JANUARY 2, 2007: BERLIN TO MANNHEIM
We checked out of the hotel and started driving on the Autobahn south. We thought about stopping in nearby Potsdam, a very historic city made famous for the conference that divided Berlin into four parts after the war. But it was raining again so we drove on. As we drove, Peter explained that in the days when Germany and Berlin were divided, there was a two-hour stretch of road outside of Berlin where West Germans could not leave their car because they did not have a visa to be in East Germany. The road conditions were deplorable then as well. Now there is only a brown historic sign indicating where the border between West Berlin and East Germany had been.
Lutherstadt-Wittenberg
About an hour outside of Berlin we started seeing signs for Lutherstadt-Wittenburg, the town where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Protestant theses to a church door. I had wanted to see the town, and Peter wanted a stop, so we got off the A9 and headed east for 14 km.
The town was charming in the style of Rothenburg ab Tauber, but Peter said for him Wittenburg felt more real and less touristy. We saw the church and then walked down the main street. We stumbled on a museum which showed daily life in the DDR (the East German Republic). We saw typical kitchens and bedrooms from the 1920s, 1950s, and 1960s. Peter said he could see the stark contrast between an East German and a West German kitchen. I could only see household goods that reminded me of things I still see today in Ukraine such as washing machines and “schkaffs” (large living room cabinets for books and china). We also saw a replica of a 70s nightclub, and realized that the 70s were tacky everywhere.
For lunch, Peter found a café that had real German home cooking. We each had a meat dish served with Kloesse, a bread-stuffed potato dumpling from the Thuringen region of Germany. We had just seen a news report on TV about how attempts were being made to trademark the Thuringen Kloesse in the vein of Champagne and Greek Feta. I can only wish them good luck for that. It was also served with traditional cooked red cabbage. I liked it–it was surprisingly sweet.
After lunch we finished our circuit of the two-street downtown section, had Peter’s 4:00 coffee and hit the road. We hit traffic on the A9 and the A4, so we didn’t get home till nearly 10:00 p.m. It felt good to collapse.
Tags: East Germany, Germany, Travel
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