Not long after the Soviets erected the Berlin Wall, Ken filed the necessary paperwork to drive to the American sector. We had to arrive at the city's border by a certain time. "Otherwise, the East German polizei will come after us," he explained.
The Berlin bear, still there today, greeted us on a nearly empty autobahn.
Of course Ken wanted to get as close as possible to the wall even though American soldiers with machine guns patrolled its length in Jeeps.
East German children gazed through the barbed wire.
West Germans memorialized those who were killed trying to escape the German Democratic Republic.
The Brandenburg Gate, which somehow survived Allied bombing during World War II, lay just behind the Wall.
Ken put me on his shoulders at Potsdamer Platz, now a glittering commercial center, to get a better view.
Rabbits hopped in the wasteland beyond.
