Berlin, Germany - Part 3

Sunday

On Sunday we had to get going early as we wanted to go to the Reichstag, the German parliament building. We had heard during our walking tour that there is always a long queue to get inside the Reichstag and that the best times to go are early morning or late at night. Unfortunately it was a wet and gloomy day in Berlin, which didn't make queuing outdoors very pleasant. We arrived around 9am and queued for almost an hour, which wasn't too bad really.

The Reichstag building was constructed to house the Reichstag, the first parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire supposedly set by a Dutch communist, who was later beheaded for the crime. That verdict has been a subject of controversy over the years, with many believing that the Nazi party set the fire themselves and used it as its reason for beginning a purge of "traitors" in Berlin and for banning the German Communist Party. The building, having never been fully repaired since the fire, was further damaged by air raids during World War II.

The building was reconstructed between 1961 and 1964, but until 1990, it was used only for occasional representative meetings and for one-off events such as concerts. The official German reunification ceremony was held at the Reichstag on 3 October 1990 and the building again became the seat of the German parliament in 1999.

The Reichstag has a huge glass dome on top, from which you have 360 degree stunning views of Berlin...except when it is grey, raining and miserable, in which case you cannot see much at all. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from the cupola, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor, meaning that no electricity is used to light the debating hall. More remarkably, the building traps and stores cold air from outside during winter and uses it for air conditioning during the summer months and, likewise, stores warm air during summer to be used for heating during winter.

Although the view at the top was not very good, we enjoyed seeing inside the massive building and checking out the massive mirrored structure that reflects light down into the debating hall (see photo below).

After a hot chocolate at Starbucks to shelter from the weather for a while, we carried on to the Jewish Museum. The Jewish Museum opened its doors in 2001 and its massive permanent collection and exhibitions make it one of the leading museums in Europe. The building itself is an architectural masterpiece. The design has been dubbed "Between the Lines", reflecting the tensions of German and Jewish history. The building consists of two lines, one straight and the other zig-zagged, intersecting with the straight line in several spots, and also creating several voids or empty spaces that cut through the entire museum.

We were very impressed with the quality of the museum, it really is a must-see when in Berlin. The permanent collection covers two millenia of German-Jewish history, split into 13 historical periods. We spent a good two hours there but could have spent a lot longer if our stomachs weren't insisting that we find some lunch. We braved the heavy rain and found a Turkish restaurant where we had an excellent lunch...doner kebabs are O for awesome.

After lunch we were tossing up between a number of museums and art galleries but in the end we decided to stick with the Jewish theme and visit the New Synagogue to fill in the afternoon. While the building was very nice, we were a little disappointed. We had assumed that it was still a working synagogue, but it is actually more like a small museum with some photographs and remnants from when the synagogue was in use. We were charged an entry fee, despite there being not much to see inside, and then we were told that we had to leave our bags at the baggage desk, which we were charged for...even though there did not seem to be any reason for not allowing bags inside. There was plenty of room, not many people and nothing that could be knocked over or broken - just a money maker!

After that we checked out a few shops, including the Ampel Mann shop. In Berlin the little red and green men for pedestrian crossing at the traffic lights are different from the red and green men on traffic lights in the rest of the world. They have little hats and are more animated - the green man looks like he is charging! They have become icons of Berlin and they have stores - the Ampel Mann stores - where you can buy almost anything with little red and green men on them. Megan bought some fridge magnets to add to her growing collection as well as an ice tray that makes ice cubes in the shapes of the red and green men! Very fun.

Our legs were very tired after another day of lots of walking, so we headed back to the hotel for a drink and then back to our favourite street for dinner, trying our fourth different restaurant in the area in four days. It was once again very good and cheap.

Monday

Monday in Berlin dawned a lot brighter and after our final breakfast at Hotel Agon and then dropping our luggage at a central train station, we set off walking through central Berlin once again. We wandered along Unter den linden again before hitting the shops of Friedrichstrasse.

Tim bought himself a souvenir German beer mug with a lid, although the real highlight of the morning was visiting a huge chocolate shop with several massive models of famous Berlin landmarks made entirely of chocolate (see photo below of Megan beside the chocolate Reichstag). They also had a giant chocolate teddy bear and a chocolate volcano that was erupting liquid chocolate!

