Today we had only one item on our agenda. We went to Berlin Unterwelten tours for a tour of one of the Berlin WWII air raid shelter bunkers. We took a tour through them two years ago and we went through one of the flak towers that defended the city of Berlin. Those were monstrous concrete towers with anti-aircraft guns on the roof, and they doubled as air raid shelters for 10,000 or more civilians.
The Berlin Unterwelten society has grown over the years, and they are now an acknowledged organization and they have made numerous discoveries and documented numerous sites in the Berlin underworld.
Maybe you have seen the movie 'Downfall'. It is a German movie about the last days in the Fuhrer's bunker in WWII. We have this movie and we have watched it several times. Well, the Berlin Unterwelten society were consultants to the producers of the movie!
Today we went to one of the air raid shelters that was actually built beneath one of the U-Bahn stations. This was a very fascinating tour. They have documented the events very well, and there are rooms of actual artifacts on display.
One item I found particularly interesting was an item that was discovered in the Fuhrer's driver's bunker. It was an authentic Enigma machine, that had been smashed to make it unusable by the enemy. I immediately knew what it was. And it was so neat to actually see one of these famous encryption devices in person. I have read about them and seen pictures, but this was the real thing!
We spent the rest of the day sitting on our balcony and looking over the park and having some good beer and wine. Tomorrow we will see what has developed with the volcano issue.
We miss our dogs and hope to get home soon, although it is really beautiful here. The sun has been shining and there is not a cloud in the sky. Quite warm today at 67 degrees......and due to be a bit cooler in the days coming. Hopefully the high pressure will go away and flights will resume by the end of the week.......
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