For the month of October I will be traveling as a guest of the German Tourist Board gathering stories that come my way in Munich, Stuttgart, Heidelberg [pic below], Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Berlin. One story will be with Michael Lohaus, the head of the Gay Games, which will take place in 2010, and a physician in Berlin who is on the cutting edge of the AIDS epidemic.
Fortunately, I will be in Berlin for the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall. Unbelievable to think that it has been that long . . .
ONE MONTH BEFORE THE WALL FELL I was in Berlin, staying at The Grand Hotel on the East Side, feet away from the Brandenburg Gate. Little did I know when I returned to LA, that the cement would crumble into a gillion pieces!
While there in Berlin in 1989, I met a fascinating guy, Normie, in a Dance Club who was raised under Communist rule. I befriended him and, luckily, he drove us around the East taking us to his home in Caputh, where his family owned The Ferry House Restaurant located on a lake where ferry boats crossed. He also showed us Einstein’s summer home in Caputh and drove us nearby to Potsdam at the Cecilienhof Manor [former home of Crown Prince William and his wife, Cecile] where the WW2 conference was held with Churchill, Truman, and Stalin.
We also got to tour Schloss [Palace] Sans Souci, the summer residence of Frederick The Great in the 18th Century. It’s rumored that amidst his lavishly vast tree-populated landscape that he would have naked parties with boys and play hide and seek. Hmmm, I wonder if I hadn't been there in a former life!
It’s nice to report that Normie and I are still friends and that we'll partake in the "Fall of the Wall" anniversary festivities together.
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