24 years on, it's still about the wall

For tourists like me, Berlin has to be still largely about the Berlin Wall, so powerful was it as a symbol of the Cold War that dominated so much of my formative years.

For 30 years the city was divided in a cruel and artificial way, much as today are the two Koreas which I'd caught a glimpse of a few weeks earlier. So much human suffering, and so much tension and potential for disaster with worldwide ramifications.

Berlin has been very much rebuilt and refashioned since the 1990 German reunification, but it's been sensible enough to leave lots of little reminders, like the garishly painted wall sections scattered around the place, to remind themselves, and to satisfy the curious tourists. There are also a few sections left standing much as they were, looking astonishingly thin and flimsy, presumably having relied mainly on all the rusty reinforcing to hold it all upright as long as it did.

My hotel was on Zimmerstrasse, just around the corner from Checkpoint Charlie, and clustered around there were a number of very interesting attractions. There was the 'Cold War Black Box' museum, illustrating milestones in Cold War history. There was the

'Berlin Wall Panorama', in a large steel rotunda, where you take in the rather realistic view as it would have been 30 years ago at that spot. There's another museum, which is apparently good on the subject of escape attempts (submarines, hot-air balloons, tunnels), and of course there's Checkpoint Charlie.

The original Checkpoint Charlie has been recreated, complete with warning signs, sandbags, and actors dressed as American military police. You can pose with them and get your passport stamped for a few euros. Lonely Planet says it would be nothing but a tacky tourist trap but for the Checkpoint Gallery nearby. I found it quite moving nonetheless, though I didn't part with my euros.