Day 55 - 11 November 2012 - Berlin

The morning dawned both cool and grey. It was threatening to rain, and tried very hard. We had another lazy start to the day, meeting for breakfast in the common area of the 'Heart of Godl' Hostel. It has been an interesting stay. Our rooms are basic but acceptable, each with two beds and a shower but no toilet. The lights in our room (Kelvin and Julie) have not worked. We have been given small lamps to hang on our beds, but they are not sufficient to light the area where the shower is. There is continuous free free coffee and tea in the common area, which includes the bar and the reception area. The people rostered on duty each day are characters, but most of whom are pleasant and easy going and helpful.

We planned to walk the former east Berlin city area in the time we had available before we needed to say goodbye to Margot who was due on the early afternoon train back to Warsaw, Poland. It has been a great time with her. She is witty, intelligent, well educated, multilingual and a font of European knowledge and culture. Being Sunday there were few if any shops open for business, except places to eat of for coffee. Being a cold day, we wanted to do both and not a lot else today.

We walked miles looking for markets and in particular a 'flea market' which was advertised and on our map but which we just simply could not find despite walking our legs off.

It was however fascinating to catch the Underground a few stops, and then wander for ages through what was deep in the heart of former east Berlin. We felt like we were in a different city, with the tell-tale signs of years of neglect of otherwise beautiful buildings. We eventually ended up in a cafe, out of the cold and the occasional light rain, enjoying some warmth, a toilet and of course hot coffee.

The moment came to say goodbye to Margot. She is a great friend and has added to the value of our experience in Berlin. We said our goodbyes, and she was off on the Underground to catch her train to Warsaw. What an International group we had been.

We had come quite some kilometres from the Brandenburg Gate. We failed to find the 'flea markets' but realised we were close now to the largets Soviet Memorial in Germany at Treptower Park. Despite the many hours of walking so far, we decided we were so close we may as well keep walking to see it. It was worth the extra toil on foot.

The Memorial commemorates the lives of some 7,000 Soviet soldiers who died in the battle for Berlin and who are buried on this site. The site is massive, the length being some 800metres long and several hundred metres wide. The main focus is a massive statue of a Soviet soldier holding a child in his arms, the intended menaing being how the Soviet soldiers have come to the rescue of the afflicted people especially women and children in distress. The gardens are extensive, and which are all maintained into perpetuity by the German Government in agreement with the Russian Government. There are some 200 Soviet Memorials in Berlin alone!

The most significant symbol though is the statue of the weeping mother at the opposite end of the Memorial, appropriately surrounded by weeping willows. The image of the statue and the trees is to symbolise the 'weeping motherland' due to the devastation of the Third Reich on the Russian motherland. It was a most striking image in an overall impacting Memorial to those millions who lost their lives due to the excesses of the Third Reich.

It was a very sobering walk back to the nearest Underground, but again not without the many sights of sheer beauty due to the parks and the golden oaks that are so prolific in the these well planned and nurtured parks which are often places of beauty in otherwise large areas of deteriorted suburbia.

We made our way home in the increasing darkness and enveloping coldness of a near Berlin winter. It had been a wonderful three days together in this capital city of a reunified Germany. There is so much to see and experience, and we are conscious of how much we did not get to see or do. However, we leave feeling a greater love and respect for the German people and for what they are trying to do especially since the devastations caused by a previous generation of leadership that was described today by a German citizen as 'evil'.

Good things are happening in Berlin. Recovery is very visible. The Government seems well intentioned to its people, and especially in view of the impact of WW2 and also the separation due to the Berlin Wall. Current leadership appears committed to making right the wrongs of a former generation, and ensuring the elimination of any form of discrimination within their society. We leave Berlin with very good impressions. We can see something of the hand of God in the change for good that is happening.

St Paul writing to the church at Colossae could also see the greater work of the divine hand when he said "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together". (Colossians 1:16-17).

As we rest tonight in the great city of Berlin for the final night, we rest knowing that all of our lives are covered by the gracious invisible hand of the God of all eternity.

With love from Kelvin, Julie and Sarah-Jane.