20 years ago - and 5 hours now - the Berlin Wall opened. I would have been in school at the time. I remember watching CNN Headline News breathlessly for the weeks before, first with the opening of the borders in Hungary. The East German regime cut off travel permits to Hungary, and then Czechoslovakia opened their borders. And then the 9th came, and their were men standing atop The Wall, celebrating.
Walking about this town, you step over the double row of bricks that mark where the wall once stood daily.
Today, it's a beautiful walk from Under the Lindens street through the Brandenburg Gate to where the street changes names to The 17th of June. Twenty years and a few months ago, this would have been a sprint, a jump, a scramble, the sniper's answer, a fall, an ambulance that doesn't arrive.
It's a thought that stops me every few days, as I step into peaceful Tiergarten, or notice that I've just crossed that double row of bricks.
I went with my housemate to a stand where once the wall did. Cars turned aside. For three minutes West Berlin was ringed again. Once again, the wall dissolved, and we smiled at each other before stepping away.
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I'd have liked to have shared that moment in Berlin, with you, and everyone else there. I'm sure it would have brought tears to my eyes.