ANLAF
XS650 Guru
Fellers, among other things I like travelling.
Back in 1989 there was a little fuss in Berlin. I went there with a Belgium doctor friend of mine, Pierre (the mad Belgian doctor, of course). I took my British car and with visas went into East Berlin. The world changed from Technicolour to Black and White and smelt o ftwo-stoke fuel. We drove where no westerner was permitted - miles out into the country. We came to a small town and the chilling vision of high mesh fences trailing off into the distance. This was the border. We stood there for a while asking each other will they really take down the Wall, when up comes a patrol of soldiers in their eye-catching dull green uniforms, with their machine guns, trucks, motorbikes and side cars. We were questioned through the fence by the Herr Kapitain, but we gave them Western cigarettes we had brought for the purpose of placating the locals, and offered to exchange their East Marks for our West Marks - the exchange rate was 1-26, we would be very rich men, but we traded for 1-6 and everyone was happy. The soldiers traded everything they had, and we touched the palms of hands against the wire mesh.
Several days later everything kicked-off, in Berlin. I was one of the first on the Wall in those historic times. Pierre said: 'Come on! Let's go to the Reichstag, they are knocking a hole in the Wall. We got there and looked through the narrow hole, big enough for a man to squeeze through - we stared into No-Man's-Land, then we saw it - a machine gun tower. Don't ask me what entered my mind (yes, you know what's coming), but I got through the hole and Pierre followed, and we ran across No-Man's-Land and 'took' the empty machine gun tower with it's tripod waiting for it's removable gun. We looked back to see tens upon tens of thousands on the Wall as far as the eye could see - thousands were cheering for us, and all lit up with the bright floodlights in the evening darkness. It is a strange thing to hear a crowd fall silent, but it did, and it sent a chill up my spine, followed by another chill as we saw the headlights of the military vehicles coming in both directions towards us at speed. They surround the tower and pointed their machine guns at us and asked us, ever so politely to descend to join them. We were pressed against tower. I will never forget the barrell of that gun in my back and the one just under my ear making my jaw ache.
I thought that was it, time's up. Goodbye cruel world.
Then a voice (in German of course): 'Stop, I know these people.' The guns came down and we turned to see the Herr Kaptain we met all those miles away all those days ago. He looks at us and said: 'Yesterday we shoot you. Today we have no orders - Run, my friends, run like hell!'
And we did run - it was silent all around. Tens of thousands on the Wall without a sound - then one, then two, then more shouting 'Come, on, Come, on!' as we got closer to that hole by the Reichstag. And closer still: 'Come on! you can make it!' And when we got there the crowd erupted in cheers and there was much throwing up of arms and embracing people I'd never met before - and then the voice of the man who said: 'You are very brave to run through a minefield like that'
What? A minefield - ah! yes, in our excitement not only had we risked being shot, but we'd run past the Achtung Minen sign...Hmmmm!
Happy days! Happy days!
Anlaf
Anlaf
Back in 1989 there was a little fuss in Berlin. I went there with a Belgium doctor friend of mine, Pierre (the mad Belgian doctor, of course). I took my British car and with visas went into East Berlin. The world changed from Technicolour to Black and White and smelt o ftwo-stoke fuel. We drove where no westerner was permitted - miles out into the country. We came to a small town and the chilling vision of high mesh fences trailing off into the distance. This was the border. We stood there for a while asking each other will they really take down the Wall, when up comes a patrol of soldiers in their eye-catching dull green uniforms, with their machine guns, trucks, motorbikes and side cars. We were questioned through the fence by the Herr Kapitain, but we gave them Western cigarettes we had brought for the purpose of placating the locals, and offered to exchange their East Marks for our West Marks - the exchange rate was 1-26, we would be very rich men, but we traded for 1-6 and everyone was happy. The soldiers traded everything they had, and we touched the palms of hands against the wire mesh.
Several days later everything kicked-off, in Berlin. I was one of the first on the Wall in those historic times. Pierre said: 'Come on! Let's go to the Reichstag, they are knocking a hole in the Wall. We got there and looked through the narrow hole, big enough for a man to squeeze through - we stared into No-Man's-Land, then we saw it - a machine gun tower. Don't ask me what entered my mind (yes, you know what's coming), but I got through the hole and Pierre followed, and we ran across No-Man's-Land and 'took' the empty machine gun tower with it's tripod waiting for it's removable gun. We looked back to see tens upon tens of thousands on the Wall as far as the eye could see - thousands were cheering for us, and all lit up with the bright floodlights in the evening darkness. It is a strange thing to hear a crowd fall silent, but it did, and it sent a chill up my spine, followed by another chill as we saw the headlights of the military vehicles coming in both directions towards us at speed. They surround the tower and pointed their machine guns at us and asked us, ever so politely to descend to join them. We were pressed against tower. I will never forget the barrell of that gun in my back and the one just under my ear making my jaw ache.
I thought that was it, time's up. Goodbye cruel world.
Then a voice (in German of course): 'Stop, I know these people.' The guns came down and we turned to see the Herr Kaptain we met all those miles away all those days ago. He looks at us and said: 'Yesterday we shoot you. Today we have no orders - Run, my friends, run like hell!'
And we did run - it was silent all around. Tens of thousands on the Wall without a sound - then one, then two, then more shouting 'Come, on, Come, on!' as we got closer to that hole by the Reichstag. And closer still: 'Come on! you can make it!' And when we got there the crowd erupted in cheers and there was much throwing up of arms and embracing people I'd never met before - and then the voice of the man who said: 'You are very brave to run through a minefield like that'
What? A minefield - ah! yes, in our excitement not only had we risked being shot, but we'd run past the Achtung Minen sign...Hmmmm!
Happy days! Happy days!
Anlaf
Anlaf
