So we got back from Berlin late on Sunday, very tired after a long journey. We left Berlin at 3.55pm and arrived home at about 9pm. It's amazing how tired you can get from just sitting down for 5 hours!
My friend Oli, from uni, flew over from his placement in Vienna and joined us there and the 3 of us had a great weekend. It was nice to catch up with people from home too.
Berlin is a really beautiful city and the word of the weekend very quickly became "Ooh look!". It's a very modern place, totally different to the Berlin of 20 years ago that you see in all the pictures. Right in the centre of Berlin in what was once wasteland running on along either side of the wall is now Potsdamer Platz, an ultra-modern area with skyscrapers and the new "Sony Centre" which is kind of like a large tent with a glass roof.
The path that the wall took is marked by a line of bricks sunk into the ground that runs right through the city, and we had great fun jumping from East to West in a rather childlike manner! However, apart from this, and the odd sections of wall that still remain as a memorial, there is no sign whatsoever that of most of the history from the mid 20th centuary took place right here.
My friend Oli, from uni, flew over from his placement in Vienna and joined us there and the 3 of us had a great weekend. It was nice to catch up with people from home too.
Berlin is a really beautiful city and the word of the weekend very quickly became "Ooh look!". It's a very modern place, totally different to the Berlin of 20 years ago that you see in all the pictures. Right in the centre of Berlin in what was once wasteland running on along either side of the wall is now Potsdamer Platz, an ultra-modern area with skyscrapers and the new "Sony Centre" which is kind of like a large tent with a glass roof.
The path that the wall took is marked by a line of bricks sunk into the ground that runs right through the city, and we had great fun jumping from East to West in a rather childlike manner! However, apart from this, and the odd sections of wall that still remain as a memorial, there is no sign whatsoever that of most of the history from the mid 20th centuary took place right here.
The 3 of us basically acted like tourists for the weekend, doing all the touristy things with cameras stuck to our faces. I even had the video camera over my shoulder the whole time! But we were quite efficient with the little time we had there and so managed to see the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and the cathedral, not to mention the countless monuments to victims of war, the holocaust, terrorism and anything else you can think of.
The most interesting thing was the Reichstag, which is the German government building. On top of it they have built a huge glass dome, and visitors can go up on to the roof and then climb the dome. (picture above). It gave great views of the city and was free too! I just keep laughing at the prospect of thousands of tourists wandering around the roof of the Houses of Parliament!
Checkpoint Charlie was also very interesting and there is a museum there with lots of memorabelia from escape attempts (mostly successful) from East Berlin. It also had the famous original sign from the border "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR" which was good to see.
So all in all a really enjoyable weekend. We have Oli to thank for being able to see so many things as he had us up at 7am both mornings (regardless of the amount of alcohol consumed the night before!) and much as we protested it certainly meant that we made good use of the time.
Ross x
See updated photos online: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanna2079 . Sorry for the huge amount of Berlin!
