15- 19 July

After Chris left, there were many more great evenings with Christine, Birgit, and Afsaneh. On one interesting evening with Afsaneh, she had picked me up in her nice car and we were sitting outside in an excellent restaurant, speaking English. There was a guy with two women speaking German next to us. Somehow, we started all talking together in German. The upshot was that the guy was German but of Turkish descent and was talking about how he never felt like he was allowed to really fit in. This was done in perfect German while he was in the company of two beautiful German women. It was really interesting becasue Afsaneh is Persian and completely assimilated, and loves Berlin, the way I do. We never did figure out why some people fit and others don't but we were not persuaded by this guy's arguments that the German culture itself prevents assimilation.

During this period of time, I would occasionally pop over to the old Lehrter Stadt Bahnhof and catch the progress of destruction now that trains were using the new station. Sat 20 July

Christine and I decided to play tourist today. After lunch, we walked over by the Neues Meuseum that was being renewed and I got a picture of it through the construction fence. Then we did the Spree by boat. It was dry but cold and windy. We saw the old Lehrter Stadt Bahnhof with the roof still on but in the process of being destroyed.

We didn't take the 3 hour tour that we had expected. This boar turned around at the Spreebogen, so we got off at the Haus de Kulture. By coincidence, there was a Salsa Festival and we watched that for a while. Then we walked over to the Reichstag. Along the way, we passed the Swiss embassy, the only old building left standing, apart from the Reichstag, in this new federal district.

We stod in line for 45 minutes (some had waited for 2 1/2 hours) before we were admitted to the security section of the Reichstag. Then we did the tour, going up the spiral staircase and spending a lot of time on the roof looking and taking pictures, making sure that we got our money's worth (it's free). We ended the evening with dinner and were satisfied we had had a good tourist experience.

This was a lone exploration day. I started off late to find the Grosslastungkorper (Gkl). I had some clues, but it took me about 3 hours on foot to locate it next to some community gardens, at the bottom end of what once was the Anhalter train yard. You can still see old unused rusting tracks in a great swath cut through Berlin. The S-Bahn uses some of these for regular routes and train car storage. The Gkl itself it complete unmarked except for a sign saying to keep out of the fence that surrounds it.

I went around to back of an ajoining apartment complex parking lot where it looked like people went over the fence regularly. An apartment resident came out to dump the trash and asked me in a friendly manner if I knew what I was looking at. He told me that kids went in there all the time, so I did.

The Gkl is a complex structure and actually somewhat dangerous as the overgrown vegetation conceals big holes and ground structures around the base. You can see some remains of instruments around the main tower as well as underneath on the base. There is a well-maintained door leading into the bottom and it turns out that the Technische Uni still maintains instrumentation in the GKL executing its original function: to determine the stability of Berlin sand and how slowly/quickly it sinks under the weight of the tower.

After this, I walked up the street and saw a cute model of a BMW R80 G/S in the shop window of a driving school. As I got to the main intersection, a thunderstorm burst and I took cover in the Halleses Tor U-Bahn, near the Platz de Luffbr\uuml;cke.

I spent the rest of the day at the Tecnische Musuem, which is undergoing modernization. They have built a nice pedestrian bridge over the Landwehrkanal where the tracks used to cross to the Anhalterbahnhof. There is a new wing of the museum that has been built, but which is not yet opened. The collection of old automobiles and motorcycles has been temporarially moved to a building on the other side of the old Gutbahnhof, but the notice about this is only in German. And the upper floors with the ships and bridge/locks models are closed for now. The locomotives are still in fine form though.

Unlike previous years, all of the announcements and new signs are only in German. This must be the result of cost cuts. There is an announcement that the brewery is closed and that there is a tour of the new wing, which I took after a lunch outside in between rains where I read a very interesting article in the paper about the life of a prostitute: "Puffmutter". The tour was about 2 hours. The woman tourleader spoke very clear German. Her colleague seemed to know more and occasionally contributed details, but his German was unclear.

The new building can be largely lit by the sun via strategically placed mirrors on all floors, as well as light piping. The temperature and humidity is largely controlled by the thick construction, deep parquet floors, and air pumped from the cellar. This is a very complex well-designed building intended to be a showpiece.

However, there was not enough money to finish the building. So the financing bank bought the building from the museum who then leased it back. A second wing is planned but there is clearly no money for it. Berelin is so broke: every 8th citizen is officially below the poverty line.

On the first floor of the new building are the boats. The biggest is an 1850 freightliner that was brought in through open windows and then the rest of the building was closed in around it. Most of the floors are empty, awaiting the funding to move in the exhibits. On the top floor are the airplanes. One is a conserved but unreconstructed wreck of a shot-down Stucka. There is a V2 rocket engine recovered from Mittle-Dorea. And outside, hanging over the building, is an American cargo plane used in the Berlin Luftbrüke in 1948.

The tour then went into what will be working spaces for the museum staff, including the research library and conference rooms. This part of the buildings hangs, but a clever construction, over new tracks that are scheduled to run a steam train in the summer of 2003, when this new wing should be open. And the old Gutbahnhof will be rebuilt, money permitting.

I mentioned to the tour leader that there was a museum of the Wehrmacht bunkers in Zossen and she was interested but didn't know anything about it.

On Tuesday, I went to Potsdamer Platz to see Men in Black II, which was fun to see in German. A reserved seat up front only cost € 4 and then a bottle of Becks and popcorn was only € 3 more. The seats were cushy but they haven't yet adopted the American cupholder culture. Later in the week I got an invitation from Christine to see 8 Frauen with 8 women, but I was too tired and had to give it a pass. Too much fun.

