We went to a very nice restaurant in East Berlin Steve. Each item on the menu was around 90 East marks, and I worried about the bill. But we paid with West marks and it was only about 20 marks total for the whole bunch. I was worried too because Walt Blankenstein was smuggling in plans of one of John Yale's hydros and a calculator to convert from inches in to millimeters. Dieter had me taking in a box of chocolates and if they asked what I was doing with them, I was to tell the guards I was planning to eat the whole box while visiting East Berlin. Walt and I had to go and come back out through Checkpoint Charlie, while Dieter had to come and go through a different crossing because he was a German living in West Berlin. I went to East Berlin the next day by myself to visit someone I had met the night before. I borrowed Flo's little American car. It was a Ford, but I can't remember the model, although it was a compact. And it had a sticky throttle. When stopped you had to push harder and harder on the accelerator for it to rev up, then sometimes it would jump and go RRRRRRRrrrrrrrr very loud. Walt and I walked through the checkpoint the day before and Dieter picked us up on the other side. This time I was driving out. There were tank traps you had to weave around to prevent anyone from crashing through the barriers. I pulled up, and like you say Steve, the guards leveled machine guns at me while they took my passport to run it through, and they also popped the trunk and had a mirror on wheels they ran underneath the car. When I got my passport back and they raised the pole to let me pass through I was praying hard that I could get Flo's car moving without the throttle jumping and revving the motor up high. My ticket was a lot less than yours Steve and I still have mine too. It was 8 DM for driving the wrong way on one way street. It was only about a 20 meter jog to get across to the road offset on the other side. I would have to circle two blocks to come back around to do it correctly, but I did not see any Politzei cars around. Soon as I crossed the intersection a whistle blew. There was a Politizie on the corner on foot. He asked for my international drivers license, which I did not have one, so I gave him my Texas license. Most everybody around the world knows about Texas, especially Germans who love John Wayne and westerns, so it worked. He gave me the ticket and I paid him on the spot. The border guards are very intimidating. They hold your passport up so the can look at it, then at your face, look at the passport again, then your face again, back and forth for a few minutes to see if they can make you sweat or get nervous. Never saying a word, just a hard grimace on their face and stare with cold mean eyes into yours. I was nervous, but I figured it was better to stare back than try to look away or down because I figured that would look suspicious. Very interesting times. Debbie and I went over to East Berlin on a tour bus during our "honigmonde" and it was much easier. Tour bus tourists don't get the scrutiny like you and I did. I'm glad now that I did it because you get a true sense of what it must be like for the people to live in a police state.