The Gendarmenmarkt in the heart of Berlin would have to be one of the most beautiful plazas in Europe. It is home to the Schauspielhas Theatre which is now a concert hall and the Franzosischer Dom and Deutscher Dom which are both cathedrals. The Deutscher Dom or German Cathedral was built in the 1700’s but was completely destroyed by fire in 1945 and was rebuilt in the 1990’s and now is a German history museum. The Franzosischer Dom or French Cathedral is nearly an identical copy of the Deutscher Dom and was built early in the 1700. The Dom now houses a Huguenot museum, a restaurant on the top floor and a viewing platform where spectacular views of the area can be seen. Recently luxury hotels and the Friedrichstadt Shopping Arcade have been built near the square which has only made the precinct more popular.
Knut the Polar Bear has made the Berlin Zoo even more popular and when you see the cute little bugger on this video you will see why he is gorgeous. But the Berlin Zoo is more than just Knut there are a huge variety of fascinating animals to see including monkeys, penguins, kangaroos, ostriches, hippos, tigers, and some pretty weird and mean looking wart hogs among other things. The zoo also features an Aquarium which is ranked as one of the world’s best and includes tropical reefs and even sharks. The Berlin Zoo is right in the heart of the city- near Zoo Station, where else and is a great experience for young and old.
The Sony Centre in Potsdamer Platz, Berlin is a new entertainment complex and a very popular meeting point, the young and the beautiful meet under the huge tent like atrium for a bite to eat or a drink. The expansive plaza is surrounded by cafes, restaurants and some good bars including an Australian bar. The centre has some very flash designer shopping, with many of the world’s hottest brands and has a 40 theatre cinema including an Imax. There is exhibition space and the centre is used for a lot of promotion work used by TV and radio for special events. A lot of music and film superstars have appeared to the pubic in the complex drawing thousands of people, sometimes it can get frantic. As with the centre’s name you would expect a huge Sony showcase, and yes Sony a a huge display centre where you can test drive their latest technologies like cameras, phones, stereos and computers. For those travellers looking for free wireless internet- the Sony Centre is the place to go, you can read some emails while sipping great coffee and watching Berlin’s beautiful set. Read the rest of this entry »
The Brandenburg Gate is one of the most recognisable structures in the German capital Berlin. Built just north of the parliament The Reichstag it was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II as a sign of peace and was built between 1788 and 1791. The gate is huge, it is 26 metres high and 65 metres wide and 11 metres thick. The centerpiece of the gateway is the beautiful sculpture on the top which shows Viktoria the goddess of victory driving a Quadriga of horses. The Brandenburg gate has been an important symbol of Berlin and has been used as the focal point of many historic events; The Nazis used the gate as their symbol when they ascended to power. Strangely it was one of the few structures in the Pariser Plaz during the bombing raids of World War II. US President John F Kennedy visited the gate in 1863 and was confronted by huge Soviet banners preventing him looking into the east. In 1987 the then US President Ronald Regan spoke at the gate demanding its opening and then two years later the Brandenburg gate symbolized the revolution of 1989 which saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the chancellor of West Germany Helmut Kohl greeted the East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow. Now after a 2000 restoration the Brandenburg gate will stand proudly and no doubt be the centre point of Berlin’s history in the future.
The Fersehturm is one of Berlin’s more striking icons, close to Alexanderplatz this tour was built by the former German Democratic Republic and rises 268 metres above street level. There is a visitors platform at 204 metres which offers some spectacular views of Berlin stretching well over 40kms on a good day. As with all good towers it features a revolving restaurant and souvenir shop. The tower was built to house communications antennas for television, radio and the like but he tower also was used as a powerful expression of the East German Government to the west of their Utopian socialist dreams.
Donkey Kong is one of the most loved of the video games and has survived over quarter of a century. Today the game is celebrated in a huge display at Berlin’s Computer Game Museum or computerspielemuseum. The huge scaffolding covers the front of the museum’s facade complete with barrels, ladders and of course everyone’s favorite ape Donkey Kong.
The museum itself is an amazing display of everything computerized it will keep the geek in you interested for hours, there’s lots of early computers and games from simple ping pong right up to the latest state of the art computer games and gadgets of the present.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the centre of Berlin is a stark reminder of the horrors of war. This church was built between 1891 and 1895 in honor of the then Emperor Wilhelm II’s grandfather. But during the extensive bombing raids of 1943 the church was virtually destroyed. The only thing left standing was the belfry. Between 1951 and 1961 a new church was rebuilt next to the ruins, and the ruins were kept intact as a reminder of the destruction of war. The church was actually opened on the same day as churches rebuilt after war damage in Conventry England and Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Russia as a symbol of reconciliation between the three countries which were once at war.
Checkpoint Charlie was the major crossing between Soviet controlled East Berlin and US controlled West Berlin during the Cold War. During its time several serious stand offs between the Russian and US forces occurred which threatened to escalate into war between the two nations. Today like the Berlin Wall it is one of the symbols of the separated Berlin and remains as of a reminder of the horrors of war and the 30 odd years of the stand off between East and West. Checkpoint Charlie was removed soon after the wall was torn down but a copy of the booth and sign was returned to the site as a memorial, the Mauermuseum a museum dedicated to Checkpoint Charlie is close by. Read the rest of this entry »
The Trabant has had a bit of a dodgy history, it was a East German produced vehicle which was pretty awful but has now gained a cult following of a icon of the former communist Germany. For visitors to Berlin there couldn’t be any more fun than going on a Trabi Safari in one of these weird little cars. This great tour takes in many of the Marxism and Leninism’s of Berlin where you pass some of the remaining Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and other interesting memorabilia from a time gone by. The cars are pretty special they have a whopping 26 horsepower and will do 30km through the Berlin streets and there is a great commentary with directions on the Trabant’s not so state of the art radio. You will see Berlin from a totally different perspective and you even get your own Trabant driving license on completion of your tour. Read the rest of this entry »
We have all seen vending machines serving soft drinks, coffee and chocolates and even vending machine restaurants in Japan, but here’s a first, sitting quietly on a subway station in the German City of Berlin is this amazing machine – it cooks and serves hot chips or pommes as the Europeans like to call them. You put your Euro in the slot press a button, a lot of noises go on then in 45 short seconds (and hopefully before your train arrives) a bucket of crisp freshly fried hot steaming chips appear… Delicious
