The last time I came back from Berlin was on a DDR train at night, and around Easter Thursday 1983. The border control was somewhere on the edge of Bavaria and quite frightening, with dogs outside and Police in the carriage holding up my GB passport and shouting "Look at me !" (in German of course)

I was travelling first class as all the second class places were reserved and taken, it being Easter many were trying to leave on holiday. The toilets were disgusting and the carriage was about 30 years old. However the second class was quite clean and comfortable. I suppose this was the only way the DDR railway workers could get some revenge on their communist masters!