When MG met Frank…in Berlin

Ultra Secret New Project features a key sequence which takes place in a French town shown in this blog post.

But at the end of summer, my travels took me back to Europe, this time to Berlin. I walked the streets where the final scenes of the novel will be set, plotted a course for the Big Chase, and had a good look at the (secret) location of  the novel’s climax.

My first time there, imagine! All those years visiting Germany, I never visited Berlin. I rather regret not visiting before 1989 now, or soon after. The city has utterly transformed since then. In my lifetime few major cities have changed quite to much. I’d quite like to have seen it before.

I’d like a chance to have a bit of Osstalgie (newish German word meaning nostalgia for the good-old-days of the DDR, when they were properly Communist and austere.).

But no Goodbye Lenin for me and my good pal and long-time travelling buddy, Rebecca. We sampled the delights of Europe’s coolest capital city: cafe life (Kaffee und Kuchen, Berlin cuisine, the best Mexican tacos I’ve eaten outside Mexico) cultural life (museums and a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in the Marienkirche of Alexanderplatz).

Not neglecting, of course, Cuban salsa! Where else but Berlin’s fabulous Havanna nightclub. One of the best salsa nights I’ve been to In The World! Lots of cute guys to dance with…

Another great pleasure was that I finally met the wonderful German translator of Joshua Files, Frank Boehmert! Here is Frank’s own version (auf Deutsch) of the event, featuring the same photo taken by my pal Becs.

So here’s some of Berlin’s new architecture. I’m standing in front of a glass wall on which is etched the German consitution.

Das ist Extrem Cool.