My wife and I got lucky that day in finding access to the famous Villa Woodstock, and after we were finished there, we decided to drive further south to the former capital of Germany.
I had heard that a lot of the embassies that were moved to Berlin soon after the German reunification still are abandoned today. And to be able to check out the embassy of an abandoned state - in this particular case the embassy of an Eastern Block state that does not exist anymore today- seemed quite unique to us.
If you've ever been to an embassy, you know that they are usually placed in a rather luxurious neighborhoods, which in this case really didn't make things easy.
This embsaay was literally a sitting duck in terms of accessibility. Right in the middle of the most luxurious quarter of the city, between some really nice houses and opposite the offices of a large company, this was a tough one to decide if we should risk trying to get in.
We voted "Yes".
It was Sunday, so there were a lot of people walking around, and we really did have a hard time to find the appropriate moment with no cars or people nearby and no one looking out of the windows next door.
We jumped the fence and ran around the building, halfway across then lawn towards the embassy's underground car park, spotted a broken window right next to the garage door and took a leap through the torn window screen. We were in.
Obviously, the basement had been flooded during a recent high tide of the Rhine, so we tiptoed through the puddles towards the stairs and were rewarded with the sight of a completely unvandalized location.
Relics from decades of diplomatic cold war were lying around, files about the embassy's employees - and there was even a bug-proof room in the top floor.
A great place that really was worth the trip!
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