BERLIN

The main event of our stay in Berlin was the World Cup match between Sweden and Paraguay at the Olympic Stadium.

On our first evening in Berlin, we walked from our hotel to Potsdamer Platz and were pleased to find a restaurant that served 100 different beers from all over Europe.  As we ate dinner, a crowd of Polish fans gathered across the street in anticipation of the evening's match between Poland and Germany.  After dinner, we joined these and many other soccer fans walking to the Tiergarten, Berlin's Central Park, where huge video screens were set up to watch the game.
Potsdamer Platz is an important square in the center of Berlin.  The heyday of Potsdamer Platz  was in the 1920's and 30's when it was the busiest traffic center in all of Europe and was the heart of Berlin's nightlife.  The picture at right shows the square in 1919.  In the immediate area were hundreds of shops, hotels, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, dance-halls, cafes, bars, wine-houses and clubs, many of them internationally known.  Much of Potsdamer Platz was destroyed to rubble during WWII, and after the war it was split in two by the construction of the Berlin Wall.   Since the fall of the wall, the square has been totally rebuilt anew by some of the largest corporations in the world, and is again alive with approximately 70,000 visitors a day to it's many new restaurants, bars, and hotels.

Having only an afternoon to explore Berlin, we thought our best bet would be a guided bus tour.  We had the front seats on the top deck of the double-decker bus.  Great vantage point for sightseeing, but a little too hot and sunny after a couple hour tour.  It was well up in the 80's this day.	On the right is a portion of the Berlin Wall.  A few stretches of the wall have been left intact for historical purposes.

Checkpoint Charlie, one of Berlin's top tourist attractions, was a crossing point between East and West Berlin during the 28 years of existance of the Berlin Wall.  Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of east and west, and – for the East Germans – a gateway to freedom.  Note the drunken Swedes posing in front of the booth.  Drunken Swedes were one of the major themes of the day.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was built in the late 1800's.  Allied bombing destroyed much of the church in 1943. The only part of the old building which survived was the tattered west tower.  After the war, from 1951 to 1961, a new church was built right next to the site of the old one. The old church was kept as a ruin in memory of the horrors of war.

The bear is Berlin's mascot, and we found them all over town.  This one was near our hotel, on our way walking to the train station at Potsdamer Platz.  Boarding the train for Olympic Stadium,  we were serenaded by more of the afore-mentioned happy Swedes.

It's hard to imagine what an event like this is like if you haven't experienced it.  The atmosphere is electric to say the least.  Our game was Sweden vs Paraguay, and as you might expect the Swedish fans greatly outnumbered the few Paraguyan fans in attendance (though Marisa managed to find a few of them!)  Just the walk from the train station to the stadium is something different than you'll ever experience at any American sporting event.  The game was played at Berlin's historic Olympic Stadium, where Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympic Games.

The World Cup banners were up all around the outside of the stadium.	Look who joined us at the game! Someone looks like they've had a long day, and it's not Michael.	The gentleman in front of us wore the jersey of the player who scored the only goal of the game to give Sweden the victory in the final minute of play.

Needless to say, we were accompanied on the train ride back to the hotel by hordes of deliriously happy Swedish fans. --------- After a good night's sleep after this long day in Berlin, it was time to fly out to our next destination - Munich!