Author: Dackel Princess

Life in Berlin with our daughters was busy and yet, we fell into a routine of breakfasting, dressing and getting out for the day. I don’t think there is a part of the western half of Berlin that we didn’t get to see with them. Including a trip to the doctor’s office after Amanda’s knee went out. (What is it with this family and their knees?) After an injection from the Pan Am doctor and rest with ice, she seemed to recover enough for our next adventure.
We made a second trip into East Berlin with the girls and this time we walked down to the Nikolaiviertel and shopped at the stores there in the historic district of E. Berlin.We had lunch down there and watched children dancing and playing.
On another day we attended The French/German Volksfest near Tegal! It was a fair very much like our county fairs here in the states. Lots of good food, rides that’ll make you sick and tons of fun. We spent the entire day, and went on almost all the rides and had a great time.

We took Amanda and Jess to the Pfaueninsel.
The boat tour was wonderful and although it was a little cool, we had a great time.

On another day we headed out to Alt Lubars where we saw the wide open fields and stopped at a gasthaus and had dinner.
There was also a farmers market near our flat at Lietzenburger Strasse. That was so much fun for the girls and I. We walked all around the stands and I don’t think there was anything you couldn’t buy.
One day we had to go to the US Military base to do laundry. We all brought our books and sat waiting for the wash to be done. Hubby watched the two kids reading and with a glint in his eye he asked, “Who wants to go to McDonalds?” Two faces, with startled expressions looked up from their books and before they knew it, we were sitting at McDonalds eating American Burgers and fries! (Note here: Even though we were on an American Base, eating McDonalds burgers and fries, it was not the same.)
We often walked down to The Wall and read the grafitti on it. Seeing the way it cut through the city gave us all pause for thought.

It’s funny, but back then in the summer of 1989, things were still very tense around “The Wall”. I wanted to bring our daughters down to it to show them what “The Wall” was like and what it meant for the people of the two Berlins. As they stood on the observation deck at Check Point Charlie I saw their faces become serious. They could see the Border Guards on the East Berlin side, toting their machine guns. I think until they actually saw that “The Wall” truly separated neighborhoods and families, they just couldn’t fathom it. Growing up in the US where the only wall you know is in your house, or a fence in your yard, doesn’t prepare you for what the Russians did in Berlin.
We took the girls on the Military Bus Tour over to East Berlin. They had a chance to see children playing near a cafe where we ate lunch, but I also brought them into a grocery store where they could see the very limited provisions available there.
So they would not remember the negatives of the East, I also brought them into the department store Kaufhaus Am Alexanderplatz, a toy store where they had model trains and a camera store. While Hubby was looking at a camera there, the clerk took this picture.

I’m glad we were able to bring Amanda and Jess over to Berlin that summer. It’s easy to take for granted being free if you never see and experience a society that has had their freedom stolen from them. It had a profound impact on me and I know it did with both of our daughters.

We flew back to Berlin with a 13 year old Amanda and an eleven year old Jess. It was an exciting time for the girls as neither one had been to a country where English wasn’t the first language. We had also decided to try to get them to live eating German foods. Amanda wasn’t sure she liked the idea, but she was game. Jess however, was still at an age where she didn’t like to eat anything but chicken McNuggets and French Fries. In the end the girls found that the various wursts could make a good meal and like me, they fell in love with the Semmel (also known as Schrippen, and in the US known as rolls), and the yummy goodies. So no one starved.
We started off by showing them around Berlin We drove out to Spandau with them and had lunch in the restaurant there.

Spandau Prison was where 7 prisoners were housed after the Nuremberg Trials. The most famous prisoner was Rudolph Hess.

We went to the Dahlem Museum, saw the Siegesaule (Victory Column), We went over to the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichtag, the Wall, Check Point Charlie Museum and the Berlin Zoo. We decided to walk the girls through the Tier Garten where many nude sunbathers were sprawled and see who noticed first. Amanda noticed right away, but Jess walked along oblivious to all for quite a while until all of a sudden…She nearly shrieked, with 11 year old indignation.
We took Amanda and Jess grocery shopping where the girls were fascinated with all the differences in German vs America grocery stores. Of course now in 2006 the only difference is the food you find in the stores. Germany has evolved with a large frozen food section, pre-made meals and lots of junk food. I’m not entirely sure if this is a good thing.
We did some cooking at the flat, and the girls helped. Most memorable was making spaghetti sauce from scratch. Something that I wasn’t particularly skilled at, at the time.
The Cafe Fest street fair occurred and we went to that. Oh my goodness. The beer, the kaisersmarren, the crepes, and the wursts! (This is where I started to really put on weight!)
The girls loved to go out and shop and we ate many lunches out at Imbiss stands. Amanda particularly like the Curry Wurst with Pomme Frites, and even learned how to go to the closest Imbiss and order that in well practiced German. Jess liked the Pomme Frites, but didn’t exactly care for the Curry Wurst.
Amanda and Jess enjoyed taking the S-bahn (surface trolley) and the U-bahn (subway) around town. They learned how to get their tickets from the machine and I swear understood the exchange rates better than I did.
We went shopping a lot and each girl bought post cards and gifts for their friends at home. It was an exciting time for them and for us as we shared a new world with them.

