My first, but definitely not my last, walk with Empor Berlin, very pleasant and informative. Led by Eckehard Fritz Heiber.

But I have to say this: I was once again shocked to hear so many Germans my age plus/minus ten years say how they no longer like to live in Berlin because of “all those foreigners who have more rights than them”. (I hasten to add that I am quite sure they are not referring to the likes of, for example, me). I usually just keep my mouth shut, and sometimes walk away, but one of these days I will have to ask them exactly what rights it is that they would like to have but feel they do not have.

I find this kind of attitude from people from one of the most priviledged parts of of the world really hard to stomach. I do admit that they did not have as easy a start in life as I did, and they have some demons which I do not have, but like me, they grew up in a spirit of optimism and progress, and have had all the civil, human and political rights served to them on a silver platter. We in northern Europe, now in our sixties and seventies, have probably lived through the best times, and in the best part of the world, which this planet has ever, and will ever see again.

We cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to be forced to leave everything behind and migrate (like so many have done all the way up through history and they are not responsible for any – none – of the problems plaguing the planet and world today), because we have never come even close to having to make that decision (except totally voluntarily and for completely different reasons than today’s asylum seekers) – I certainly know I can’t – so to whine that they have more rights than we do is petty, ignorant, callous, heartless, and – well, actually, words fail me, and the kind of attitude I used to meet from some people in Denmark, but I thought Berlin was better than that.

Incidentally, it was the same people who insisted on calling today’s Christopher Street Day celebrations a demo and not a parade (as in: an inconvenience, and there ought to be a law against it, rather than an event which several hundreds thousand people attend and enjoy). Sigh.

So with that off my chest, here is the route on MapMyWalk, and below are some photos from the walk. Bonus tip: Right at the end of the line of bus M45 (which can be taken from Bahnhof Zoo, U Ruhleben, and Bhf Rathaus Spandau) there is a restaurant – Heidis Landgasthaus – with a nice garden. Needless to say, I stopped there for a coffee before taking the bus back towards Bhf Rathaus Spandau.

(Many jokes were made about the “lioness on the loose in Kleinmachnow”).