Berlin - Singular Scene

Berlin has been the first city I explored on my own and it’s been an interesting experience. I chose to stay in Friedrichshain slightly out of the centre of town, and in the former Eastern part of Berlin. There’s a lot about the area that felt like Newtown in Sydney, very diverse, a little bit scrappy but it was easy to find my way around from.

I walked. Everywhere. From the first evening when I walked down to the river to check out the Oberbaum Bridge (enlarge the photo for the questionable art installation/performance in front of it) and the East Side Gallery to a 4 hour walking tour of Berlin’s highlights I ended the day footsore and happy to have seen as much as I did in so short a time.

It’s a city with a long and fascinating history.

And questionable weather as you can see from the pics.

The East German Ampelmännchen (traffic light men)

Oberbaum Bridge it links Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, former boroughs that were divided by the Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery

View from the train

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)

Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) Museum Island, Berlin

Gardens at Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) Museum Island, Berlin

Rebuilding a replica of City Palace, Berlin

Dome of the Neue Synagoge

Fernsehturm de Berlín

Neue Wache (translation New Guardhouse) a memorial to all victims of war and tyrrany

After German reunification, the Neue Wache was again rededicated in 1993, as the “Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Dictatorship.” At the personal suggestion of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the GDR memorial piece was removed and replaced by an enlarged version of Käthe Kollwitz’s sculpture Mother with her Dead Son. The pietà-style sculpture is directly placed under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolizing the suffering of civilians during World War II.