We left Gdansk on May 30 on a train to Posnan, where we changed to the Warsaw-Berlin Express. As happened regularly we were helped in our orientation to the train by a friendly Pole, who as so many there had worked for a couple years in the UK. One lesson from all those cases is that with open immigration policies, many people move to work for a few years and then return to their home country.
We were fortunate to arrive in Berlin about 8:00 p.m. on a balmy evening. Our hotel-hostel, the Meninger, is immediately adjacent to Berlin's new central train station. After checkling-in, we had several more hours of daylight and, being close to the heart of the city, walked to the restored Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. The Reichstag, which was burned at the start of the Third Reich and therefore symbolizes the assault on German democracy, has been restored and sits by the stunning new chancellery and parliamentary office complxes that span the Spree River.
Rebuilt Reichstag
After going to the Brandenburg Gate, we walked down the Unter den Linden, old and new Berlin's grand boulevard. We ate pizza at a cafe along the street. It was a fitting end to our visit. Sitting in an ethnically diverse, democratic capital of a nation that had caused and experienced so many of the events that resulted in the current international legal structure to control the worst abuses of human rights and the rules of war.
Finally, on May 31, we boarded a flight for New York at Berlin's Tegel Airport. At New York, after customs, we would fly on a domestic flight to Michigan. One last contrast or lesson came at customs. In contrast to our arrival in Madrid, where passport control was quick and without any custom check; the U.S. system seems to symbolize fear of the foreigners - or is it just fear? As we waited in the long line to have our passports checked, the airport had TV monitors tuned to CNN. Each news account as we snaked through the waiting area was - at its core - about fear. One story was about the health studies that raised concerns about cell phones causing brain tumors. Then they shifted to the current bizarre child murder case, providing sufficient dat to make the listener worry about any mother who might be encountered who is considering murdering her child. Can't we show vidoes on these monitors about Yellowstone Park or even Central Park? Must we welcome people with strtange and frigtening news? Having said all this, our ICE agent was jovial and did provide a human welcome home.
Now we need to get busy to build on what we learned and experienced. . .