Friday night, had dinner with Afsaneh and came home very late due to the S-bahn disruption at night between Charlottenburg and Westkruez. The trains are running on the "wrong" side to allow for construction. Which I failed to notice. And then of course, there are no trains between Charlottenburg and the Zoo station for the rest of the year - one must use the "Ersatzbus".

Today, I did Gleis 17 and the Jüdische Museum. Gleis 17 is reachable from the Grunewald station. Walking there, I notice that I still don't understand the rules for private space in Europe. People keep bumping into me. I know that queues form to the left rather than the right, but peole seem to also pass each other on the "wrong" side, though maybe it's something more subtle. If I stand still, people will come and stand very near in front of me, manuver until we are touching, and then look around in surprise that I am there. Either the rule is that one makes space for newcomers, or there is something else going on that possibly involves where one looks. In any case, it's kind of fun to stand my ground and watch people react.

On the way up to the rails, there is a poignant sculpture consisting of roughly peopple-shaped holes in the wall along the walkway, with candles and such that people have left at the bottom of each impression. Then up to the rails themselves.

The Detschue Bahn has done a great job here. They have left the original rails in place and then placed metal markers all along the rails, each with the date and destination of the Jewish people who were transported to concentration camps from this former freightyard on the outskirts of Berlin. One can wander around these old tracks, some of which just go into overgrown weeds, and also around the old buildings that are no longer used.

The Jüdishche Museum takes too long to describe. The new wing is an amazing piece of architecture. And the museum describes the entire history of Jews in Germany, from the middle ages on. I went through exhibits for 3 hours until I was exhausted. Then I just skimmed the rest and had lunch in the courtyard of the old building. This is a must-see in Berlin.

Today is my last day on this trip to Berlin. I'll leave tonight on the train, with my motorcycle. So I want to run out to Zossen to see what has happened to the private bunker museum.

There is absolutely no gas in the bike. The petcock was leaky and the bike was parked for three weeks. And it's hot. I get my plastic water bottle and set out for a Tankstelle. By the time I got there, the water bottle was completely dry and I was wet. Coming back, I found I could take the U-bahn most of the way back. I tightened the petcock with pliars, put in the gas, and filled up at the Tankstelle. Then I rode over find the Urals and Zundaps I had seen from the S-Bahn. It turns out that this was a Werkstatt for these bikes set in the supports for the overhead tracks. There were some very cool bikes.

Then I went over to the Lehrte Stadtbahnhof to take more pictures of the destruction, parking illegally, and pulling out in front of the Polizei who didn't seem to care. Got the second camera and set out for Zossen.

Part of the reason I had not been riding for the last few weeks was that my throttle hand was hurting, not feeling healed from my broken wrist. But now I was rediscovering the joy of riding, even though it was hot. I went along Wihelmstrasse and proved to myself that it turned into route 96, so that there was a straightline between the main government buildings and the headquarters of the Wehrmacht, passing many wierd old buildings along the way.

Nearing Zossen, the road narrowed and it was very difficult to follow the slow traffic in the heat. Two couples on motorcycles passed me and were passing the traffic illegally, splitting the lanes between our lane and the oncoming traffic. It was just too hot, so I followed.

The old private museum is now public, with signs on the highway pointing to it. When I arrived, I found a complete complex, including a an entire new suburb. I can't believe that families can have a pleasant life living among old WW II air raid shelters sticking up like bullets among the house, but to each their own. It's amazing what has been done.

They have a library, with much more than than the books I've read. I bought tickets for the 4am tour and they did pretty much what had been on my private tour, including the the bunkers that had been disguised as houses. Apparently, when the Russinans attempted to blow them up, the impact was felt as an earthquake 7 Km away. We also then did a tour of the big communications bunker, much as I had done years before. The tour ended at 5:45 with a precious vingette. I had gotten the back of my pants dirty and the Frau of one of the couples took it upon herself to dust me off.

There was even a motorcycle museum, but it had already closed for the day. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now almost 6pm, so I went over to the old commandant's villa, which was now a restaurant. I didn't intend to stay long, but a guy rode up on an old BSA and I invited him to my table, recommending the Pferrlinge to him: mushrooms picked locally, like I ad seen kids doing in the woods when I had been here before.

I tried for a shortcup coming back, and missed as usual. I ended up coming back to Stadtmitte from the East, passing the Soviet monument in Treptow: "Heros" Then Stralauer Allee on the Spree, with lots of remnants of the Wall. I stopped Michael Brücke to take a picture of an old factory. Then cut over to Karl Marx Str. for the easy way home and got back at 7pm.

I took a nap and overslept. I had to check out and hurry like hell from Stadtmitte all the way out to Wahnsee to catch the train. This was really fun, hurring through town even though I wasn't entirely sure of the way. I left at 8:40pm and arrived at 9:25pm, which was pretty good time considering how many times I had to stop to check the map. I can't wait for a heads-up navigation display for helmets.

I checked in in time, according to my ticket, which specified when I should arrive. I rode my bike up onto the flatcar, and a worker started strapping it down. He was, I thought, a little over-cautious. I told him at one point that I was concerned whether the workers in Munich could undo his work. He replied that that was their responsibility: his was to make darned sure the bike didn't fall over underway.

We had to wait a bit. The only other biker didn't read his ticket carefully and was late. But they let him on. Then this last flatcar was added to the train and we were off,exactly on time at 10:52pm. I had dinner (my favorite train food: smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with wine from the Pfalz) and, about midnight, went to bed, which was made from folded down seats. (I had bought pajamas in Berlin for this trip and they have been my favorite ever since.) The only bother was that someone got on at 1am and the conductor folded down the bed above me to let someone on.