And so we finally arrived in Germany. After a brief overnight stay in Cologne where we visited the closest 02 store to get German SIM cards for our phones, and a further overnight stay with friends in the quiet little village of Billinghausen, where much beer was consumed, we headed for our new home town Berlin.
The monument on the left marks the position of the 1945-1990 divison of West and East Germany
Remnants of the Soviet-backed communist regime of the former East Germany. A watchtower and a system of floodlighting which cast no shadows
Long distance hauliers now park on the former no-go area of the border
The checkpoint for vehicles passing from the east to the west
A collection of guns in the former checkpoint area
A typical 'interview' room at the checkpoint, bearing a photograph of the East German leader Eric Hoeneker
A piece of East Germany technology - a Praktica camera. My first ever SLR camera as a boy growing up in London was a Praktica Nova 1. It's main attraction was the price, as they were about half the price of a Japanese camera. It was this experience that taught me the adage of "You get what you pay for"
Another view of the checkpoint
An inspection pit, used by East German border police to ensure no-one was hiding underneath the vehicle
For more cursory inspections, the mirror on wheels was used to check the underside of vehicles
An East German-made MZ motorcycle. MZ is actually one of the oldest continuous motorcycle manufacturers in the world, starting in 1922 and continuing through WW2 and the Soviet days. Following the German reunification, a Malaysian syndicate took over production. However, when state subsidies stopped, the plant was no longer competitive, and all production will cease at the end of 2008
Karen, Chloe and Chanelle wander through the Marienborn checkpoint area where a mere 20 years ago, they would have been 'detained' by the East German border police.
We stopped briefly at a motorway service area at Marienborn. Until 1990, this area was the border checkpoint between the former capitalist West Germany, and the soviet-backed communist East Germany (German Democratic Republic, or GDR).
My recollections of this spot going back to 1977 were of a heavily guarded strip completed with machine-gun equipped watchtowers, patrolling armed guards, and comprehensive floodlighting. Although getting into the GDR was possible with the correct visas (obtained months before), getting back out was a different story. Travel to the west was virtually impossible for residents of the GDR, and the authorities acted and behaved as if every westerner who had been visiting the east would be attempting to smuggle someone out. It was just like a huge prison.
I had gone there in 1977 visiting family, as the town of my mother's birth, Freiberg, lay within the GDR (although when she was born, before World War 2, it was still one country, having only been divided at the end of the war).
Seeing Marienborn again brought back the memories of my car being thoroughly searched back in 1977, even to the degree of the rear seat cushion being removed. Everything from the boot had to be placed on fold up tables adjacent to the car lane. I believe that people who had never experienced the novelty of an East-West Germany border search could ever realise the gulf that separated the two countries.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the two countries re-unified in 1990, and the former border crossing points became obsolete. As Marienborn was the main road crossing point, it has been partially preserved as a museum of the cold war years.
The monument on the left marks the position of the 1945-1990 divison of West and East Germany
Remnants of the Soviet-backed communist regime of the former East Germany. A watchtower and a system of floodlighting which cast no shadows 
Long distance hauliers now park on the former no-go area of the border
The checkpoint for vehicles passing from the east to the west
A collection of guns in the former checkpoint area
A typical 'interview' room at the checkpoint, bearing a photograph of the East German leader Eric Hoeneker
A piece of East Germany technology - a Praktica camera. My first ever SLR camera as a boy growing up in London was a Praktica Nova 1. It's main attraction was the price, as they were about half the price of a Japanese camera. It was this experience that taught me the adage of "You get what you pay for"
Another view of the checkpoint
An inspection pit, used by East German border police to ensure no-one was hiding underneath the vehicle
For more cursory inspections, the mirror on wheels was used to check the underside of vehicles
An East German-made MZ motorcycle. MZ is actually one of the oldest continuous motorcycle manufacturers in the world, starting in 1922 and continuing through WW2 and the Soviet days. Following the German reunification, a Malaysian syndicate took over production. However, when state subsidies stopped, the plant was no longer competitive, and all production will cease at the end of 2008
Karen, Chloe and Chanelle wander through the Marienborn checkpoint area where a mere 20 years ago, they would have been 'detained' by the East German border police. From Marienborn to Berlin was a brisk 1 hour 45 minute drive, and we arrived at our home for the next week, the Ibis Hotel. This was our base whilst we scoured Berlin searching for a suitable apartment to rent for the next few months. So our holiday essentially was at an end, and within a few weeks Karen would be starting work, Chanelle enrolling at school and Chloe looking for a job!
I found it somewhat ironic that adjacent to the Ibis was a bus shelter with a large advertisement displaying "Route 66 Cigarettes" (tobacco advertising hasn't yet been banned in Germany). Route 66 had been such a major part of our journey from the Gold Coast to Berlin. The ad says "join the ride" but ours had just finished.
Each day we packed the girls off on the U-Bahn, the Berlin underground railway system and told them to 'find Berlin' (they never actually asked where it was last seen), whilst Karen and I visited various estate agents looking for rental properties. As we wanted something close to the city centre, we soon got a handle on the good areas, and the not-so-good areas.
We looked at about 12 apartments, most in older buildings with no elevators, and interestingly most of the available apartments were located on the 4th or 5th floors! Finally, we settled on a ground floor apartment in Joachim-Friedrich Strasse, in leafy Wilmersdorf, adjacent to Charlottenberg, and only one block from the Kurfurstendamm, Berlin's main shopping and eating street. It was also handy for both Karen's work and Chanelle's school, so it was an ideal situation. Located directly across the road from our bedroom window is "Zur Wasserpfeife" (The Waterpipe), a small pub owned by a Tunisian guy who has lived most of his life in Berlin, and speaks fluent Arabic, French, German and English. Yes - it was ideal!
