Berlin's a strange place. It's modern and hip, walking forward with its chin held high, a slightly arrogant smirk on its face. Buildings of glass and steel are next to apartment blocks still baring the scars of war. It's difficult to believe but those pock marks really are bullet holes. Take a walk around the Tiergarten and you'll find statues with heads and arms that were blown off.

I remember when I first arrived in Berlin, I was wandering around, seeing the usual sights. Of course, as I often do when I'm in a new city, I got lost choosing streets at random while trying to navigate my way around mitte. Suddenly, I found myself standing in front of an enormous concrete bunker. This one is on Reinhold Strasse near the Charite hospital. There it was, just sitting there, huge, heavy and grey. At the back, there was a door and above it a faded red cross. I tried the door but it was locked, or rusted shut.

I couldn't believe it. The war was over half a century ago and here, on prized real estate, was a bunker, a relic from the times when Berlin was bombed almost every evening. More amazing was that people were just walking straight past it like it was an ordinary part of the cityscape.

At the tourist office, I asked about the bunker and was directed to Berliner Unterwelten who run tours of a network of bunkers in the suburb of Wedding. (See http://berliner-unterwelten.de/013/.../content.htm for the full story I wrote about the experience.)

The tour is fascinating and now goes into the Flak Tower at Humbolthain. The guide told me about other bunkers in Berlin: at Palais Strasse in Schöneberg, Anhalter Bahnhof (now a horror house), and Alexanderplatz to name a few of the hundred still standing.

These days, I live in Hamburg, I have so far seen seven full sized bunkers in this city. I've also seen bunkers in Germany's other major cities. It is a rather staggering experience seeing these monoliths; such a stark reminder of how it must have been for civillians.