October 3

October third is reunification day in Germany. On this date, Germany was reunified. It is clearly a national holiday with only the resturants open.

All of the museums were open and were free. Unter der Linden was closed to vehicles from at least the Berliner Dom all the way to the Brandenberg Gate. The Tiergarten was the site of a huge carnival and again the streets were closed.

It seemed that every citizen was out on the street. And it seemed that everyone was walking toward the other side, from the East to the West and from the West to the East. There was music everywhere and concerts all day at the Opera house at Gendarnemart. It was fun to be a part of the celebration, even if the morning was rainy. But about three the rain had stopped and the sun was at least peeking through.

We walked to the memorial for the murdered jews, another of the huge marionettes was being moved into her rigging and the crowds were huge, people were hanging out of their room windows and were standing on the stele in the memorial. We walked past the parking lot that is now Hitler's bunker and on to Checkpoint Charlie. We crossed from East to West and back. It is an odd feeling that I can do with ease what over 165 people lost their lives trying to do. You truly understand the importance of this date.

We decided to take one of the bus tours and were able to see much that we would otherwise not have gotten to in our short stay.

Because the stores were all closed -- we had to settle for another great German dinner out.

ON TO PRAGUE

(yes October 2 is missing I have it typed but can't seem to get it to load -- I will try again later)