Berlin
Berlin is spectacular. The magestic buildings in the city are truely amazing and all the promenant ones are located at the ends of vast, wide avenues which make for a very grand and impressive approach. I was only there for two days, about half that time was spent either at the football or watching football. I will be back here later for the World Cup final and should be able to find time to see more as I barely scratched the surface of this famous (and infamous) city.
Now that finally have found somewhere that will let me upload photos I will let them do the describing of the places I visited, but in summary I saw:
The somethingorothermonument whose name escapes me and I will confirm later
The Soviet War Memorial (curiously located in old West Berlin for reasons that I won't discuss here)
The Brandenburg Gate
The Riechstag
The Jewish Memorial (which, despite my normal dislike of modern art, I really liked)
Checkpoint Charlie (an old East/West Berlin checkpoint)
and last but most definately not least, Charlottenburg Schloss (Palace) which was huge and amazing and, I'm told, tiny compared to Potsdam Palace just outside Berlin which I really must see.
The was, of course, the small matter of Ukraine vs Tunisia as well =)
Whilst the seats were not so good being three rows from the very front behind one of the corner flags and the game itself was not much for a football match, the excitement of visiting the newly renovated Olympic Stadion where the Berlin Olymics were hosted in, I think, 1936 was amazing. Seating 72,000, it is a marvellous arena and the atmosphere was great.
Overall, my visit to Berlin continued the very high standard that my German experience is currently achieving as my Uncle and I stayed with Hajo, Nigel's friends brother-in-law, and family. Hajo designs board games, on of which I now have, and was another excellent, and very interesting, host.
I think I've written plenty for one post. Please send me email or leave comments as I really want to know what you're all up to in NZ!!
Now that finally have found somewhere that will let me upload photos I will let them do the describing of the places I visited, but in summary I saw:
The somethingorothermonument whose name escapes me and I will confirm later
The Soviet War Memorial (curiously located in old West Berlin for reasons that I won't discuss here)
The Brandenburg Gate
The Riechstag
The Jewish Memorial (which, despite my normal dislike of modern art, I really liked)
Checkpoint Charlie (an old East/West Berlin checkpoint)
and last but most definately not least, Charlottenburg Schloss (Palace) which was huge and amazing and, I'm told, tiny compared to Potsdam Palace just outside Berlin which I really must see.
The was, of course, the small matter of Ukraine vs Tunisia as well =)
Whilst the seats were not so good being three rows from the very front behind one of the corner flags and the game itself was not much for a football match, the excitement of visiting the newly renovated Olympic Stadion where the Berlin Olymics were hosted in, I think, 1936 was amazing. Seating 72,000, it is a marvellous arena and the atmosphere was great.Overall, my visit to Berlin continued the very high standard that my German experience is currently achieving as my Uncle and I stayed with Hajo, Nigel's friends brother-in-law, and family. Hajo designs board games, on of which I now have, and was another excellent, and very interesting, host.
I think I've written plenty for one post. Please send me email or leave comments as I really want to know what you're all up to in NZ!!
posted by Ricardo at
10:47 am
1 Comments:
So how much of the Berlin Wall is still standing as a historical monument? I saw a slice of it in the JFK Presidential Library in Boston last year....no idea how the US came to obtain it.
As far as "infamous"....not sure if Berlin is really right up there. I'd pick Nuremberg. I saw on Google Earth that the stadium where World Cup matches were played is situated only a few hundred metres away from the grounds where "der Fuhrer" used to hold massive rallies.
P.S. Whatever you do, don't burn down the Reichstag :-)
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Anonymous, at July 15, 2006 9:01 pm
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