A funky little outdoor restaurant to service the many tourists that came to see the wall.  

West German border Guard. Doesn’t seem too impressed with his job.

According to my notes we had a hard time leaving Berlin. In those days Berlin was only joined to west Germany by a two lane road which was scary to drive down as the East Germans had every imaginable war machine on either side.

The road was very busy. Great lineups of trucks travelling to supply the city with western goods. This was the road that was shut down during the great airlift where plane after freight plane was used to keep West Berlin going.

If you want to see this story ‘Europe’ from the beginning or my previous story ‘Japan’ go to potpourri above and click on the subject.

Found a campsite right next to the zone of separation. Woke up the next morning with the barbed wire fence staring us in the face.

We went into the city, had lunch and marveled at the culture around us. Perhaps it was on purpose but the citizens of west Berlin were full of vigor. The comparison with the east was astounding. Everybody was in a hurry, crowding the sidewalks, tying up the roads, and constantly on the rush for money.

Tomorrow we go looking for the ‘wall’.

So…we took the much under-utilized ferry to East Germany. After we landed a diligent search began. We were the only touristy car on the ferry so the border guards had lots of time with us. Eventually they discovered our separate passports (the ones we were going to use to get into Israel). Whoa! What a find! I was taken into an interrogation room.

There, I was questioned by two important men. One wore a uniform, the other a suit(the boss). They questioned me about the passports for at least and hour. I told the truth and there didn’t seem to be any other way they could interpret it. Meanwhile the armed border guards were still searching the car. They discovered the book ‘Europe on 5 Dollars a Day’ with a photograph of the author on the back. One pointed at the picture and asked “Who is this? Elvis Presley?” Much laughter! They weren’t unkind and helped the girls put the car back together again. By this time I had been let out and came back with these instructions-drive straight through to Berlin, No taking pictures, no stopping, no talking to anybody and we had to make it in one afternoon.

That’s right…I ran out of gas! I don’t remember the discussion and the reason Midge and I went to get gas, leaving Jo with the car. Perhaps because we felt the car would be safe for one person. You can see the road was quite empty but the first car that came along stopped and took us to the nearest gas station. Didn’t see one tractor in the fields, just horses and farmhands doing the work.

Once we got away from the border guards the east German people were friendly and very giving. Naturally they wanted to know all about us and what was going on in the outside world. Some spoke English and the whole gas station gathered around with questions. The garage owner volunteered to take us and the gas back to the car which saved us a lot of trouble.

Off to Berlin. It was almost dark  when we reached the border. What an ordeal!. We were searched once again. This time for east Germans hiding in or under the car. They used these massive mirrors on sticks to look under every vehicle that came through. Might scary, we had to drive around obstacles that were purposed to slow us down so they could put us full of machine bullets if necessary.

Found a campsite and spent the night…woof!

If you want to see this story ‘Europe’ from the beginning or my previous story ‘Japan’ go to potpourri above and click on the subject.