FREE CITY TOURS...ARE THEY WORTH THE MONEY?

BERLIN AND HAMBURG “FREE” TOURS. The red T-shirted guides explain the concept that any visitor should be able to get to know more about the cities and donate what they consider it´s been worth. The other companies typically charge 12 euros for a 2-3 hour walking tour. So the "free tours" continue to grow in popularity. Enthusiatic Aussie Karina, with history degree, guided about 30 of us through the main points of interest in Berlin centre, “Mitte”. Starting at Brandenburg Gate, the much photographed icon. Then to the Reichstag,the German parliament. A surprising place was "Hitler´s Bunker" (the German authorities do not want this site to be a memorial to his (and Eva Braun¨s) suicide 15 feet below ground so it’s a car park with no signs to inform of its history. The nearby strange Holocaust Memorial with 2711 unmarked concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field was thought provoking. How can any memorial adequately depict the murder of 6 million Jews? We were asked for our opinions on the designers thoughts behind this. Some say he wanted it to give the idea of fear, claustrophobia, and uncertainty as those who were led to be slaughtered must have felt. Its proximity to the current parliament is meant to ensure that it remains as a constant reminder of that atrocity which will never be allowed to reoccur. The city has not tried to bury its dark past and one can’t help but wonder what young Germans think as they daily pass by the numerous War memorials. Some of the other sites were the Nazi Book Burning Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie (touristy), the remains of the Berlin Wall (ironically protected with a fence to prevent more of it being chiselled away!), Luftwaffe HQ and Museum Island (yes they have several beautiful looking museum buildings clustered together surrounded by water). So much to see and so much dark history for contemplation. Hamburg is only 2 hours by train from Berlin. When there, I joined the “free” Hamburg tour and although the male (good looking!) Aussie guide wasn’t quite as informative, it was still a recommended intro to the city. What a history here too. Almost totally destroyed by fire in 1842 (I asked our guide if this was a chip pan fire but he didn’t catch on to the joke), Hamburg bounced back several times until the so called Hiroshima of Europe happened when it was severely gutted in WW2. Being totally rebuilt is why it is so modern looking with Europe’s largest new inner city development at Hafen City which eventually will have its own university. The monstrosity of a concert hall will cost around half a billion euros! I left the tour to catch a train to the infamous Reeperbahn, that sleezy strip joint area. So why did I go there? To see the Beatles Platz of course! The Fab Four strutted their stuff in Hamburg before making it big. Wonder if they ever went back to see the metal outline “statues” of themselves. A group of down and outs were boozing close by and there were lots of guy party groups. It wasn´t a comfortable place for this single female.