Dear Reader,
The last week of my holidays I would have to forge out alone as Rach had headed back to school. She has already described her Dublin adventure and so my choice was to go off to Berlin. Armed only with my 'Lonely Planet' guide from the school library (which I wish I had now to check my spelling of place names) I landed at Berlin's Schonfeld airport on a beautiful spring day. I caught the nearby train into Zoo station and began my adventure. I have picked my favourite photo's and put some information with each below. I apologise in advance that the ones with me in them always look the same, I can only shoot the camera on the right angle with my right hand. Anyway...this is my adventure....
THE PERFECT DAY TO ARRIVE IN BERLIN
CENTRE OF FORMER WEST BERLIN
They call it the broken tooth. A reminder of the effects of war it was kept after the bombings and is right in the middle of former West Berlin. The buildings on either side are part of the new church.
INSIDE THE CHURCH BUILT ON THE SIDE
Although the buildings look strange and out of place from the outside they are wonderfully pieceful inside.
CHECKPOINT CHARLIE (ONE OF FOUR FORMER BORDER CROSSINGS FROM EAST TO WEST)
Not much to say here really except that I am standing in the former death strip. There was a sign up that said "You are now leaving the American sector", it also had the same thing written in German and Russian underneath. I got a tacky tourist T-shirt with it printed on.
THE WALL (IRONICALLY THERE IS NOW A FENCE TO PROTECT THE WALL FROM TOURISTS TRYING TO 'SOUVENIER' A PIECE.) There isn't much of the wall left in central Berlin although there is apparently some a bit outside the city. The wall was 150 klm long when they tore it down but they used a lot of it as road base.
GOLDFINGER
The wall used to run directly in front of this building. It was built on the West side after the wall went up. The owner built it as a statement to the world that berlin would not give up. The locals call it Goldfinger.
ALEXANDER PLATZ (THE T.V TOWER)
The centre of the former East Berlin. It aint sexy but it does the job and makes for a good view. The elevator gets you from the bottom to the top in something like 14 seconds. Your ears pop the whole way up.
VIEW FROM THE TOP (200 METRES UP)
The two buildings that you can see below are coming up. Can you see the park space and in front is a 'golden' building.
BEN AT THE BERLINER DOM (THE PROTESTANT CATHEDRAL BUILT IN 1905)
FORMER EAST GERMAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING
The bridge I am standing on is one of hundreds. There are more bridges in Berlin than in Venice (so I was told by the prerecorded tourist bus audio guide). Berlin is built on a marsh. The Berliner Dom is just to the left but the big ugly building to the right is the most interesting. It was the former HQ of the East Berlin government. It was built after the war. The Prussian royal palace was there but they decided to knock that down and build the lovely square office block you see today. Now I ask you, can you have a successful political system with such ugly architecture? Apparently history speaks for itself on that one. The problem now is that the building has asbestos and furthermore the government is broke so they can't afford to demolish it and they cant use it for much. Apparently it has been used for some concerts (I was proudly told by the guide that David Hasselhof of 'Baywatch' fame had played there, apparently they love him) and that an artist had used it as well. They had flooded the whole building and hug art on the walls and you could hire a canoe and row around for a small fee.
BRANDENBURG GATE
ME AT THE REICHSTAG
The current German government building, its fantastic in real life. Impressive in every way. Apparently the building had a lot to do with the rise of the Nazi party because it was burned down in the 1930's and the Nazi's blamed the communists. They were able to bring in special legislation that aloud them to round up their political opponents on suspicion of being traitors.
THE BIGGEST DEPARTMENT STORE ON THE CONTINENT (HARRODS IS BIGGER BUT NOT AS IMPRESSIVE INSIDE)
ENTERANCE TO CONCENTRATION CAMP NEAR ORAINENBURG
I went on a tour of a concentration camp on the second day. The weather turned nasty which was suitable for the topic.
THE GATE: "WORK WILL SET YOU FREE"
Depended what you meant by free I suppose....free of this world?
TESTING GROUND
One of the 'jobs' for the prisoners was for them to put on heavy backpacks full of sand and jog 20 miles a day with army boots of different sizes on too test the strength and durability of the boots. Different surfaces were laid out that represented the different types of surfaces the German army could face while away at the front.
