CHECKPOINT CHARLIE
Checkpoint Charlie is within easy walking distance of the Brandenburg Gate, in central Berlin. There's nothing left of the old crossing point, but there is a small shop and museum that you can visit to find out more about Berlin during the Cold War. The Museum Haus Am Checkpoint Charlie is fairly pricey to visit, so we didn't bother going inside, preferring instead to soak up the atmosphere and listen to the kids' dad explain what it was like here at Checkpoint Charlie when he visited Berlin, before the fall of the Wall. Inside the shop you can buy the obligatory chunk of the Berlin Wall if you like that kind of thing. Outside the museum is a piece of the Wall with colourful graffiti on it, which is a fun place to take a photograph. Berlin today is a really vibrant city, and it's a fascinating place to visit. It's hard to imagine it as it would have been during the Cold War. In the book I reminisce about listening to radio coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall, while travelling in India with my partner (the same one who features in the book), twenty five years before I finally got to visit the city. FIND OUT MORE |