Bye Bye Berlin!

Dancing Bear in a Shop Window on the Ku'damm

Posted by James

Well, the time has sadly come for us to say goodbye Berlin, hello California. But first, we'll take a little vacation, visiting family in Hamburg and spending some time hiking in the Pyrenees. We have done no hiking this summer, mainly because the hiking around Berlin is not particularly interesting as there are no mountains or even moderately sized hills for that matter. On the other hand, we've been doing a lot of bicycling, to Potsdam, Spandu, etc., so that's made up for it. My colleagues at the TU asked me what I would miss most about Berlin, and I told them bicycling to work. And of course being able to walk out my front door and have something interesting happen: street art, somebody juggling in front of the cars stopped at the traffic light, an impromptu concert on the pedestrian mall, etc. That kind of thing just doesn't happen in Silicon Valley.

Tonight, Renate and I took one last stroll on the Ku'damm: west, in the direction opposite the Gedaechniskirche and all the fashionable shops. I'd never been up that way, though she has. We walked past the Hallensee (Hall Lake) S Bahn station and to the traffic circle where the Ku'damm ends. In the middle of the traffic circle is a crazy sculpture, with cars buried in the ground sticking straight up:

This part of Berlin was rebuilt during the Cold War to be more accommodating to cars than people, and the sculptor seems to be commenting on his opinion about that change. The sculpture was erected in the 1990's. The walk seemed an appropriate way to end our wonderful stay in Berlin.

Since this blog is about Renate's and my time in Berlin, it will also have to come to and end. Like the dancing bear in the photo above, we've tried to keep all our loyal readers entertained with the fun and interesting stuff you can do in Berlin, with only occasionally throwing in some serious politics or reflection. There's been plenty of serious stuff going on this summer, the Greek financial crisis, the lingering crisis in the Ukraine, and now of course the flood of refugees from Syria, most of them culturally Western young men escaping the draft and almost certain beheading by ISIS if ISIS manages to get control. In past summers, it seems like there hasn't been all that much going on in Europe, but this summer the serious stuff just seems to keep coming, or maybe I'm just more attuned to it because I'm living here. But it's been good to be able to ignore what's happening in the US for a while, especially the developing farce of the nascent presidential campaign, watch other problems in depth, and in general relax and enjoy life.

So...as usual when we close down something, like leave a job for a new one or moving somewhere, we need to say:

            So Long and Thanks for all the Fish!!!