October 20, 2023

Dateline – Berlin, Germany –

And so another adventure draws to its inevitable conclusion. Just when I’ve adjusted to the schedule and the time zones. One of these days I will be retired and can take more than two weeks or so but that day is not yet. I technically have one more day but as that is again devoted to three flights, four airports and 24 hours of discomfort beginning at 2:30 am local time when I have to have my luggage ready for the bellman so that I can be picked up at 3 AM for my 6 am flight which is the first stage of the long journey home. I should be home late Saturday evening Birmingham time giving me a day to sleep and adjust before hitting the ground running on Monday morning with all of my usual. I’ve decided, as I have to be up in four hours anyway, that I’m not really going to bed tonight. Hopefully that will allow me to sleep some on the transatlantic flight and give me a bit of a head start in terms of adjusting.

The weather remained rotten today. Cold and wet and gray with that damp chill in the air that makes it seem much colder than it actually is. After breakfast, and some more puzzling through Aida and still not understanding some of the more outre directorial and design concepts, it was time for a tour of World War II and Cold War Berlin. As noted yesterday, the city seems to be trying to remove all vestiges of the Cold War as rapidly as possible but there is still one portion of the wall preserved which we saw (not as big and imposing as I had believed it to be but then again there’s no no man’s land around it these days). Other stops included the museum of German resistance, housed in the building in which Stuffenberg planned his Valkyrie plot (and in whose courtyard he was executed), the site of the former SS headquarters (destroyed in the war and not rebuilt and now home to a museum about the excesses of the SS, SA and Gestapo called Topography of Terror, the old Tempelhof airport due to its importance with both the Nazis and the Berlin airlift, and the site of Hitler’s bunker, now a ramshackle parking lot. What is it with autocrats ending up under car parks? Hitler, Richard III. I suppose they’ll discover Julius Caesar under a parking structure off the Palatine next.

The afternoon was unstructured. I started with a walk in the Tiergarten (cut short as it was just too danged cold), a trip to the art museum to see some of the painting collections, and then a nap before dinner. Dinner, as it is the last night, was a highlight. We were bussed to the Reichstag (not really necessary as it was all of about half a km away but when you have a number of guests in their 80s, I can see why they do it). Into the building, after passing through security (all too necessary for symbolic public buildings these days) and then up the elevator to the roof. When the building was rebuilt after reunification (having been mainly a ruin since the infamous fire in 1933), most of the original facades were kept. The original dome, was not salvageable and there was discussion of reconstructing a fascimile of the original or doing something new that evoked the past. This is the idea that won out and the new dome is an engineering and architectural marvel made of glass and steel, open in some ways to the elements, funneling natural light into the parliament chamber through mirrors, and easily toured through a helical system of ramps on the inside. Spiraling up to the top and then down again for the views and then to dinner in the restaurant on the roof of the Reichstag. (Dinner at the Reichstag was not on my life goals bingo card but I can now say I’ve done it). Four course meal with multiple wines. Most of the food was very good other than than a second course of gnocchi with pumpkin that was definitely overcooked. I ate it anyway.

Berlin has made me want to breathe life back into Politically Incorrect Cabaret. It’s 20th birthday is this coming April and maybe we should do an anniversary show of some sort. If it’s going to continue, however, it needs some new blood. The original cast of zanies has aged into middle age and beyond and a few of the key folk have departed to the next realm as well. It needs to be handed over to some energetic folk in their 20s and 30s with an interest in street theater and satire and improv and Berlin Kabarett forms. If we were to do a 20th anniversary edition, I would love to construct it as a passing of the baton to a new generation. If anyone knows some Gen Z type that would be interested in continuing this type of work, send them my way.

This is more or less the end of this particular travelogue. There will be more but I don’t see myself doing anything terribly exotic travel wise for about a year. I’ve got a book to get out, a play, a musical, an opera, and a couple of symphony concerts between now and the spring and maybe even a couple of other surprises which I’m remaining mum about until things become firmer. So there should be something to write about. See y’all on the other side of the pond, If you don’t, all I can say is that there will be several Birmingham cultural institutions who will find themselves with improved cash flow.