Berlin

Berlin is a city overflowing with history. Even its recent past history involving the Cold War is so intringuing that many blockbuster novels and movies have been based on this War.

Although the Cold War ended in the late 1980's, culminating in the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, people are still fascinated by the espionage and counter-espionage that took place here. In this 'spy city', you can do spy tours that will take you to where British MI5 Agent Frank Foley helped thousands of Jews escape Nazi Germany, visit the Wehrmacht headquarters, visit remnants of the Wall, see where Berliners made daring attempts to escape under the Wall on Bernauer Strasse, and visit the infamous Stasi headquarters.

Tony was fortunate to have been in East Berlin in 1989 and witnessed the dismantling of the Wall, a small piece of which now sits in our living room. The city has gone through major modernisation and refurbishment since and these days Checkpoint Charlie is represented by a poster of an American and German soldier showing where the dividing lines are.

Luck was with us again and this time round we managed to have a night-time viewing of the new Reichstag which was designed by Sir Norman Foster. Only a small number of people were allowed in so we were really privileged to have this opportunity. The building design is impressive.