In Berlin 5 A Little Alternative

Today my friend Tatjana took us out for the day.

We had already all met up for dinner once but, she made time for us and took us about in her car which was a welcome relief to pounding the pavement.

First coffee and breakfast at a wonderful place with a shop and sort of library.

Then onto Platform 17 Memorial at Grunewald Station. It seems a peaceful place now within a wealthy suburb with trees but it is the place 10,000 German Jews were deported from here to labour and concentration camps in Riga, Warsaw, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Theresienstadt. There on the ironwork are the numbers each day, each year and where they went. Very haunting.

Tatjiana then took us to Teufelsberg, this was twist on the war stuff we’ve been doing.

Teufelsberg is a huge manmade hill much like the Flak tower but this time is was covering the remains of an unfinished Nazi technical college. Standing 80 meters above the surrounding land this was the dumping ground for all the rubble and ruins of Berlin. The US saw the value of such a high place and  put a listening station on the top to monitor messages from inside of East Germany untill 1989.

Then for about ten years it was an air traffic control. After this various plans for the site we’re made but came to nothing.

Now there is a street art exhibition and you can get guided tours. So that’s what we did.

I don’t think the art was Lees thing but, as we had a guide who worked at the listening station we covered both positions.

It’s a strange and eerie place, probably more so because of the art that in many cases is fantastic and fantastical. The views are amazing.

However my absolute favourite picture was this hahaha!