The flight to Berlin, via Zurich, went very smoothly and the public transportation to my Hotel at Check Point Charly was very effective and easy to find.
I checked in but of course was much to early to get my room. I left my luggage at the hotel and took a stroll along Charlottenstrasse over the Gendarmenmarkt and along the Humboldt university to the Neue Wache Unter den Linden. This reminds me very strongly about my visit to East Berlin in the early eighties where there was demonstration of military presence in this spot. I watched the ‘Wachabloesung’, where I saw for the first time soldiers march in ‘Stechschritt’. The pictures left an impression on me and not sure why I connected them with Nazi Germany. At the time it was completely unthinkable that Germany at any point soon could be one again, but of course you know the story it happened practically overnight in 1989.
I walked along the alley towards the Brandenburger Tor and enjoyed snooping through the books being offered second or third hand along the side of the road. I found a whole bunch of von Doderer books which I had to buy and added a nice version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the Insel Buecherei. Then I had to taste an ice coffee from thr local DD, which was as bad as in the US, and finally found the restaurant we are going to meet at tonight, Im Tucher am Tor. I got myself a Currywurst and enjoyed reading my new book. Wireless was also provided and I checked e-mail and wrote this post.
