N8KDV schrieb:

Perhaps you still remember Checkpoint Charlie... I visited Berlin in the
late 70's. It was interesting seeing some of the places I had heard about
over the years.

A lot of history there, both very old, and of course more current.

I went to Berlin in spring of 1984 for employment reason.
I came (and I'm still coming) over a lot of interesting places in Berlin
at least due to my profession as plumper and heating installer on mobile
service.
My XYL had some relatives living in "eastern"-Berlin. We went to visit
them now and then. Every time it was a boring run through official
channels getting the permission.
Going on a "long weekend" vacation trip to "western" germany on the
'transit route' always began with a several hour stop at the 'Dreilinden
checkpoint' and a second stop when leaving GDR at 'Marienborn
checkpoint' as there were LOTS of people going to leave Berlin for a few
days. On normal road trffic you could pass the 115 miles through GDR
within 3 hours checkipoint passing included. But on such weekends it was
about 7 to 9 hours... had to go additional 250 miles when visiting my
own relatives near cologne.
My eldest son was born in september 1989 just a few weeks before the
wall felt down and I'm very happy my children can grow up in a city not
surrounded by walls and fences much more effective and dangerous than
the USA/Mexican border.
We like it very much to make a days trip to the 'eastern sea/baltic
sea'. Its just two and a half hours away. You could not even _think_
about such a trip before 1989...