THE NEUTRAL ZONE
An ironic title that meant if you were seen in this space then you could be shot.
EAST GERMAN WAR MEMORIAL
The former East German government created this war memorial. The red triangles were one of many different symbols that the prisoners wore on their uniforms to identify them. The homosexual symbol was a pick triangle, which the gay rights movement has apparently appropriated along with the rainbow. The memorial only has red triangles, this was for prisoners who were communists.
The scarist thing about the whole concentration camp experience was learning that Israel's president had come to the concentration camp in 1992 to see the concentration camp and the next day Nazi's burned down two of the old bunk houses on the site. I cannot believe that in 1992 and still now there are Nazi's out there??? Is that crazy or what?
I dont think that I have done any justice to the sadness of this place. Thousands of people were worked to death here and gased. If you haven't been to a concentration camp before then its difficult to describe but I guess I was glad that I went and saw it and glad that others would see it because it is a constant reminder of the devil inside of man.
THE GHOST STATION
Even though the picture is a little fuzzy I had too include it because of the story. Hitler opened this station, Unter Den Linden, its an underground station. When the wall was put up it literally cut the city in half. They called this station the Ghost station because people on the east side could feel the trains under their feet (the underground is not far underground and I felt the trains several times while I was there) but there was no station because the East German government covered the station up and removed the signs. While this station was on the east side the stations to either side of it were on the west so the West German government paid to gain access to the track. People from West germany on the underground would have their train go slowly past but not stop at this station which had east german guards patrolling it and then they would continue on to the next stop.
THE INFAMOUS BALCONY
This would be a largly unimportant and forgettable hotel near the Brandenburg gate if Michael Jackson had not held a baby out over a balcony here.
HITLER'S BUNKER
This would be a largly unimportant and forgettable sidewalk if Hitler had not built his private bunker beneath it...well that's what the guide told us. There was another guide there showing their people the same site. They have left it covered up because they don't want it to become a shrine for the Nazi's.
THE WALKING MAN
The symbols on the East German and West German sides for walking and stop are different, you can buy t-shirts with this guy on them...communist symbols are so in these days. Apparently he is supposed to be marching or something. Is it just me or does he look a bit rude to you??
THE FORMER WALL
This brick line is all over the city and shows where the wall used to be. See how close it was to the Brandenburg Gate, which is one of their most important icons. It was the gate that the Prussian royalty always used to leave the city.
THE GATES OF ISTAR - PERGAMON MUSEUM
The fantastic Pergamon museum rivals the British museum in terms of stuff they have ripped off from other places and reassembled in huge rooms that are far too white for any normal person.
GREEK OR ROMAN TEMPLE
This famous temple that I forget the name of was a great place to rest since they didn't really have enough seats in the museum. Seriously though...very impressive.
THE NEUIS PALACE OF THE PRUSSIAN ROYALTY - POTSDAM
200 rooms. Inside they did not allow photography but let me just say that these guys really were not into minimalism. Notice the orange coloured bricks.
RENOVATION RESCUE
I know that I may have said this before but now I am convinced that the current fashion of brick rendering houses and putting in garden with ridiculous water features is unlikely to be a long term fashion winner. This building is over 100 metres long and four stories. They plaster rendered it but apparently that wasn't the style at the time so they got some poor guy to paint on fake bricks...it did have a big water feature in the garden though.
THE REJUVINATION AROUND POTSDAMER PLATZ AND THE MUSEUM AREA
Everywhere in berlin there is some type of building going on...this whole area has been built in the last 15 years and the quality of building is better than I have seen anywhere (and although I haven't been to lots of places my 'anywhere' is increasing daily.), its certainly better than the rubbish they are building in London.
THE SONY CENTRE AND POTSDAMER PLATZ
It hard to describe this building but it is the most impressive modern building that I have ever seen and gave me a new appreciation for the modern architect.
So that was my Berlin trip. Four days and a lot of sight seeing but I am so glad that I went. If London is a homage to the past then in every respect Berlin is a homage to the future. It has some of the best modern architecture that I have ever seen and in every respect it is a fantastic city. Coming back to dreary old London was truly depressing.
Long live Berlin.
Ben
