my 1st time here & the city is very cool but it's also quite unreal to be staying in such close proximity to where all of the atrocities of World War 2 were planned..things that, up until today, were just pictures in books or documentaries on TV. To see buidlings still riddled with bullet holes, to see the remnants of the headquarters of the SS & Gestapo & the especially wide main streets where so many soldiers marched & battled, was quite unnerving.
We also paid a visit to Checkpoint Charlie, the former dividing line between East & West Berlin. There's a museum located there that's amazing. In it, you can see photos & actual remnants of all of the methods that people used to try & escape from the East into the West. Everything from tunnels, to mini-airplanes, to underwater propelor-driven machines, to secret compartments in cars & many more. It's very hard to imagine the horrific living conditions that must've existed for people to routinely risk their lives to make these escapes. It's also hard to grasp that it was barely 16 years ago when the Berlin Wall fell.
On the other hand, it's beautiful to see that, today, East Berlin is very much on the mend. Last night we ventured into a very hip Soho-like area filled with many shops, restaurants & clubs. I'm staying in East Berlin, by the way & my hotel is very cool, modern & aesthetically designed.
I suppose what one can learn from all of this is that there's always hope. That & that we should be SO vigilant in never letting such atrocities happen again.
Tomorrow we have a show here & move onto Paris (one of my favorite cities on Earth) in mid-week. More soon...