- Well, what? Where do we go to the weekend?

- May be to Leipzig?

- No, better to Berlin.

So, at Friday evening it was decided to go to Berlin next morning. The way was coming remote, it was necessary to rise 3 hours earlier than usually. We had a quick breakfast and gathered. 4 hours of roads, and we were on the spot. It had been decided to park the car at a shopping centre parking in the centre on the Potsdam Square. Not wasting time we bought a city map in a book shop, had dinner in a cafe "A hungry wolf" and went into the street.

So, it was the Potsdam Square. The square was very modern, with high glass office buildings and shopping centres. We could not believe that recently it had been divided by the Berlin Wall and when the Wall has been taken down in 1989, there was a huge dusty waste ground on this place. I saw a strip on an asphalt where earlier the Wall was, with the tablet "Berliner Mauer 1961-1989". It was interesting that there were stands with old photos and comments (written very tactfully, only with a statement of the facts) in several languages. These photos gave me the shivers. How everything has changed! The parts of the Wall were left there too. Two soldiers in the old military form sat near them and gave visa from East to West Germany to every interested tourist for some euro. Many people wanted to receive a passport page with improbable quantity of seals as a souvenir.

It turned out that we went to the city from the West side, passed the "frontier" and went further by the way of the Wall towards the Brandenburg Gate. Along the way there was an interesting monument "the Memorial Holocaust". It was opened in memory of killed Jews in Europe. On the former waste ground in 19000 sq.m. 2700 concrete steles were erected. According to the architect's plan they were to make impression of a worrying field of ears. A grandiose construction!

Then we reached the Brandenburg Gate. Here the border between East and West Germany lay, the way through them was closed. Now it's a very busy place. A bit further there was a building of Reichstag (German Parliament Building). I was captured by a strange feeling again. Since my childhood I read about it and saw on the TV and on different pictures. It was not so easy to get into the building, people stood in a long line. We did not desire to stand under the scorching sun 30 minutes. Near the river is cooler. We went down to the river. In Cold War times the bank of the Reichstag side belonged to the East and the river - to the West. White crosses on the enclosure attrected my attention. It appeared they were made in memory of those people who tried to escape to the West side and got the lead. The last case took place 9 months before the day the Berlin Wall was ruined. Such crosses were met in several places along the former Wall.

The next object of our sightseeing was Alexander Square. The square did not seem interesting to me, but we became witnesses of a meeting. Some hundreds of young people went along main city streets accompaning with roaring music with posters "Für eine freie Wahl", "Ohne Hanf keine Kamft" ("For a free choice", "Without a hemp there is no struggle"). They were convoyed by several police vans. As it turned out, it was the Global Marijuana March.

During the way back we photographed striking our eyes sights of the Island of Museums: the Bode-museum, the German museum of transport and technics, the Old museum...

It's possible to pass through the river to another side by the bridge near the Chancellor Residence. At that side on a small space near Reichstag there were small fountains gushing out from plates underfoot. So it was too hot people ran on these plates barefoot and lay on the grass.

On our way back we had one more adventure. We noticed that gasoline came to the end too late and hardly held to the nearest refuelling.

We came back home, it was already absolutely dark. It was an interesting, eventful day!