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Surreal...indeed. August of 1968 I was on an Air France flight, Paris to Tegel in West Berlin. Clear summer day, on the approach the view from the air was as you said, surreal. Height of summer every was green in the West, red tile roofs dominated the landscape, even flowered window boxes could be seen...and then the view into the East became apparent. The demarcation line couldn’t be more clear. It was as if the entire East portion was covered in ash, fully gray without any color, a dead city. Can’t recall seeing specific bombed out ruins, just endless gray. Five days later the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia.

Not long after the Wall came down I was doing "extra duty" - driving a bus. Russian linguists weren't in high demand at that point so I earned a few attaboys by getting my license to drive a 53pax bus.

On my first excursion out of Berlin heading to Munich, I noticed trees were bare. Like acid rain bare. Totally different from West Berlin or West Germany. East Germany had NO LEAVES!!

I love it when the Democrat Leftists lecture us on being "green" when in reality the Communists were the worst polluters of all!