Berlin

I visited Berlin for work reasons this week.  I had never visited before so I was interested in seeing as much of the place as I could.  Work kept me busy but I was able to see a bit of the place.

I was seeing beside the zoo.  During the second world war there was a large anti-aircraft gun in the zoo and it was heavily bombed.  Around 80 animals survived but were then promptly eaten after the Russians arrived in the city.  The zoo has subsequently been developed into one of the best in the world.  It is visited by millions of people every year and houses more than 1300 species.

Berlin has a population over 3.7 million people but seems fairly quiet.  The streets are not as busy as London, Birmingham, Edinburgh or Glasgow.  I was getting the S-Bahn every day and it was not crowded.  One morning the train was filled with children communicating in sign language.  The area around Zoo Station was busy but again not as busy as many other large cities.

I tried a currywurst from one of the vendors beside Zoo Station.  It's a grilled sausage with a ketchup and curry sauce, served with chips.  I heard that this local delicacy only came into existence after the war when the only ingredients available were tomato ketchup and curry powder.  I enjoyed the experience but I wouldn't make it a regular feature in my diet.

I took the S-Bahn over the the east of the city to visit the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag.  The area was full of tourists but again not overcrowded.  I then spent some time walking along Friedrichstrasse and looking around a rather nice German music and book shop.  We don't really have shops like this in the UK as much now.

One evening we were taken for dinner in a restaurant on Gendarmenmarkt.  It was lit up for a festival of lights in the city and I took some photos of the French church, the German church and the Konzerthaus.  I didn't get time to explore further.

I walked down Kurfurstendamm  or K-Dam a couple of times, window shopping with the Happy Mondays song Kuff Dam stuck in my head.  To block it out I listened to the new Cypress Hill record on my iPod.  It's a big, wide street.  It reminded me of streets in Poland.  I didn't buy anything but I sat and had a beer with a colleague outside a bar on the avenue and I ate a nice meal in a restaurant on the street.  They do beef well in Berlin.

With another colleague and his wife we stood and admired the remains of the Kaiser Wilhelm church beside Budapester Strasse.  It was well lit and it still has bullet holes from the war.  It was badly damaged by bombing in 1943.  The square around the church now has crash barriers everywhere after the actions of a nutter with a truck two years ago.

I didn't see much of the city and I would have liked the chance to explore more.  Sadly that is not always and option due to work commitments.  I may return at some point but there are a lot of other places to see and sadly time is not always available.