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Former border crossing

November 15, 2009 at 12:35 am · Filed under Destinations, Germany, Travel

When Berlin was still divided into East and West, there were designated crossings along the Berlin Wall where people and traffic could move between East and West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was designated as the crossing for foreigners and members of the Allied Forces, which is possibly the reason for which it is the most well-known of all.

In those days, the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie used to form the border between the former American zone and the former Soviet zone. Today, little of the former checkpoint is left at its location in Berlin. Traffic flows freely along Friedrichstrasse, where the checkpoint was located. On what was then the American side, sit a replica of the old guard house and an old sign informing people that they were about to leave one sector, stepping into another.

A private museum, Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, is just a stone throw away. It opened a couple of years after the Berlin Wall was erected. Because of its close proximity to the checkpoint and its windows that dominated the crossing, it was also used by “escape helpers” as a hiding place where they would observe, from behind the windows what was going on at the crossing. This usage was on top of its function as a museum. Today, the museum houses exhibits that include written and graphical accounts of escape attempts, both successful and unsuccessful, and escape devices used by some of those people.

Although the East-West border is long gone, visitors will still find a few young men dressed in military uniform at the checkpoint. This should not be an unexpected sight at other tourist sites in Berlin associated with the East-West division. I had come across another one of such person at Pariser Platz, just by the Brandenburg Gate.

If you do see them when you visit Berlin, do not hesitate to step up to them to say hi. They will gladly pose for a photograph with you. Look out also for the ones who have a stamp in their hand. They probably also have a stack of passport-looking booklets with them. They are likely to take one of those booklets and stamp a East or West German visa for you. I have not tried getting one, but just like any other type of touristic memento, I think you probably have to pay for the visa. For the price, you get to keep the stamped “passport” as a souvenir of you trip to Berlin.

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The Wall

November 9, 2009 at 10:56 pm · Filed under Destinations, Germany, Travel

When I was visiting Berlin, The Wall was the first thing I headed out to see the day following my arrival, after having a good night’s rest at the hostel. This is the 20th year following its fall, and today, 9 November, happens to be the anniversary of the Fall of the Wall.

Saying that I headed out to “see The Wall” may sound misleading, because there is really no one location where the wall is. The Berlin Wall was a boundary, a wall, literally, that divided Berlin into East and West and separated West Berlin from the East German territory that surrounded it.

20 years on, the wall has long been torn down and the former East and West Berlin is now one city. Although there is no one place in Berlin called “The Wall”, a Wall Memorial does exist and several locations with remains of the old wall can still be found. If you pay attention, as you walk along the streets with which The Wall once intersected, you will find the trace of a path intentionally built into the streets, marking the position that was once taken up by The Wall.

So perhaps as you drive along Potsdammer Strasse towards Potsdammer Platz, you may come across a narrow strip of cobblestone across the road. This was where The Wall once stood. Perhaps as you stroll along the pavement near the Sony Centre, you may find a strip of the pavement that is indented, like what you see in the picture above. This was where The Wall once stood.

Even though it was known as the Berlin Wall, the boundary dividing the East and the West actually had more than one wall. At the Wall Memorial along Bernauer Strasse, an observation deck allows visitors to contemplate on a reproduction of the wall at that location. There was a a wall on the East German side and another on the West German side. Between these two walls was “No-man’s Land”, or the Death Strip. It was heavily guarded and was made to be escapee-proof. Mines were laid at some stretches to deter people from making forbidden crossings.

Taking a peek through a crack in the reconstructed wall from the “East German” side at the Wall Memorial.

As I learned from the museum’s exhibits at the Wall Memorial, The Wall was not built in one day. After the Second World War, Berlin was divided into the American, French, British and USSR-occupied zones. The USSR-occupied zone would later become East Germany. How The Wall came about started with East Germany beginning to restrict its residents from crossing over to West Germany. Road barriers made of barbed wires were set up overnight blocking access between the USSR-occupied zone from the rest of Berlin.

Film footage at the museum showed scenes shot at Bernauer Strasse, along which the border between the French-occupied and USSR-occupied zones ran. In the footage, Berliners, east and west, stood and watch the barriers made of barbed wires being laid. Later, columns would be erected to set up a more rigid form of barrier. In a scene, a young woman waved from one side of the division to somebody on the other side, possibly somebody dear to her, a handkerchief in her waving hand, dabbing her eyes with it from time to time. The fence-like barrier would in turn evolve into a wall, and the wall, eventually, over the years, into a security installation. Could anyone have imagined how those first barbed wires could have turned into The Berlin Wall?

The former East German side, bordered by Bernauer Strasse. A panel by the street here indicates that tunnels were found in one of these houses and were used by East German in their attempt to move to West Berlin.

The same location on Bernauer Strasse, but looking towards the former West German side.

Engraving at one end of the Wall Memorial

The Wall Memorial and the observation deck at the Documentation Centre.

Like the rest of the city, the wall no longer stood as imposing as it did. The stretch of wall that remains along Bernauer Strasse is now a reminder of the city’s history. The city has moved on during the past 20 years and will continue to. 20 years on, the city and the world remembers.

Exhibits at Potsdammer Platz, outside the Sony Centre. This was an original piece of the wall. Panels with photographs and text were affixed to the other side.

One of the exhibition panels at Potsdammer Platz showing Brandenburg Gate behind The Wall. The sign reads, “Caution, you are leaving West Berlin” or something like that. During those days, Brandenburg Gate stood on the deserted No-man’s Land.

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Brandenburg Gate

September 17, 2009 at 5:21 am · Filed under Destinations, Germany, Running, Travel

Here we go, Brandenburg Gate, built during the Prussian times as a ciy gate to Berlin, survived World War II, and during the years when the Wall still stood, found itself in no-man’s land and often seen in footages that covered Western leaders’ visits.