After a few hours of shops it was time to pick up our luggage and head for the airport. The Berlin trip was pretty huge for milestones - Megan hit the quarter century, while Tim (and Bear) both notched their 20th country visited. The 50 countries club is in sight...

Reichstag
building
















And again

















Inside the
Reichstag














Quality
grafitti
near our
hotel









German
History
Museum...
where we
didn't go









Humboldt
University















Little
Green Man

Souvenir
beer mug
















Chocolate
replica of
Reichstag











Cele-
brating
20th country

Berlin, Germany - Part 2

Saturday

On Saturday morning we took the underground out to the Berlin Zoo, in the west of the city. The day started a little grey, which was good as it probably kept some of the crowds away, but it cleared up later in the morning and was warm and sunny. We were so excited about our visit, as we had heard that the Berlin Zoo is one of the biggest and best zoos in the world. With over 1,400 different species and 14,000 animals the zoo presents the most comprehensive collection of species in the world.

We were keen to see some animals we had never seen before, including the famous polar bears. A new polar bear was born at Berlin Zoo in December 2006 and was named Knut. He has taken on celebrity status in Germany and is the zoo's biggest draw card.

First stop, however, was the lions' den. There were two lionesses and two cubs roaming about the grassy banks when we arrived and we were able to get some great photos (see below) as we were only metres away from them! Inside the "Predator House" we saw a whole range of wild cats. There were two leopards and two very cute cubs, one of which kept jumping all over its mother - mum did not look impressed (apologies for quality of photo of leopard cub; it was the best we could do). We also saw a tiger, a puma and a beautiful black panther. The male lion is kept separate from the other lions (we assume so he doesn't eat the cubs) and we saw him pacing up and down his cage as well. A fine beast.

Next stop was the panda bear enclosure. They have one panda bear, who doesn't seem to mind being on its own. It was happily chewing on some bamboo in the corner when we arrived, but it soon got up and performed for the fans - there was definitely some attention seeking going on! We returned to the panda later in the day for its feeding time. It was given a big chunk of watermelon, some other chopped fruit, more bamboo and a giant pretzel!!!

The apes enclosure was pretty exciting. The chimpanzees were about to be fed when we turned up and one of them was pretty worked up. Someone in the crowd was obviously annoying him and he started jumping up and down and then charged at the glass wall separating the chimps from the crowd of people watching, crashing into it at a fair rate of knots. A couple of people close to the wall got a hell of a fright! We watched the rather aggressive chimps being fed and then we went next door to see the gorillas, who were a lot more chilled out. We had not seen gorillas before - those guys are huge!!!

After a very solid lunch in the zoo cafe, we went in search of the bears. The Berlin Zoo is seriously massive. We did a whole lot of walking and we were knackered by the end of the day! We eventually found the polar bears and we were very impressed. There were four polar bears in the enclosure, not counting Knut, who is kept in a separate space. Three of them were looking pretty lazy but one was pacing back and forth as if on patrol - very amusing. We felt privileged to have seen polar bears up close but we were a little concerned that their enclosure was nothing like their natural habitat. Their enclosure was a big rocky hill, surrounded by murky green water. It appeared there had been no effort to give them a cold area to live in, which was disappointing.

Just next to the polar bears were the brown bears, which were probably our favourite animals! We timed our visit to coincide with their feeding time. One of the bears was obviously hungry, as he was sitting on the edge of the rocks waiting for the zoo-keepers to arrive with the food, occasionally standing on his hind legs to get a better view. When the food eventually arrived, the bears were treated to a few whole fish, lettuce leaves, apples, carrots and some walnuts. We were impressed with their healthy diet! They ate the apples by stomping on them with a front paw to crush them and then eating the pieces off the ground. It kept us amused for a while.

We visited Knut, the baby polar bear, who strangely enough was pacing back and forth just like one of the fully grown bears was doing in the other enclosure. Knut is quite big now but still very playful and seemed to enjoy the attention from the big crowd.

