This is to provide comparison to those Kossacks of us who haven't seen something like this
So, I'm in Berlin minding my own business on a gorgeous day. I walk from Klosterkirche to Palast der Republik and notice something odd. Traffic being re-routed on the streets, and cops standing around in full riot gear.
A week ago there had been a Kurdish demonstration along Unter den Linden so I thought maybe it was something along those lines.
I continue my walk down Unter den Linden and continued to see the police presence. Once I got to the Staatsoper, my questions were mostly answered. The square (famous for, among other things, the Nazi book burning) was PACKED with very official looking cars with little flags.
Here's the link, since for whatever reason scoop didn't like me embedding this one.
As the video shows, we could just walk by, take pictures, etc. Hell, the cops were doing the same, since when's the last time any of them had done something like this.
Surely, though, they wouldn't want anyone around when Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac made their departures? Not so.
Again, here's the link.
Later this same day, and previously mentioned here, I was walking past the British Embassy, basically stuck in the Europafest crowd when Angela Merkel and her really tiny security detatchment (at least the ones you could see) walked like 10-15 feet from where I was standing. I tried to get a picture, but my POS camera decided to die at that moment, probably because I took these movies.
The point of this diary, if it really has one, is to show just how different things can be in Europe compared to the U.S., especially since many if not most of us haven't had the opportunity to view this same scenario with President Bush without lying about your political affiliation.