Smiths in Hong Kong: Berlin

We spent the weekend in Berlin, which will soon host the World Cup. Soccer was the theme of the visit for the kids. Schools were the preoccupation of the visit for Anna and me. I had been offered the Berlin bureau chief job and we were prepared to accept it but discovered that Berlin's international schools are not yet very well developed. We turned down the job.

But we had a nice visit all the same. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in the leafy western part of the city.

And we paid the obligatory visit to Checkpoint Charlie, the principal route between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. The boys bought vintage East German military caps from one of the stands there.

The checkpoint is actually a reconstruction of the original hut, which was followed by a much more elaborate checkpoint during the Cold War days.

We also visited a preserved section of the Berlin Wall near the site of the Nazi Gestapo headquarters, now a vacant lot with a photo exhibit. The boys got a crash course in World War II and Cold War history.

Anna headed back to Paris half a day ahead of the boys and I, because she had a round-trip plane ticket and the boys and I had decided to take the overnight train. After she was gone, the three of us toured the city by bus. This is a view of the Berlin Cathedral while crossing the River Spree.

Because soccer was in the air, we went to the Nike store and bought Sky a pair of very fancy soccer shoes. The boys also bought Brazil jerseys because they are convinced that Brazil will win the World Cup.

Sky ate a currywurst, which is what it is.

True opted for a couple of chocolate donuts at Dunkin' Donuts, an indulgence not normally allowed in Dad's company.

We visited the Reichstag building, whose burning on the night of February 27, 1933, set the stage for the Nazi's rise to power. For those who don't know the history, Hitler had been named Chancellor a few weeks earlier. He blamed the fire on the Communists and used it to pressure President Paul von Hindenburg to sign a decree that suspended key civil liberties. The decree allowed the Nazis to imprison opponents. The picture above is from the night the building burned.

Here is True playing an imaginary soccer game in his yellow Brazil jersey in front of the building.

We walked through the Tiergarten, Berlin's big park and once the hunting grounds of the Prussian princes. There was a rally for Turkish soccer fans at the Brandenburg Gate. There are about 2.6 million Turks in Germany today, or about 3 percent of the population. They are a legacy of the alliance between Germany and the Ottoman Empire before World War I. They are rooting for the Turkish national team, of course.

We visited the new Jewish Memorial nearby. It is a beautiful yet haunting field of concrete blocks of varying heights creating a kind of maze.

We ended up at Potsdamer Platz, where they were holding an exhibition tournament to promote the World Cup. Both True and Sky were fascinated by the games.

We went back to the hotel to swim and then caught a taxi to the train station in Spandau. On the way, the taxi driver took us past the 1936 Olympic stadium. It was dusk and raining hard, but the boys were able to see the famous facade, which hasn't changed since the photo above was taken - except, of course, that the swastika has been removed. The stadium has been refurbished and this is where the World Cup finals will be played in June.