Scenic Weekends

A few scenes from Berlin in 2010.

I'm sharing with Scenic Weekends.

Third day in Berlin

We spent a big part of our third day in Berlin enjoying Schloss Charlottenburg and the beautiful park behind it. The palace suffered great damage during WW II. Luckily much of the contents had been moved for safe keeping elsewhere. A lot of restoration work was done from the 1950s into the 1990s. The palace was built as a summer home in stages between 1695 and 1746.

This is Belvedere, the tea pavilion. Today it serves as exhibition space for the porcelain collection.

This is the Neptunbrunnen. Neptune is surrounded by four goddesses representing the most important rivers in Germany. The afternoon was quite rainy.

This is the Berliner Dom. The cathedral was restored in a simplified form after WW II.

Marienkirche and the Fernsehturm. There is a viewing platform in the tower. It would have been interesting to go up there, but the queue was long and Mirja wasn't very co-operative...

Second day in Berlin

After a good night's sleep and a big breakfast we were ready to start our second day in Berlin. We visited to the Zoologischer Garten, which is one of the oldest and biggest zoos in Germany. There is also a big terrarium and aquarium with lots of pretty snakes, lizards, frogs and fish. The girls really loved it!

After a late lunch, we went to KaDeWe. It's the biggest department store in Europe. I've never seen this many toys in one place! While my husband looked at model railway stuff, we girls admired this enormous bear.

We also went to the Gendarmenmarkt. We climbed up to the balcony of the Französischer Dom to enjoy the view. This is the Berliner Dom and the Fernsehturm (television tower) seen from the balcony.

The last stop for the day was Checkpoint Charlie and Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. This was the only crossing point between East and West Berlin. The booth seen here is a replica complete with the sign "You are leaving the American Sector". The museum tells about the Cold War border conflicts, the construction of the Berlin Wall and the escape attempts of East Germans to the West.

First day in Berlin

We spent much of our first day in Berlin strolling around Kurfürstendamm, which was the heart of West Berlin. These pictures are from Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche. Most of the church was destroyed by bombs in 1943 and a new church and bell tower has been built on either side of the monument. The details of the ceiling mosaics and marble reliefs are incredible.

This is Brandenburger Tor and the Pariser Platz, the square at the end of Unter den Linden. The Gate is maybe the most famous landmark of Berlin. It's located in the former East Berlin.

Reichstag, the Parliament, seen from Brandenburger Tor.

Six person bike (?) with a steering-wheel.

After walking around for most of the day our feet were getting tired. It felt really good sitting down at a cafe, people watching, enjoying a cold beer.