Back to the U-bahn.  Looks like we’ll carry on visiting Berlin, as Ruth went for an interview at the immigration department in Berlin and to her great surprise came out with a permanent resident’s visa.  So she’s B**x** proof for a while, and doesn’t have to apply for German citizenship.

The area around the Warschauer Str. terminus is of both railway and historic interest.  Behind the station itself is this small maintenance shed, and a large carriage shed.  I don’t think Lidl are now operating trains!  Although I didn’t see any trains enter the shed, I suspect the trains are on the elevated level and there is a Lidl store underneath.  At least, I hope so…..

Leaving the terminus, the train crosses the River Spree by the Oberbaum bridge.  This was a Cold War crossing point from east to west, and trains were unable to cross the river to the Warschauer Str. terminus.  Old aerial photographs show all the tracks lifted.  But with reunification, the terminus came back into use.  The 3 photos below are taken from where the Berlin Wall and crossing point would have been. The longest remaining section of wall, decorated with murals lies behind me as I took the photos.

After crossing the bridge the line curves away to the right.  This location is very model-like, and would make a fine scene for a model railway.  The second shot comes from Wikipedia, I’m afraid, as we didn’t manage a boat trip on the Spree (Ruth was worried that they would be full of Barcelona and Juventus supporters – not a nice thought in a confined space), and this is such a good shot of the attractive bridge structure.

The next station along the line, Schlesisches Tor, is a fine piece of railway architecture (as is the next station along).  Many of the other stations along the line are simple train sheds, perhaps indicating war-time bomb damage.

To close out our Berlin adventures here’s a video of the U-Bahn, an alternative form of transport of the Spree (I love float planes, but you wouldn’t catch me on anything smaller than a Sunderland), and the family at the amazingly OTT Russian war memorial at Trepnow Park.