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2011-05-01

Easter weekend in Berlin

Filed under: travel — kevin @ 14:46

I got a refund from SJ for the return leg of my trip to Umeå because the night train was delayed. As the refund was in the form of a voucher I had to spend it all in one go, so I booked the night train to Berlin for Easter weekend. I’d passed through Berlin on my way to Wrocław and had just enough time to see that it had changed a lot since I was last there, in summer 1994.

The wastelands around the Brandenberg gate and Potsdamer Platz are now full of new shiny buildings and the number of building sites is much reduced. The (new) Hauptbahnhof sits beside the (new) government area and the restored Reichstag.
A modern building of metal and glass seen across a plaza, a sign on the front reads 'Berlin Hauptbahnhof' An old stone building topped with a metal and glass hemispherical dome. A triumphal gate in classical style against an early morning sky.

I had an enjoyable weekend doing touristy things (the Pergamon and Bode museums, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the DDR museum, Topography of Terror and one of Berliner Unterwelten’s fantastic tours) interspersed with sitting in the sunshine and drinking beer or coffee.

Part of the ruined façade of a building, in orange-yellow stone, against a clear blue sky with a park behind it. An ugly concrete wall, crumbling and with gaps.  Reinforcing bars poke through the concrete. An ugly concrete structure forms a large octagonal platform surrounded by an uglier metal fence.  A man stands on the platform, apparently doing some kind of exercise.  To the left, past the platform, a modern shopping centre can be seen.

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