The first time I crossed through Check Point Charley was in our rental car. Hubby wanted to take me on a small driving tour, not just of the city of East Berlin, but to also go out into the countryside.
We got to the border and drove into the holding area. That is no mans land, really. For a time when we sat there, we were without the protective arm of Uncle Sam. Was I nervous? You bet.
I wasn’t afraid of the East German people, but I was very afraid of the Russians. Growing up in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s I knew all too well what the Russians could do. Hubby had also told me his story of trying to cross into East Berlin and being held at the border when they searched his car and found a copy of “Stars & Stripes“. Needless to say his experience was not a good one and left me nearly panic stricken when we drove up.
We had to get out of the car, the trunk was opened and the car searched. We had to have our passport stamped and were released to go across.
The first thing that struck me was how few cars were on the roads! Where West Berlin was fairly crowded with vehicles, East Berlin was nearly empty. There were busses and S-Bahns (trolleys), and a lot of foot traffic and bicycles.
I was so fascinated with what I was seeing. I felt a great excitement inside. We drove past what Hubby explained had been where Hitler’s bunker had been, past concert halls, museums and a University.
Even though this was still Berlin, the two sides of the Wall were very different. The west was much more commercial. Open. Shops were everywhere. In the east, it seemed almost more formal, and there were far fewer shops.
Eventually we drove out of the city. If memory serves me correctly we drove south of the city for some time. It was beautiful, lush, forested and unpopulated, really lovely. We stopped at a Gasthaus for lunch. We went in and ordered a meal. I wish I could recall what we ordered, but I do recall that it was very good, and of course we topped it off with a tall beer. That was my introduction to the East.

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Our first tour with the US Military was pretty interesting. The Provost Marshal boarded the bus and gave us all a briefing. We could shop, but under no circumstances were we to change money with anyone on the street. It was better to change money before we crossed (which we had done). We could shop, but we should not buy things that were in short supply to the East Germans. Never show your passport, never give up your passport and if anyone started to follow you or bother you, return to the bus.
The bus pulled up to Check Point Charley and we were required only to show our passport pictures in the window of the bus. Basically we breezed through. I decided after that, that this was the way to cross.
The bus stopped in front of the Zeiss Jena Camera shop and parked. Needless to say, the first shop we went into was the camera shop. Over the course of the summer, Hubby bought a medium format camera and several lenses there.

Me sitting in the garden area at Alexanderplatz
We also went to the large department store Kaufhaus am Alexanderplatz. They had many neat items there and I planned my shopping trips to obtain certain items. I was able to get two cotton decke’s (comforters), an eiderdown decke, a lovely tea set for my sister, wine and champagne glasses an anniversary clock and table linens.
We had a few places that we liked to eat in the downtown area. Always the meals were washed down with a nice cold beer.
After that first trip I felt fairly confident that I could do these trips alone. So I made a few more trips without Hubby while he worked. One trip I made I was asked if I would take the wife of another pilot. Sure. However, my problem soon presented itself. This little woman was totally incapable of doing anything without being led by the hand. She was afraid of her own shadow and even though I assured her that we were safe and that no one would bother us, she was a wreck. After I had gotten her lunch and had a beer she decided to go back on the bus and stayed there until the tour ended.
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We flew back to the US to pick up our daughters. Amanda and Jess were coming over with us for three weeks. They would stay in Berlin with me while Hubby worked for the first week and a half and then we would tour around Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
But that, gentle reader, is for the next chapter.

