A little less than a year before the wall came down I spent a couple of wintry days in east Berlin.  Until last week I had never been back and it was fascinating to see what changes it had undergone and to see the western side of the city for the first time.

The obvious change of course is the disappearance of the wall.  Here's the Brandenburg Gate in 1988 complete with barbed wire, wall and look-out towers standing in a desolate no man's land.

Now despite the plethora of snaps that digital cameras allow us to take in contrast to the old 36 exposure cassettes I don't have a comparable 2012 picture to share with you.  If I did you'd see that both sides of the avenue leading to the gate have been built up and that the area in front of it is awash with cycle rickshaws, human statues, fake GDR guards, junk food stalls and other tourist tat.  The bottom section of the gate itself was obscured by hoardings emblazoned with the initials of a TV company whose vans were parked under the lintel.  Behind them was scaffolding that I think held up the giant screen on which Germany's Euro 2012 games were being shown. Rather like digital photos it was a case of more is less.

Another less than beautiful change has occurred in Alexanderplatz.  There were lots more people in it than in this picture but since pictures of a square jam-packed with chain stores and fast-food restaurants has little appeal I didn't even take a photo.

The cathedral and its grounds seem pretty much the same

and on the positive side many, many buildings have been refurbished (the museums for instance)

and the smelly putt putt Trabants have gone to the great garage in the sky.





Over in the west the great architectural triumph is the Reichstag.  What an amazing building; the combination of its glorious 19th century walls and towers and contemporary interior topped by Norman Foster's beautiful glass dome is extraordinary - and lunch on the roof terrace was just as wonderful.

 Elsewhere in the west I was keen to see the Kurfürstendamm but its heyday is long past.  It was just a long Princes Street without the benefit of gardens and castle.

Back in the east a great pleasure was to see a play at the Berliner Ensemble.  OK much of the dialogue, let's say 99.9%, was incomprehensible but we got the main idea and with Siobhan's help at the interval and afterwards all became clear. The seats were only 5 euros (we could have stood for 2) and the theatre itself (Theater am Schiffbauerdamm) is lovely.  Inside it doesn't look as though it can have changed at all since it was built in 1896.

What may or may not have changed is the final resting place of the ensemble's founder and most famous director, Bertold Brecht.  Together with his wife Helene Weigel he's buried in the  Dorotheenstädtischer and Friedrichswerder Cemetery but according to my photographic record not in the same spot as in 1988.  Could a German Burke and Hare have been at work?