For our second tour of Berlin, Santos and I elected to take a tour run by Insiders Tours, called 'Cold War Berlin: Soviet Secrets, CIA Spies and More'. From the website:
"Get an extraordinary insight into: what it meant to live in the eastern bloc's most Stalinistic State – the former GDR; successful and failed escapes where Border Command sooner followed the orders of 'shoot to kill' than allow the heinous crime of 'flight from the Republic'; how MI6 and the CIA tunneled under the Wall and Soviet Zone and tapped into the Red Army's secret communications; the methods used by the Stasi to guarantee control of east Germany's population, from 'radiation tags' to "Day X" preparations." I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed by this tour, especially as it was a paid one. Barnaby, our tour guide, was extremely informative and we learned quite a bit about what life was like in East Berlin and Germany, plus about the Berlin Wall and several successful and unsuccessful escape attempts. However, the tour was quite light on information about spies and the Stasi, which are the hooks that drew me in. Despite this, it was still quite good.
It had to be done. Classic photo of me trying to climb the wall. Barnaby (the tour guide) looked at me like I was crazy.
Preserved section of the death strip, with a recreated watchtower.
Checkpoint Charlie! John, this pic is for you. This area is a nightmare - so many tourists, so little sidewalk. Several of the guides referred to it as 'Berlin's Disneyland'.
After the tour, Santos and I headed down to the Topographie des Terrors, an exhibition that recounts many of the horrors of the two World Wars and the Cold War, including personal accounts. Very very sad. Santos and I still find it so surreal that these events (especially the Cold War) didn't happen very long ago at all.
Sorry that there weren't too many photos from this day! Next few posts should hopefully make up for it.
Love Cass and Santos
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