Berlin 101

The Brandenburg gate was finished in 1791 and topped with the figure of Victory in her chariot. But when Napoleon conquered Berlin in the 19th century, Victory (and her chariot) were shipped off to Paris. Of course, the Prussians got the statue (and Berlin) back eventually and put her back on top of the gate. And then, just to show the French who's boss, they renamed the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate "Paris Place", so that they would always have Victory over Paris. And people say Germans don't have a sense of humour!

This is the Reichstag building, which houses the German parliament (Bundestag). The Reichstag fire in 1933 served as Hitler's excuse for assuming emergency powers (which he kept until his suicide in 1945). It's been refurbished with a new glass dome where you can look down and see parliament in session. A symbol of transparency and so on...

But lest you think there's nothing you'd like better than frying up a few Bratwürste while watching the sun set over the Reichstag:

It's VERBOTEN. I wonder what the Alberta Legislature's stance on grilling is?

This is the Fernsehturm (TV tower), which was built to make the West Berliners insanely jealous of East Berlin's technological prowess. The first time I was in Berlin, I decided against taking the elevator up the tower and I've been regretting it ever since. So this time I manned up, paid the twelve Euros and waited the two hours. And then I stayed up there until I felt like I'd got my money's worth (three hours).

This is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The name's a little unwieldy, but the monument's quite impressive. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but the ground rises and falls between the blocks, which are all the same size but different heights. You can walk between the blocks, but the aisles are narrow and you have to walk single file. It's quite cold in there, even when it's hot outside, and it's really easy to lose your companions because the monument covers an entire city block and the chances that your paths will converge is minimal. The general consensus seems to be that it's supposed to give you some idea of how the Jews felt (isolated and terrified) and that its sheer size is supposed to make it hard to ignore. 

This is the Berlin Cathedral (with the Fernsehturm playing peekaboo). The cathedral is old by Canadian standards (completed in 1905), but it has no business looking quite as old as it does - it was deliberately "aged" to fit in with the older buildings around it.