During our visit we also saw wolves, elephants, giraffes, zebras, African wild dogs, orangutans, hippopotami, seals, penguins and about a dozen different types of monkey. We had a great time and would love to go back! Definitely pack your walking shoes though!

After our zoo visit, we had a look at the nearby shopping area on Tauentzienstrasse. The street is packed with shops and it was buzzing with people - Berlin's answer to Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon! In the middle of Tauentzienstrasse is a really nice sculpture, which looks like broken links in a chain that are about to join up...pretty cool whatever it is...see photo below.

The Kaiser William Memorial Church is located in the centre of the Breitscheidplatz, a square at the end of the Tauentzienstrasse. The original church on the site was built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained in its broken state and its ground floor has been made into a memorial hall in honour of the Kaiser William, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling from 1888 to 1918. A new church and a separate belfry with an attached chapel, were built between 1959 and 1963 next to the ruins of the old church.



































Leopard
cub
















Black
panther







































Hippo about
to dive in













Polar bear
on patrol













Knut














Big upper
body...














Brown
bear














Waiting
for lunch















Worth
the wait













Entertaining
Panda



































Sculpture
on Tauent-
zienstrasse















Kaiser
William
memorial
church

Berlin, Germany - Part 1

Fans,

Thursday

After our trip to Luxembourg in June, which was Tim's "secret destination", it was Megan's turn to surprise Tim, which she did by planning a trip to Berlin. We arrived in the German capital around lunchtime on Thursday and we made our way by bus and then underground through the city and to our hotel in the Friedrichshain district. Hotel Agon was solid and very reasonably priced. It is a little way out of the city, but close to the underground station and close to Simon-Dach Strasse, a street with dozens of restaurants, bars and cafes. We would definitely recommend it!

We set off for the city and when we emerged from the underground, we found ourselves in Potsdamer Platz. Before the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, it ran through right through the centre of Berlin, but it was not just a single wall. It was actually two walls with an area in between known as the "death strip". The death strip had watchtowers, dogs and armed guards with orders to shoot to kill anyone trying to escape over the wall. When the wall was torn down, it left a decent sized area right in the heart of Berlin with nothing built on it. Potsdamer Platz now fills that gap.

Potsdamer Platz is a huge public square with an entertainment complex in the centre, with bars and cafes, cinema theatres and an open air market selling art and sculptures. We wandered through the square and stopped off for a photo with a few sections of the Berlin Wall that still stand there as tourist attractions.

Further along the road we came to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a controversial memorial made up of 2,711 concrete slabs (number not significant) of varying heights arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping 1,900 square metre area. The memorial was controversial for a number of reasons, including that it remembers only the murdered Jews of Europe, and not the homosexuals, handicapped and other groups of people who were murdered by the Nazi regime. We walked amongst the blocks and then sat down for a drink overlooking the memorial before moving on.

Berlin's most famous landmark is the Brandenburg Gate. It is the only remaining gate of a series of gates through which people used to enter the city of Berlin. It was constructed between 1788 and 1791. It is the entry to Unter den linden, the famous boulevard named after the linden trees that line it, which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs. We passed through the Brandenburg Gate and walked down the long Unter den linden boulevard, stopping to admire the beautiful buildings as we went.

The Humboldt University on Unter den linden is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810. It has been attended by many of Germany's greatest thinkers, including Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Albert Einstein. Directly across the road from the Humboldt University is a large open square, where on 10 May 1933, students of the university who were followers of the Nazi regime burned around 25,000 "un-German" books. There is now an underground memorial in the centre of the square to remember this sad day, in the form of huge empty bookshelves arranged in a square, apparently with enough room to fit 25,000 books. The memorial can be seen from above ground through a glass panel. There is a plaque nearby with words from poet Heinrich Heine (who attended the university) saying "Where books are burned, in the end people will burn".

Further along Unter den linden we came to the magnificent Berlin Cathedral and we sat on the grass in front of the cathedral for a while, resting our tired legs. Next stop was a German beer garden on the banks of the river, where we tested out some of the local brew, before heading back to our hotel area and trying out the food on Simon-Dach Strasse. The choice was overwhelming, but we had dinner at a nice little restaurant on the first corner. It was very cheap and the servings were enormous!

