Disclaimer: really long. Go get a coffee, a tim tam, and relax for a good read ;-p
Well, here’s an update about what we did for Christmas and new years.
Xmas was an orphan xmas with friends, went over to some friends and cooked, but ended up having a very late xmas turkey. I hired a car for the day, since all public transport stops. I don’t believe it either! Anyway…
On Boxing Day evening we flew to Germany. We went for a long walk to see some sights, climbed many stairs of the Victory spire and then on to see the Brandenburg Gate, which was almost on the line of where the Berlin wall ran.
Behind the Gate, is a street called Unter den Linden, literally ‘Under the Linden Trees’. So yes, there was a bunch of trees along the processional way that was and is used for parades, which included where Hitler paraded the tanks, and so had to cut down the trees to make room.
Germans are REALLY into Christmas! We went to a Christmas Market, which has various Christmassy things like caramelised nuts, Bratwurst (sausages), Gluwein (mulled wine), wooden toys, and various other foods and drinks. We also saw the Reichstag, the home of parliament in Germany, which has a glass dome on top – a symbol of the ‘transparency’ of modern government, with a series of mirrors so that visitors can see down and keep an eye on the politicians, and with a whole in the top to ‘let out the political hot air’.
We also got to see the Pergammon museum, with many artefacts from ancient Greece. This was especially interesting for us, as we have been to Pergammon on our Turkey/Anzac day trip, and knew the story of how the Germans ‘stole’ the artefacts by getting permission from the Ataturk to take away ‘pieces of rock’ – i.e. the entire Athena altar and statues, with a 3 metre high stair. Probably about the size of a house. Another monument that they had was the original processional way and gates of Babylon. Three stories tall and brilliant blue brick.
The next day we went on a walking tour, where we learnt the above about the Reichstag. It was a walking history lesson really, including the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and new buildings build post re-unification. One really cool building is Sony Europe, which surrounds a courtyard and has a sort of tent over the top in the shape of Mount Fuji in Japan.
We also got to go to an art museum with Monet, Manet and Renoir paintings. All very cultural wot.
From Berlin we trained on to Hamburg. We had a bit of a look around, including a canal tour, but there wasn’t much in English. Some beautiful buildings, again including the council building, but the main attraction was the fireworks! For New Years Eve a whole bunch of Hamburgers (;-p) gathered around a ‘lake’ (really a sea inlet) from about 11pm and let off their own bag of fireworks. This led to about and hour and a half a fireworks. The most I’ve ever seen. Only negative was the increasingly drunken louts being fools with them, and just after 12, after being hit my a banger or something, we decided to get out of dodge before somebody lost an eye.
That’s all folks… back to London, work and study, but more travels to come…
James
Part of the Sony Centre
Bomed church
The Berlin Wall (what's left)
What remains of the berlin wall
Statue upon Brandenburg Gate
Mall - shows how much Germans like xmas huh?
Looking up at the Sony Centre
Unter den Linden
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