Berlin Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin

The first time I saw Checkpoint Charlie, West Berlin was surrounded by the wall. All along the wall were crosses indicating were people was died trying to escape to the west. Seeing the museum, just made the whole experience of crossing into East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie even more emotional. As I crossed back into West Berlin, I really understood why so many had died trying to escape. And it gave the success stories a bigger impact. I realize that since the wall has come down, most tourist have great difficulty understanding the significance of checkpoint Charlie and the museum. But I found nothing redundant or boring about it. And I will be taking my kids to see it in the spring.

Worth a visit if you're in the area for the image of the actual checkpoint and the facsimile sign (the real one is in the museum). The museum is, if anything, too comprehensive, often repetitive, and it appears that some of it hasn't been updated since the Wall came down. I wouldn't recommend skipping it if you're in the area, but it would be greatly improved by some skillful curation.

We saw Checkpoint Charlie in 1994, and at that point it had not yet been made into a museum, so we could imagine crossing the bridge as it was. I hope it's still the same and not "built up" - we were humbled by the image in its true state. There were still large pieces of the wall lying around, as if it had just been torn down.