Beautiful Buzzing Berlin !! April 30 - May 5 2015

 

 

Berlin!  City that has wonderfully survived its past!  Mixture of cultures and inhabitants from all over the world.  Great city to visit again and again and again.

We spent a wonderful long weekend in Berlin in April 2015.  Cycled the streets, visited amazing spots and became adicted to the vibrant culture and great architecture.

 

What the city of Berlin is all about......

 

Brandenburg Tor .... 

 

The Wall or what was left behind not to forget...

 

 

 And walls which turned out to be just a wall and not THE wall...

 

 

The river Spree and beautiful old buildings with verdigris domes .......

What used to be The East ...

 

Little green men ....

And that ever present bear!

Where we went (click on the links below for more photos):

Friday May 1:  Potsdamer Platz, Gedenkstãtte Deutscher Widerstand,   Mauer Panorama, Topographie des Terrors,  Checkpoint Charlie,  Gendarmenmarkt

Saturday 2 May 2015:  Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburger Tor, Boat ride on the River Spree, Museumsinsel,  DDR Museum

Sunday 3 May 2015:  Gedenkstãtte Berliner Mauer, Tiergarten, Mauerpark, Reichstag

Sunday 3 May 2015:  Eastside Gallery

Monday 4 May 2015:  Stasi prison, Stasi Museum,  Karl-Marc Allee,  Fernsehturm

Tuesday 5 May 2015:  Schlosss Charlottenburg, City West, Schonenburg

Potsdamer Platz, Gedenkstãtte Deutscher Widerstand, Mauer Panorama, Topographie des Terrors, Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt

 

 Potsdamer Platz

The new glass-and-steel Sony Center with a tent-like roof.

Potsdamer Platz, rebuilt after having been split in two by The Wall for many years.

Gedenkstãtte Deutscher Widerstand

The Bendlerblock building where the ill-fated assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944 had been planned.

Mauer Panorama

Art work by Yadegar Asisi  -  photographic panorama 15 X 60 meter  -  impression of the death strip and everyday life along the wall back in the 1980's

Topographie des Terrors

 

Topograhpy of terror - an indoor and outdoor museum on the the site of Nazi buildings during the Nazi regime - like the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS.

 

Colourful Trabants outside the Trabi Museum.

Taking a break  -  curry wurst and beer!

Checkpoint Charlie

What used to be the best-known border crossing between East and West Berlin.    (Today just very very irritatingly touristy!)

 

Gendarmenmarkt 

Beautiful cobblestone square surrounded by the Konzerthaus and the French and German Cathedrals.

  

 

NEXT:   Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburger Tor, Bootrit op Spree, Museumsinsel, DDR Museum 

 

 

Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburger Tor, Bootrit op Spree, Museumsinsel, DDR Museum

 

Holocaust Memorial

 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe  -  2711 concrete slabs and an underground museum of stories and pictures of the ever so innocent victims.  Touching stories of families of which only some have survived, of letters written by desperate and helpless Jews, already knowing their fate -  like the 11 year old girl who starts her plea with  'I so want to live, but they won't let me' -  a young girl who has already witnessed babies begin killed in the arms of their mothers, eventually ending up on the same lifeless pile....  which is to become her last resting place too.

All too inhuman to be true.

 

Brandenburger Tor

 

The Brandeburg Gate was built on the site of what used to be the City Gate, at the start of the road from Berlin to Brandenburg an der Havel.

 

Boat ride on the Spree river

 

 

 

Museumsinsel

Museum Island in the river Spree location of 5 of Berlin's best museums.

DDR Museum 

 Located in East Berlin and displaying everyday life in the days of the DDR Deutsche Demokratische Republik.   Very very retro!

 

NEXT:  Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer, Tiergarten, Mauerpark, Reichstag 

 

Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer, Tiergarten, Mauerpark, Reichstag

Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer

Commemorating those who died trying to flea to West Germany.

What the death strip used to look like

Tiergarten

 Tiergarten park in the middle of Berlin

 

Mauerpark on a sunny Sunday

 

Lucky!  Just caught South African  Alice Phoebe Lou  performing before we left Mauerpark!

 

Reichstag

 

Home to the German Parliament.  A building which has survived fire, bombing and rebuilding.

 

 

NEXT:  Eastside Gallery