Today early in the morning we left Prague by train (the only time
during this holidays) and arrived in Berlin after several hours. By
the way, the train went along the Elbe river, in a very picturesque
region named Saxon Switzerland. It looked like Tyrol although with
mountains not so tall.
We tried to catch the day and went to St Nichols' Church, which was
heavily destroyed during WWII but was reconstructed and serves as a
branch of the city museum. By the way, Nicholas quarter located
nearby is quite pleasant in spite of being a contemporary
reconstruction from bottom to top.
Then we tried our best to reach a computer gaming museum, but
unfortunately, the S-Bahn was partly closed due to construction
works. We then decided to go by a substation bus and failed again
because of incorrect signs in the street. Fortunately, we arrived at
another hopefully interesting place, Checkpoint Charlie, a private
museum dedicated to Soviet hegemony in East Germany. We didn't even
buy tickets because it's visibly tasteless and historically
dishonest. I don't want to say anything pro-Soviet, but posters
about so-called Holodomor in Ukraine should be provided along with
other opinions about this unquestionably massive famine, in my
opinion. Stalin was a cruel tyrant, but there are no undefeatable
historical proofs that famine in Ukraine in the 1930s was really
planned by him or his minions. An improvised checkpoint on the road
near the museum also was infuriating in its circus-like appearance.
The 'guards' had a uniform which could not be identified as either
Soviet or American of the corresponding period. I totally dislike
these attempts to make not even money but make fun of that time of
occupation and separation of the whole country just to enlarge the
flow of tourists. Several other placed related to the WWII in Berlin
that we had visited were much better, I think.
In the evening we didn't come up with anything more original than to
went to the Berliner Republic for the last time. They have tasty
food and beer - what else can I desire for the holidays' ending?
