Tear it down

I haven’t written for a while but that has been a function of too much work, too little sleep, and catching the flu on top of it all…not lack of travel. Since Moscow, I’ve spent my last four weekends in Cannes (France) for an office outing (via 14 hours of travel starting in Helsinki, stopping over in Stockholm to pick up our Swedish colleagues, changing route and landing in Genova, Italy, and then taking a bus for three hours to Cannes courtesy of the French air traffic controllers strike – ugh), Zurich and Bern (Switzerland), Berlin, and Paris. It’s been a travel whirlwind and I have to admit that I am getting tired! Not tired of it - just tired! (I told this to a friend of mine here and she said, "So you actually are human after all!" I didn't think much of it until another friend said the exact same thing that same week - yikes! Happy to know I make such a good first impression!)

As expected, Cannes was gorgeous and had it not been for the travel nightmare to get there, was a great trip. It always amazes me to see how big Hollywood is outside the US and, of course, Cannes is even more movie star crazed given the famous annual film festival and the subsequent and enduring association with Hollywood’s most glamorous and celebrated actors. I can understand getting excited about seeing a celebrity but in Cannes tourists were crawling all over one another to take a picture of an empty red carpet. That takes it to a new level!

I flew to Zurich on a whim after many months of wanting to go to Switzerland (one of the few western European countries which I had never been to before) and the opportunity finally presented itself so I jumped on a plane. I stayed in Zurich but had heard wonderful things about the smaller capital city of Bern so took the train there for a day. Bern is all it is cracked up to be with a quaint and lovely old town, a hilltop rose garden, and it’s inspiration in cages on the banks of the river for all to see. ..?! “Bern” means “bear” and they may have taken this a little too far with the bears-only “zoo” just outside the old town. For a girl from just outside of Yellowstone, and even closer to “Bear World” (yes, it really does exist!), this was a little too much commercial USA creeping into old Europe. Otherwise, Bern was beautiful and I had a great day exploring the cobblestone streets, climbing church towers, visiting the famous rose garden overlooking the city, and drinking wine outside of Einstein’s home.

Both Bern and Zurich and, so, now all of Switzerland in my mind, are just overwhelmed by designer clothing, shoe, crystal, furniture, chocolate, jewelry, etc, etc, stores. If the dollar wasn’t so weak and if prices in Switzerland weren’t already so unreasonable, I could have easily spent my way into trouble in either of those cities. It was a two day test of self control to not get lost in all the “things” – I had to put myself on a train to Bern for sightseeing and then go on a long run in Zurich to keep myself away from the shopping! This is probably made much worse by the fact that I haven’t bought anything (except plane tickets and lots of them!) this year because I’ve been so disgusted with the prices but I’m now getting to the edge of my rope. I’ve already committed my first two weekends back in the US to shopping. I’m expecting to be poor but hoping to be well-dressed by Christmas.


I appreciated Bern much more the week after I visited when I was actually in Berlin. All I can say is, WOW, what a difference getting leveled in two world wars vs. staying neutral makes when it comes to cities today! Berlin was the exact opposite of Bern; it is growing quite literally straight up in sheets of shiny metal and glass, traversed by multiple lanes of perfect and efficient concrete streets. Bern’s old town, on the other hand, is slow and easy with cobblestone roads winding their way between centuries old buildings maxing out at around four stories and topped off with very pretty, terracotta roof tiles, all overseen by the Bern cathedral. I stayed in what used to be East Berlin and is now a sparkling and streamlined apex of luxury goods shopping. (I was tempted again! It’s getting more and more difficult each week to stave off the urge to buy new shoes!). Ironically, only about a kilometer down this street of temptation I ran into “Checkpoint Charlie,” the most famous of the six East-West Berlin crossing points and the only one through which the Allied forces or any other foreigners were allowed to pass between East and West Berlin.

