Above left: the bridge depicted in the movie “Bridge of Spies” along with another view from Steve’s and my cruise on June 1. Below, from Pfaueninsel looking over to the shores of Brandenburg. Back in the day, the W/E German border ran down the middle of that water.
Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel) in the Wannsee – Havel lake and canal network in the SW corner of Berlin along the border with Brandenburg. When West Berlin was surrounded by a walled and guarded GDR, this was a lovely natural escape from the city vibe, which I myself first visited with my mother in May 1980. Steve – now a renowned and published scholar in German studies – and I spent a delightful late-May weekend in Berlin recently, during which in addition to fabulous educational narration from him, we did a lovely cruise during which we also stopped off and re-explored this island, a former royal back-to-nature pleasure garden from the 18th Century, complete with peacocks to add to the vibe, and royal dairy built to look like a monastery.
Consider this my memorial to Rosa Luxemburg. You’d think the work I do would inure me to cruelty and murder, but it doesn’t. If you don’t understand why I’m finding this post strangely hard to finalize and would like to, google either her or Landwehr Canal. She was a person, and her friends and family mourned her in ways I must assume were personal not just politcal.
Memorial To The Murdered Jews of Europe, one of several monuments to humans killed during the WWII-era holocaust that have been established in Berlin since the last time I really had a chance to explore the city fully. More photos of this quite wonderful city where history indeed weighs very heavily in future posts.
In this post and the next, our last photos from Borkum, including each of us on the cute little mini-train that connects the ferry terminal with the town.
Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel) in the Wannsee – Havel lake and canal network in the SW corner of Berlin along the border with Brandenburg. When West Berlin was surrounded by a walled and guarded GDR, this was a lovely natural escape from the city vibe, which I myself first visited with my mother in May 1980. Steve – now a renowned and published scholar in German studies – and I spent a delightful late-May weekend in Berlin recently, during which in addition to fabulous educational narration from him, we did a lovely cruise during which we also stopped off and re-explored this island, a former royal back-to-nature pleasure garden from the 18th Century, complete with peacocks to add to the vibe, and royal dairy built to look like a monastery.
(so much world, so little time....) 