Friday

We got up fairly early on Friday and had breakfast at the hotel, which was very good, then set off the city where we joined a four-hour walking tour of Berlin. Our tour guide had grown up in Berlin and then studied European history in England for several years, so she was very informative. She pointed out Berlin's TV Tower, a massive structure that can be seen from all over the city, the Berlin Cathedral which we had seen the previous day, the new synagogue, as well as several museums that we walked past, before we hit Unter den linden.

The Neue Wache was built in 1816, originally as a guard house for troops of the Crown Prince of Prussia, but since 1931 it has been a war memorial. The building was heavily damaged by bombing during World War II. In 1960, the repaired Neue Wache was reopened as the Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism. In 1969, the remains of an unknown German soldier and of an unknown concentration camp victim from World War II were enshrined in the building.

After German reunification in 1991, the Neue Wache was again rededicated in 1993, as the "Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny." The GDR memorial piece was removed and replaced by an enlarged version of Kathe Kollwitz's sculpture Mother with her Dead Son. This sculpture is directly under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolising the suffering of civilians during World War II. When we were inside the memorial, the sun was shining through the oculus in the roof, lighting up a patch of the wall in an otherwise dark and depressing room.

At the end of Unter den linden, we stopped in Pariser Platz, a square in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which is mainly filled with banks and overseas embassies now, as well as the famous Hotel Adlon, where foreign heads of state and celebrities stay when in Berlin. It is the hotel where Michael Jackson famously dangled his baby over the railings of the balcony of his hotel room. The newest building in the Pariser Platz is the US Embassy, which has only recently been completed due to lengthy delays over security concerns. Apparently they were worried about how close the public would be to the entrance of the embassy and they even asked (as only Americans could do) if the Brandenburg Gate could be moved back to allow them more space!!!

Through the other side of the Gate we saw the cobblestones that run along the roads and footpaths throughout the city to show where the Berlin Wall used to stand. The tour continued through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (which we had seen the previous day) and on to the site of Hitler's bunker. The bunker was so deep underground and so well armoured that it was very difficult to blow up, although it was eventually collapsed and filled in. Until very recently the site has remained rather anonymous and unremarkable, due to concerns over the site becoming a neo-Nazi shrine. However, a small sign was erected marking the spot in 2006.

The walking tour continued on to Checkpoint Charlie, the name given to a crossing point between east and west Berlin during the Cold War. The checkpoint was designated as the single crossing point for foreigners and members of the Allied Forces and was the scene of some amazing escape stories (see below). We also passed a street where the Berlin Wall still stands all along one side of it and we ended the tour by walking along Friedrichstrasse, Berlin's version of Fifth Avenue, lined with big label shops and department stores.

After the tour ended, we grabbed some lunch at a little bakery on Friedrichstrasse and then tracked back to Checkpoint Charlie, where there is a museum about the checkpoint. It is effectively a museum about escapes over the wall...both successful and unsuccessful. There were many fascinating stories of people digging tunnels from their houses under the wall, people being smuggled through the checkpoint in suitcases or hidden inside cars (even one who was hidden inside the engine of a car!) and one about two families who successfully crossed the Berlin Wall in a hot air balloon without being spotted! The museum was quite good, although we found the English translations very poor and the layout was not easy to follow.

After that we split up and Megan went to read the "Topography of Terror" exhibition on the site of the former SS headquarters. There were pictures and information about the Nazis rise to power and their conduct during the war on the back of the section of the wall that we had seen during our tour. Meanwhile, Tim went to check out the Reichstag, the German house of parliament.

We met up again around an hour later and decided to visit the museum underneath the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This museum was superb (well, apart from the subject matter, which was shocking) - very informative and easy to follow and just the right amount of information. We fully recommend it to anyone visiting Berlin. By the time we left the museum, it was around 7pm and we walked a couple of blocks to Potsdamer Platz and had a beer in the middle of the busy Sony Centre, packed full of people. The Sony Centre has a huge structure on top of the roof, designed to look like Mt Fuji in Japan, and the structure then comes down inside the centre and looks like a giant spinning top (see picture below). After our drinks, we checked out some of the art on display at the market stalls in the centre.

