In reply to Ridge:
> There's nothing uniquely British about that sort of behaviour. When I visited the memorial to the murdered jews of Europe in Berlin there were all ages and nationalities running around yelling, jumping between slabs or using them as picnic tables or to change nappies.
> Treat the whole experience as a lesson in the stupidity and thoughtlessness of the human race.
I work in Berlin a lot and pass that in the taxi to the office and its full of selfie-takers clambering on the blocks. However one side of me thinks the whole point of it being an open public space, and not something roped off in a museum means that its going to become part of life with people having picnics etc. However different people react in different ways. I don't think I've ever been as emotionally affected by a museum than when I went round a holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London.
Lots of poignant things about Berlin are fairly mundane until you notice them. Lots of parts of the wall are not obvious until you notice a long straight piece of parkland etc. We did a bike tour of the old wall and it was quite eye opening.
A few things that stuck with me was the house still pockmarked with bullet holes as the conscript germans desparately tried to hold off the advancing Red Army.
Small metal plaques dotted around with the details of deported Jews.
The famous buildings like the Reichstag and the opera house look really dirty from pollution but its actually ingrained soot from the raging fires from Allied bombing. It's impossible to remove because its permeated right into the stone.