Invitation To Germany, Vignettes-6

Chapter 21 Northwest Germany

As we left Soest we stopped at a large lake where Emmy fed our growing supply of stale bread to forty large swans, and dozens of ducks and birds.

Essen … The young man who helped Jim find the tube of silicone, held it up, and asked Jim (in English), “Why did they name a town after silicone?” It took but a few moments to determine he was thinking of Silicon Valley,

Chapter 22 First Trip to East Berlin

Checkpoint Able … filled them out just like natives, only we were supposed to have filled out a different form for non-natives, but she added, “… you filled them out beautifully.”

Checkpoint Baker … East German guard … looked again at the Lindas, … at Emmy, … held up three fingers, and said, “Drei frauen?” (Three women?) … Jim answered “Yes.” Whereupon the guard rolled his eyes sky-ward, clasped his hand to his cheek like Jack Benny, as if to say, “You poor fellow.”

… young East German guards, high in a gun tower, held their machine guns in one hand, and threw kisses to the girls with the other. … boys will be boys, just as long as blond and brunette teen-age girls continue to look like teen-age girls.

… Potsdamer Platz, … the highlight of the old city. Berlin’s busiest intersection … 600 trams crossed Potsdamer Platz every day. It had been congested with the clutter of auto traffic, the clatter of street cars, and the scramble of pedestrians, but now it was devastated.

Chapter 23 Second Trip to East Berlin

Checkpoint Able … After filling out the proper forms … and buying our visa for 10 D-Marks each (no new license plates were required), we approached the next control point.

… we had an eerie feeling as the train seemed to slink through two dimly lit, deserted, trash strewn, underground station platforms, closed to the public since the Wall was built

West Berlin, Alexanderplatz … At each of several cash registers there were long lines of people, each with two to six items in grocery carts so small they looked like a child’s toy.