Back in our 'hood, we returned to Simon-Dach Strasse for dinner, this time visiting a restaurant called Euphoria. Again the servings were huge and the prices were not. Germans, it would seem, eat a lot of meat...

Megan and
part of the
wall

Memorial
to Murdered
Jews of
Europe








And again
















Tim outside
a beer hall















Megs with
a giant bear


















Branden-
burg Gate









Memorial
to book
burning











Megan reading
a book in the
square where
the books
were burned...











Berlin
Cathedral











Neue
Wache












Inside
Neue
Wache












Megan at
Brandenburg
Gate















Check-
point
Charlie











Site of
Hitler's
bunker











Parts of
the wall
still standing











Reich-
stag

Roof inside
Sony Centre,
Potsdamer
Platz

Tim on the
cobbles that
mark where
the wall stood

Sicily, Italy

Hi folks

On 16 August I departed for a few days of much needed sunshine in Sicily while Tim stayed behind to keep an eye on the Premier League. Our friend Neena has been having a great old time travelling around Europe for a few months and this was my chance to catch up with her, along with some other ex-Russell McVeagh kids. Kristen had done a fine job in booking us a villa and some hire cars so all Alex and I had to do on Saturday morning was get to Stansted Airport for an unbelievably early 6:10am flight and fulfil some duty free requests. We made it and touched down into a stunning Palermo day a few hours later.

Neena and Jono kindly came and met us (after testing the patience of Sicilian drivers...it appears you can crawl as slow as you like but once you stop, the horns and shouting begin) and drove us the hour or so back to the villa, which was on a hill in a lemon orchard not far from Trabia on the north coast. Libby, Kate, Kristen and Fab had put together a quality antipasto lunch and after that, and celebrating NZ's first gold medal (go the twins!), the eight of us went down to the local beach to catch some rays. We also caught the attention of the sole lifeguard who got very upset when we swam out too far (apparently past our knees was dangerous) and we faced the indignant peep peep of his whistle more than once.

That night we put together a very fine pasta dinner back at the villa and had some drinks, although the 3am start ended up getting to me so it was a poor showing from me, others fared better...

The next day was beautiful again and we took a road trip an hour or so around the coast to a beach near Alcamo Marina, which I would highly recommend. It seemed a bit like a white sand Hawkes Bay beach, except of course for the warm bath temperature of the water and the high volumes of speedos walking past. Italian men seem to have taken speedos to another level as they featured some decorations I've never contemplated on togs before. My favourite was a very fetching sunset with palm trees. We had another great day of sunshine and went for a seafood dinner at a nearby restaurant until we had to say goodbye to Kate, Jono, Fab and Libby who were back to work the next day.

On Monday the four of us (Alex, Kristen, Neena and moi) opted for a little road tripping over the beach and Neena bravely took the wheel again. She did a stellar job considering the quality of driving we experienced (tip: do not assume that a left hand indicator means a car is going to turn left or, indeed, is not about to turn right directly in front of you) and that we didn't really know where we were going and no one was too quick on decision making at intersections. Somehow, we made it to the Villa del Casale and spent an hour or so admiring the elaborate mosaics, some of which featured a beach vollyballer (see below). We then moved on to Ragusta, which we stalked from several directions like a cat with prey before nailing it and finding lunch and Modica, where we sampled some of the chocolate the town is famed for. Finally, we stopped off in Noto for the "best gelato in the world" (according to Lonely Planet) and yes, it was pretty fine.

On Tuesday we went back to the beach at Alcamo Marina and tried to store up some sunshine reserves to take back to Londontown. I sadly had to leave around 7pm for the airport and after a pleasant hour in the check-in queue ("queue" in the loosest sense) learning sign language for New Zealand and other countries from some Polish folk, I was off back to London, anticipating the German adventure which was just around the corner...

Megan







At the villa













View from
our villa

















Ahhh...perfect.















Mosaics

















Ragusta
Cathedral


















Just after
the Best Gelato
In The World