Our apartment had a small kitchen, a bathroom with a tub, and a hand held shower. There was a bedroom with a king-size bed and a large living room with an eating area at one end.
The TV got Armed Forces TV, CNN International and the rest were German stations. One day I was flipping through the channels and I found “General Hospital“. It was all dubbed in German. However, it was also 2 years older than the episodes I’d watched at home. I had actually seen these episodes before! (In English of course) So I sat there watching “Luke and Laura” on the run as “Lloyd and Lulu”. I may not have understood the language, but I knew exactly what was happening.
Hubby arrived home from work one day and found me sobbing as I watched General Hospital. It was then that he knew I was totally cracked!
On Hubby’s days off we continued to sight see around the city. We rented bikes one day and this is my other embarrassing story.
It was a bright hot sunny July day. we rode the bikes all along the Spree River, and as we rode I could see Hubby’s head turing to view the nude sunbathing buxom beauties on the shoreline. I rode ahead of him and with all the courage of someone biking in a forested area, I pulled up my shirt and said, “You want to see some boobs, well here ya go buddy!” At that exact moment a little old man on his bike came around the corner and nearly fell off his bike! Hubby started to laugh, I tried to quickly put my puppies back inside my bra while remaining upright on my bike.
Sometimes there is no justice!
Our life settled into a nice rhythm. Hubby would get up in the morning, get his jogging outfit on and go off to run. I would make coffee, maybe some eggs and time it all out so that after half an hour Hubby would return with the fresh morning rolls (or wonderful sweet pastries! I especially liked Mohn-Kuchen or Apfel Strudel). This had been our pattern for a while and it suited me just fine. Although later I would rue the day as my waistline kept increasing!
One day Hubby left for his run and I took my bath, and then started to make the coffee the door to the flat opened and Hubby returned. He hadn’t been gone too long and I immediately met him at the door. He’d been running, as usual, and his knee had locked. This was the start of all his knee problems.
When he had a few more days off we flew down to Munich so I could meet his friends, Lucie and Otto. I wasn’t terribly sure how they would react to Hubby’s new, younger wife, but I needn’t have worried. I was greeted with open arms.
It was there that I came upon a little wire-haired dachshund named Shubi. He didn’t understand any English and I didn’t speak much German, but it didn’t matter. It was love at first sight on both our parts.

This little man followed me all around and even snuck into my bed at night. It was then that I knew I was smitten with the wire-haired dachshund and would someday have to have my own.
Back in Berlin we learned that we could take a bus tour with the US Military. These were done twice a week in order to maintain access between the two Berlin’s. This was agreed to by the four powers when Berlin had been divided after WW II.
But that story is for the next chapter.

My days fell into a wonderful exploration of the city. I enjoyed the shops in the center of (West) Berlin.
KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) was one of my favorite department stores. I could get lost in there for hours! I also went to The Europa Center where I could get delicious Leberknödel Soupe and a beer for lunch. Even now when I go back to Berlin, I enjoy going there.
Our first flat in the city was on the KuDamm. It was a small walk up right on the street. We didn’t stay there too long. The Kudamm is the street that never sleeps in Berlin and so needless to say, neither did we.
Hubby ran into a friend who was leaving Berlin for a week or so and he would lend us his flat in Zehlendorf until we could find something else. So we moved over there, and life was good. We slept like babies, and I got to explore a new part of the city. Zehlendorf was the home of the US Military at that time. We had privileges to use the base for laundry, and to go and get a Big Mac. Although I must tell you, I loved German food and didn’t get a Big Mac at all.
In fact the food in Berlin was and is fantastic. You can find just about any food from anywhere in the world and it is made well. Particularly Greek and Yugoslavian.
I enjoyed a trip to Steinstucken, which was a small enclave that was technically in West Berlin and only connected by a short roadway. It was there I felt I could have reached out and touched East Berlin. If you look hard you can see the Guard in the Tower.

One of the most embarrassing incidents occurred at the flat in Zehlendorf. It was very hot and I decided to lie on the balcony and sun myself, TOPLESS. The balcony was protected from the foot path by wonderful shrubs. I felt very safe.
Well, as I lay there soaking up the sun I suddenly heard water running on cement. I opened my eyes, and there was a neighbor man watering his plants and staring at well, my naked breasts! I grabbed my towel and ran inside. More scandalized and horrified than the man was, I’m sure.
I also spent time at the Wansee, which is a big lake where the Berliners sun and swim. It’s a lovely spot to go and walk as well as get a beer. Back in 1989 drinking beer was like drinking water for me. After my first real German beer, I realized that I’d never had a beer before. American beer is so not beer.
Soon Hubby came home and told me he had sublet a flat in downtown Berlin on Lietzenburger Strasse. It was up on the fifteenth floor, with beautiful views of the city.
So we left Zelhendorf and moved to 1 Lietzenburger Strasse, overlooking the Europa Center.