..... continuing Berlin

I have to tell you about the architecture in Berlin.  It is state of the art (not the old stuff of course), imaginative and bursting with energy.  Apparently Berlin is one of the cheapest capital cities in the world to live in.  We have done the rounds of some of the older buildings and some that are now hybrids. 

Check out the Reichstag.  It is an old building with the most magnificent dome that floats above the stability of the past.  After waiting for nearly 2 hours we became a part of this dome.  It is glass with two spiral ramps that ascent the inside of the dome showing 360 degree views of increasing elevation. Stunning!  Meanwhile in the centre of the dome there is a funnel of mirrors that looks like a tornedo.  The top of the tornedo and the dome are both open to the sky.  Below the tornedo is where the parliament sits.  The funnel takes light down and lets stale air escape (and the hot air that politicians are renown for). 

The Jewish museum and memorials are amazing.  They challenge the senses.  Catherine and I managed to turn up at the Jewish museum the day they were having a holiday so only got the architecture side of it.  The Jewish Memorial is the size of a city block full of coffin sized blocks that are at varying heights.  The surprising this is that the ground dips alarmingly below thehese blocks which range in height from a centimetre to several metres tall.  Before you realise it is as if you are underground, almost buried by the of this. 

Following the Jewish Museum we followed the tourist trail to Check Point Charlie and the Topography of Terror or part of the Berlin Wall that has been kept with an reminder of the lead up to WW2 and Nazi Germany and what happened when the wall went up and what become of some of the people (good and bad) on both sides.  Fascinating, many people contemplating, many learning......

Other places that we went.... the Pergamom Museum and saw the Ishtar Gate and Mespotamian stuff, the Potsdammer Platz and a wander through the green space in front of the Reichstag.

Some photos of other stuff follow......  perhaps later....