February 23rd, 2012 at 10:00AM
Two Berlins East Berlin was having a public holiday, and at the hotel beside the lake several thousand citizens—great-grandmothers to babes in arms—were enjoying a family feast in the sunshine. How genially they laughed, danced, sang, drank their beer and ate their pickled pork knuckles! With what indefatigable smiles the two bands alternated, one with the old oom-pah-pah, the other exploring the less raucous fringes of rock! That same evening, al fresco in the Grunewald woods on the other side of Berlin, I observed two middle-aged ladies, mother and daughter, perhaps, sharing delicate jokes over their asparagus, and balancing their purses carefully on the rims of their glasses to stop the chestnut blossoms falling into their wine.

Two Berlins

East Berlin was having a public holiday, and at the hotel beside the lake several thousand citizens—great-grandmothers to babes in arms—were enjoying a family feast in the sunshine. How genially they laughed, danced, sang, drank their beer and ate their pickled pork knuckles! With what indefatigable smiles the two bands alternated, one with the old oom-pah-pah, the other exploring the less raucous fringes of rock!

That same evening, al fresco in the Grunewald woods on the other side of Berlin, I observed two middle-aged ladies, mother and daughter, perhaps, sharing delicate jokes over their asparagus, and balancing their purses carefully on the rims of their glasses to stop the chestnut blossoms falling into their wine.

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3 notes #East Berlin#Germany#Travel#West Berlin#post-war#Berlin Wall
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