{"id":740,"date":"2011-05-01T14:46:30","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T14:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/?p=740"},"modified":"2011-05-29T16:45:52","modified_gmt":"2011-05-29T16:45:52","slug":"easter-weekend-in-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/archives\/2011\/05\/01\/easter-weekend-in-berlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter weekend in Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I got a refund from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sj.se\/\">SJ<\/a> for the return leg of my trip to Ume\u00e5 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&#8217;d passed through Berlin on my way to Wroc\u0142aw and had just enough time to see that it had changed a lot since I was last there, in summer 1994.<\/p>\n<p>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.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/media\/Poland\/Wroclaw\/June10\/BerlinHbf_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Poland\/Wroclaw\/June10\/BerlinHbf_t.jpg\" title=\"Berlin Hauptbahnhof.\" alt=\"A modern building of metal and glass seen across a plaza, a sign on the front reads 'Berlin Hauptbahnhof'\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Poland\/Wroclaw\/June10\/Reichstag_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Poland\/Wroclaw\/June10\/Reichstag_t.jpg\" title=\"The Reichstag.\" alt=\"An old stone building topped with a metal and glass hemispherical dome.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Poland\/Wroclaw\/June10\/BrandenburgGate1_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Poland\/Wroclaw\/June10\/BrandenburgGate1_t.jpg\" title=\"The Brandenburg gate.\" alt=\"A triumphal gate in classical style against an early morning sky.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I had an enjoyable weekend doing touristy things (the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smb.museum\/smb\/standorte\/index.php?p=2&#038;objID=27&#038;n=15\">Pergamon<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smb.museum\/smb\/standorte\/index.php?p=2&#038;objID=28&#038;n=3\">Bode<\/a> museums, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smb.museum\/smb\/standorte\/index.php?p=2&#038;objID=29&#038;n=1\">Alte Nationalgalerie<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ddr-museum.de\/en\/\">DDR museum<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.topographie.de\/en\/topography-of-terror\/nc\/1\/\">Topography of Terror<\/a> and one of <a href=\"http:\/\/berliner-unterwelten.de\/home.1.1.html\">Berliner Unterwelten&#8217;s<\/a> fantastic tours) interspersed with sitting in the sunshine and drinking beer or coffee.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/media\/Germany\/Berlin\/Apr2011\/DSC_0821_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Germany\/Berlin\/Apr2011\/DSC_0821_t.jpg\" title=\"The remaining fa\u00e7ade of the former Anhalter Bahnhof, Berlin.\" alt=\"Part of the ruined fa\u00e7ade of a building, in orange-yellow stone, against a clear blue sky with a park behind it.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Germany\/Berlin\/Apr2011\/DSC_0823_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Germany\/Berlin\/Apr2011\/DSC_0823_t.jpg\" title=\"A preserved section of the Berlin wall, part of the Topography of Terror museum.\" alt=\"An ugly concrete wall, crumbling and with gaps.  Reinforcing bars poke through the concrete.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Germany\/Berlin\/Apr2011\/DSC_0830_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Germany\/Berlin\/Apr2011\/DSC_0830_t.jpg\" title=\"The remaining platforms of the former Humboldthain flak tower in Berlin, with the area around Gesundbrunnen station in the background.\" alt=\"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.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got a refund from SJ for the return leg of my trip to Ume\u00e5 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&#8217;d passed through Berlin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}