I spent a few hours at Checkpoint Charlie reading the panels of Cold War history posted around the better part of two city blocks and, embarrassingly, I have to admit that I probably learned more in those few hours than I did in all of my years of schooling. (The last real history class I had was in high school…sadly, they sort of skip over anything besides science and math in chemical engineering curriculums! I’m way behind!) It was at Checkpoint Charlie where USSR and US tanks faced off in the Berlin Crisis of 1961 when there was a dispute about whether or not the East German guards were allowed to scrutinize the travel documents of an American diplomat. Ten Soviet and ten US tanks subsequently lined up at Checkpoint Charlie to settle the matter, both sides threatening attack. Thankfully, the dispute ended peacefully about a week later. (Incidentally, almost exactly a year later was the Cuban Missile Crisis and although this conflict didn’t happen in Berlin it starred the same two key players who were at odds at Checkpoint Charlie – JFK and Stalin. Ultimately, and as you might even remember, JFK withdrew US missiles placed in Turkey when Stalin agreed to pull the Soviet missiles out of Cuba…or vice versa, depends on if you ask an American or a Russian who “caved” first. Either way, I’m just glad they both backed off!) The pictures of the tanks lined up at the checkpoint are really unbelievable and a bit shocking. It was really amazing to be standing in the same place as those tanks and think about the role that the Wall, and the city of Berlin, has played in the world’s history. I am humbly reminded of my lack of knowledge of and appreciation for all the sacrifices and battles, both figurative and literal, which were over and done with by the time I came on the scene in 1981. History from any time period in any part of the world is always fascinating but I at least sometimes forget how real, raw, and recent much of the history that so significantly shaped the world we will live in today truly is.

Until 1989, and for nearly 30 years, the people in East and West Berlin were separated by a wall. This is something that I just cannot even fathom. It seems unthinkable to literally separate and imprison people behind a wall, especially when as an American I can move around the world largely at will (excluding a few countries and subject to some very intensive and annoying visa processes!). There are people all over the world being restricted at best and held hostage at worst by politically-driven fear, injustices, and even laws but Berlin is one of very few places in the world where a people have literally been held behind a wall (today’s version is the wall put up by Israel – twice as high and four times as long as the Berlin Wall – to separate the Israelis from the Palestinians). These people happened to live or work on the wrong side of town in the one city which came to represent the world’s much larger political conflict, and then were made to live behind a very real cement and rebar manifestation of it.

Surprisingly, extremely little of the Berlin Wall still stands today. What was once a 140km stretch of concrete, rebar, barbed wire, and, even worse, armed guards ready to shoot any would-be crossers, has now been completely demolished save for two small lengths still standing in the city. Many small sections of the wall survive in other parts of the world, however, and not exactly where you’d expect them either. There are pieces in the places you might expect like at the JFK and Ronald Reagan Presidential Libraries, at the European Union Parliament in Belgium, and even at the Vatican City in Rome. However, there are also pieces in places you’d never guess including the “Marbles Kids Museum” in Raleigh, North Carolina and a Hilton hotel in Texas. Bizarre! Most of the wall was just torn down by the very people it was meant to contain and separate and then unceremoniously used to pave the reconstructed roads and buildings built when the city was made “whole” again.

One building which has remained and is recognizable even to a history dummy like me is the Reichstag, the very stately German Parliament building. After spending a few hours at the Wall and then at the Jewish Museum (highly recommend visiting this one in addition to the Pergamon Museum which was also fantastic), I made my way to the Reichstag and was very disappointed to find that just outside of Brandenburg Gate was a huge stage with enormous show lights, food vendors, and, generally, just lots of obnoxious, non-historical, entertainment “stuff.” I was thinking, “Wow, this is really annoying that they’d have a big concert right in the middle of all of this. Plus, it’s ruining my pictures!” I thought this until I realized that I, by pure chance (again, embarrassing!), happened to be visiting Berlin on the 20th anniversary of the reunification of Germany. The country was officially made one again on October 3rd, 1990, and there I was 20 years later in 2010. Having been put back in my place (and rightfully so!), it was a great time to visit Berlin. Yes, many of my hoped-for pictures of the Reichstag grounds and beautiful Brandenburg Gate were “ruined” but what a privilege to be there for such an anniversary (and party!). For better or worse, there are very few visible “scars” or even reminders of the city’s painful and torn past. Berlin strikes me as a city which broke through the wall and then didn’t look back as it moved on. In fact, the building / bunker where Hitler shot himself and his new wife in 1945 was bombed a few times, flooded, razed, and is now a parking lot. How’s that for history?

I am a huge fan of Berlin. It’s vibrant, alive, a little gritty, and just a city on the move (and, hopefully, on the rise!). Truthfully, it doesn’t have the “old and lovely,” the “quaint and beautiful,” of Bern. But it has an important past. It has a bright future. And more importantly, Berlin seems to be able to recognize and celebrate them both.