Sunday, we will all be running through the gate. When that happens, the finish line will be real close.

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Visiting the Niagara Falls

June 17, 2009 at 10:31 pm · Filed under Photo-taking, Travel

The Niagara Falls, renowned attraction on the Niagara River, empties its waters into the section of the river that separates the city called Niagara Falls in Ontario and its namesake in the State of New York. The water eventually flows into Lake Ontario, but not before forming some class 6 rapids and whirlpools a couple of kilometres downstream of the falls.

During our visit, we stayed at a hostel close to the White Water Walk attraction on the Canadian side. Here, one can walk along the gorge and let his imagination run wild, thinking of what it would be like to be thrown into these rapids. Accompanying the sight of the ferocious waters are tablets at the viewing deck recounting to tourists the tragic accidents that have taken place here in the past. You cannot help but to wonder what the person clinging on to a sheet of ice had on his mind during those last hours of his life, when the ice broke off from the falls’ water frozen in the winter chill, moments before the river sent him to meet his end.

Well, we were supposed to be on a holiday. On holidays, one should not harbour such negative thoughts. We were supposed to be there to admire the splendour of the falls. We were supposed to do what tourists do, visit attractions and gawk.

Our visit was really not as bad as how it sounds so far. I still have not decided on the tone in which to write this post, for I was not in awe when I saw the falls and I was, in fact, a little disappointed. On the other hand, it was not as if I did not have any fun at all, and the sights were, as you can tell from some of my photographs, quite nice.

It was probably the touristy Canadian side that irked me. Yes, the Canadian side offered nice views to the front of the falls and that is perhaps the reason why they have so many tourist traps over there – hotels, casinos, Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, wax museums, haunted houses, Hard Rock Cafe and so on.

The Horseshoe Falls

There is an attraction on the Canadian side called “Journey Behind the Falls”. I was at first looking forward to that, thinking that it was some soft of cave behind the falls where you can enter, like what I used to read in Tintin comic books. There, visitors did get to see the Horseshoe Falls from close. It was quite strange to see so much water that kept flowing and flowing and flowing on and on and on. More than once, I had the urge to look for a faucet to turn the water off. Of course, that was not possible and it made me feel kind of helpless in front of this voluminous downpour.

Up close, by the side of the Horseshoe Falls

It turned out that the “Journey Behind the Falls” did really bring us literally behind the falls, but through a man-made tunnel. Decades ago, people already had the idea that it would be cool for tourists to be able to view the falls from behind. So they went ahead to dig a tunnel in the cliff and created two portals opening into the back of the falls so that people can literally stand behind the falls and watch.

The “Maid of the Midst” was a more interesting attraction. It was a boat ride that took tourists to the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls. With the amount of water the falls dump into the river all the time, a big cloud of mist is created at the bottom of the falls. When one gets close enough to the falls, one naturally gets wet. All the attractions at the falls give out ponchos to tourists to keep them dry so that they can admire the falls from close without having to worry about getting drenched.

Watching from “Maid of the Mist”

For some, including me, keeping their cameras dry while trying to snap a few good shots was another challenge. My strategy was to hide both my head and my camera under the poncho. To take a picture, I wrapped the blue poncho round my camera’s body, exposing only the lenses through one of the poncho’s holes for the arms. With my head and body still under the poncho, and also my camera, I would peer through the view finder in search of a perfect composition of the clear and bright view outside. It was like operating a periscope in a submarine. I did not want to wet the periscope.

Drops of water on my poncho

It was on this boat ride that something going on at the American bank caught our eyes. The American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls are the falls on the American side that, together with the Horseshoe Falls, make up the Niagara Falls. Earlier on, we had seen people clad in yellow ponchos walking along a boardwalk near the American Falls. Upon a closer look, we saw that they were walking right by the edge of the falls. This was the “Cave of the Winds” attraction. It would be what we were going to do the following day when we visited the American side.

The American Falls on the left and the smaller Bridal Veil Falls on the right. Tourists in yellow ponchos were walking along the boardwalk by the Bridal Veil Falls to experience its power.

No pictures taken while I was on the boardwalk because there was no way to keep my camera from getting wet. The experience was like walking through a very heavy storm. There was a point where the boardwalk led to a platform right under the Bridal Veil Falls. I stood there to feel the falls tumbling down behind me, hitting me on my back with all its force. I could not even stand straight. I was carrying my haversack, which was absorbing some of the waters’ shock. Yet, I could feel the magnitude of the impact and I wondered if I could have suffered internal injuries had I not have my haversack with me. This reminded me of a kung-fu comic book where the hero would meditate at the bottom of a waterfall and this routine was part of his training regimen. That could not have been this type of falls, could it? Perhaps it takes a top pugilist with deep internal strengths to withstand forces of this magnitude, not a marathoner like me.

From the top of the Bridal Veil Falls. You can see the tourists making their ascent along the boardwalk.

That was the main activity we did on the American side, an easy walk from Canada across the Rainbow Bridge. I found the US side more pleasant. It was a state park belonging to the State of New York and had more grass and trees. There were hotels and a casino too, but they were further away, outside the state park.

View of the falls, with the Canadian skyline as backdrop

If you are planning on visiting, here are a few tips:

- Plan on visiting both the Canadian and American sides
- Think of a strategy on how you can take pictures and keep your camera dry at the same time
- Rehearse that before visiting
- I have not tried this, but if you are thinking of shooting the summer fireworks, consider shooting from Rainbow Bridge. The falls would appear closer together on your frame and I guess the fireworks would fit into the frame as well. This gives you both falls and the fireworks. This is what I will try if I get a chance to go again.