Then and now

Berlin has a population 3.4 million, about 175 museums, 150 theaters, eight symphony orchestras and three opera houses. It has sidewalk cafes, beer gardens, open-air restaurants, the restored Berlin Cathedral, many of the 120 embassies and the Kurfürstendamm, the city's most luxurious shopping district.

Hard to believe that 20 years ago the East German Stazi were torturing their own people for trying to flee to West Germany. The East German police had orders to shoot to kill if anyone tried to escape to the west. In fact, 136 people died at the wall. When the wall went up, people jumped out of windows in an attempt to get across the newly built wall.

In the years since the fall of the wall, the German capital has become one of Europe's hippest cities, with culture and clubs galore. The former East Berlin, especially, is hopping, with pubs, cafes and a pulsing night life.

I guess this dichotomy is one reason the city is so fascinating. "Walking down Unter den Linden, you experience several hundred years of history," say tourists of Berlin's grand boulevard that leads under the Brandenburg Gate. "Princes and princesses rode down the street. Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin, you just imagine different periods of time and realize they all played out on the same street."