A Day in Berlin - part 1

I thought I would sleep really well but woke quite early. I decided to get up and make a day of it. I had a really nice breakfast and then went to get some money - on the train station platform!

I had spoken to Debbie (one of the English participants who has been in Slovenia)and we had planned to meet up and go on the bus tour. I looked at the leaflet and realised that it was not running today due to the "Velothon Berlin"! I decided to go on a river cruise. The Concierge explained that it would not be a straightforward journey as the trams would not be running to the centre due to the bike race. I did manage the complicated route he gave me travelling on trams (I did go the wrong direction on one and walked back along the side of the track!) and then two trains to the river.

The Berlin TV tower and my German guide

I was the only English person so the guide gave me a booklet with the commentary. It had 39 pages, including quite a few black and white photos! The man in the picture above kindly offered to fill in any gaps and help out and by the end I was chatting with him and his wife. We started off on the River Spree at Jannowitz Bridge (a cotton industrialist). We sailed past the O2 building

The graffiti wall is an original part of the Berlin wall (left)

Then came the Oberbaum bridge which was built in 1896. It has two towers the left with the Berlin bear and the right with the Brandenburg eagle. The name means the "Upper tree trunk bridge" as tree trunks were put in the water to stop ships going through without paying. There was a lower level and now the bridge has 3 levels - water, road and rail.

The eagle on the left as gone through it!

Straight ahead was the Elsen bridge and the Allianz tower (125m) and the modern sculpture of the molecule men. This was designed by Borowski to symbolise the joining of the former Eastern districts of Berlin and the West.

We then turned to the right to enter the Landwehr canal, built in the 19th century. We went into a lock to descend 30 cm. I checked with the guide that it was only this small amount!

The Gorlitz bridge

Former East Berlin

The birdge above had been a railway bridge - hence the graffiti on the old part. The river divided this part of Berlin into East and West during the Iron Curtain time. The houses on the right had the wall built in front of them.

Kreuzberg - expensive decor!

Part of the star pattern

The area above is designed so that the streets lead to the bridge in a star pattern. Many of the corner buildings are old-style Berlin pubs.

The Jewish synagogue

The synagogue was burnt down in 1938 as part of the "Reichspogromnacht" on the 9th November. It was used as a garage by the Gestapo. In 1939 there were 170,000 Jews in Berlin. Now there are 12,000 - the largest Jewish community in Germany. I was to find out much more about the Jewish holocaust later.

The wrought iron admiral's bridge

A Gaudi-style house

We sailed past the Urban hospital which was rebuilt in 1970.

A Dutch sailing boat - now a restaurant

We passed the old customs house and the Halle Gate Bridge. This had 4 marble statues but it was bombed during the Second World War and so now there are only two that remain - fishing and shipping.

Next was the German Museum of Technology. It has a "Candy Bomber" - this and many others were used during the American airlift in 1948/49 when the West city of Berlin was provided with essential goods during the Soviet blockade.About 270,000 flights were made in 10 months.

We went past Potsdamer Platz. Over 80% of the buildings were destroyed in World War II and they have been reconstructed now since the wall came down. The next photo shows the scientific centre for social research with the keyhole-shaped entrance gate.

The Ministry of Defence building

The right photo shows the building that is now seen as a memorial for the victims of the resistance against Hitler. Several of the high-ranking officers who were part of the attempt to kill Hitler were shot there. We passed the zoo but I could not see many animals and I have a couple of cages - you can't see the birds, and some retreating ostriches!

On the other side is the Tiergarten - one of the largest green areas in the centre of a European city. It was badly devastated after the war as Berliners took the wood for the cold winter. They also grew vegetables there to survive.

Here we went through another canal lock - the Tiergarten lock but this time went down 1.3m to the level of the lower Landwehr canal. Then under the Charlottenburg bridge which has a gate on it. The gate was designed as a counterpart to the Brandenburg Gate (visit in afternoon!). The area of Charlottenburg was an independent city until 1920.

We passed the university areas, there are 4 universities in Berlin. Then we went alongside the Salt Bank Road. This was so called because families in Berlin were forced by Prussian law to buy more salt per head than they could use and so they needed somewhere to store all this extra salt! We also went past Einstein Street - he lived and worked in Berlin before the Nazi era.

Apartments on the Spree

Heating and power station