Random Memories of Germany

BERLIN – PART 3

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

One of the things we did while in Berlin, in 1983 when we went with our daughters, was to visit the Olympic Stadium, site of the 1936 Olympics.  It was an impressive stadium, but rightly so, I guess, since Hitler wanted to show how the Aryan race was superior, and how “friendly” and welcoming Nazi Germany was.  USA runner Jesse Owens most certainly squashed that theory!

Photo credit Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R82532 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 Photographer – Hoffman

We took only a few pictures of the stadium. 

Here Karen, Janet and I are standing in front of the pillars.  If you look in the professional picture, you will see those same pillars in there.  It was an AMAZING structure.

One of our favorite structures in Berlin was the Brandenberg Gate.  Of course, when we saw it, it was in East Berlin, behind the Berlin Wall.  The best we could see it was on the tour bus, which puts us up higher than in a car, or walking.

When Fred and I, along with Karen, went to West Berlin in 1969, one of the places we visited was the Berlin Baptist Church – an English speaking Baptist church within the city.

After the service, Berlin Baptist Church – 1969

It was so refreshing to know that there was a body of believers there who worshiped together.  As I recall, as we were in the service, the regular pianist was out for some reason, and they were desperate for someone to play the piano.  Since I was doing that at our church in Wiesbaden, I volunteered to play for them.  It was an honor to play, and they seemed to enjoy having the instrument to help them sing along.

One other thing we enjoyed doing was just walking around the city.  Here is a picture of Karen and me during that visit in 1969, in front of the Congress Hall (Kongresshalle).  

Karen was just two years old at this time.  And did I mention that she and I went with Fred for his two-week TDY (temporary duty) at that time?  That’s how we were able to see and do so much of that I’m sharing with you.

I do remember once, in 1983, as we were walking with Karen and Janet, that Fred decided that, since it took so little time to go via the U-bahn (underground rapid transit system), that it shouldn’t be too far between stops.

Credit Google Search and Wikipedia

So we walked between two stops – and it probably took us nearly an hour to do that!!  That little train just whizzes along, but the distance is MUCH farther than we thought!  We were all exhausted by the time we got to the second stop.  As I looked at our girls faces, they both had the exact same tired expression on their faces!  Well, to make a short story long….we rode the U-bahn from then on!  We did our fair share of walking, but not when we needed to get from one place to another in a short period of time!  Whew!

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: Berlin Germany, Military family life