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This morning we did a 4 hour walking tour with Insider Walks http://www.insidertour.com/ to understand the central part of Berlin.

Our group by a remaining section of the Berlin Wall (AJ in the centre, in case you hadn’t picked him)

Our guide, Mike, came from Wellington NZ and is married to a local Berlin lady. He was a showman and in the rest of his life he is writing a dissertation on German conflicts and choices. The tour was informative and worthwhile.

The restoration of Berlin following reunification is immense; in terms of buildings and infrastructure; time and money. Many buildings we thought were old, had only been restored in the last 30 years, many only very recently. The French church – only reopened in 1999 and the Cathedral in 1993. Bullet damage is evident on many buildings.

The Berlin Cathedral (reopened 1993) and the French Church (reopened 1999)

We also went to the memorial opened in 2005 to the murdered Jews of Europe – impressive with 2,711 concrete blocks of different heights. There was a underground information centre which was tasteful, informative and moving http://www.stiftung-denkmal.de/

The Jewish memorial

The traffic density is noticeably light making walking about much more pleasurable.