Read this blog: The one where we experience Cold War East Germany Wednesday 4th December 2024 We had booked to visit the Deutsche Spionagemuseum [German Spy Museum] in the morning which is promoted as being in “Berlin, the capital of spies”. It is open daily between 10:00 and 20:00 and on presenting our tourist train passes we were given a 25% discount on the entry price. This is home to over 1,000 exhibits which tell the story of information gathering over the millennia from Biblical stories and the ancient potter who concealed the secret recipe for a glaze in the decoration of a pot right through to modern surveillance techniques. Exhibits include hidden cameras, lipstick pistols, bugs and encrypted mobile phones as well as an original German Enigma Machine [below]. Also on display was a replica of the poison-tipped umbrella used to murder the Bulgarian dissident and anti-communist writer and broadcaster Georgi Markov in 1978 on a London street. The museum is highly interactive and if our visit had not coincided with those of several groups of students we would have spent more time trying to solve cyphers; seeing if we could identify when each other was lying and trying to negotiate a laser maze amongst […]
2024 Berlin
Read this blog: The one where we hit the Berlin Christmas markets Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Although the festive spirit sometimes eludes Robert, when Matilda suggested a city break in Berlin to take in some culture and visit the Christmas markets, Robert enthusiastically embraced what he saw primarily as an opportunity to drink beer al fresco in the afternoon. To maximise our time in Berlin, rather than travel by train, we flew from Heathrow. Over the past few years it has been Robert who has experienced the odd inconvenience when travelling by plane: we think he may share his name with a known criminal. Whatever the reason, his old passport did not usually work in the automated gates and he was invariably referred to Border Control. Surprisingly his passport did work in Iceland. But it was at Reykjavik Airport that he was held back and interviewed by American officials as he had sulphur residue on his clothing from the caves we had visited. This trip it was Matilda who became quite embarrassed and flustered when one of the flight attendants made a request over the tannoy for her (and one other passenger) to make themselves known to […]