A little pictorial journey: Berlin Day 2!

HL:

Sobs. Lost this blog entry cos of the internet acting up. =(

Berlin is a very fun fun place, but sigh, its was raining all those days. Haha, its not so bad because we do have umbrellas which we bought, albeit not being really able to withstand the strong winds in BErlin and also that we manage to cover most of the places that we set out to. =)
Anyway the day started out nicely! No rain and whatsoever (or so we thought that is) until we got to the metro station of the meeting point for the FREE (erm its not free if you have conscience I tell you and I have haha!) walking tour of Berlin.

Well since we were early, we decided to go track down the elusive tourist information centre. After getting instructions from the friendly policemen at the metro, we started to walk down the streets in search of it..gosh the name I have already forgotten!

Well, whatever the case, it remained elusive to our dismay. However, we managed to find this tourist shop which erm obviously does not provide the free information and maps and whatsoever that we love receiving from our other travel places. =)

The surroundings of the tourist place and gosh it has already started to rain sobs! Anyway, this is a mega big bird cage wor with pretty and colourful birds!

Well, on the way back to the meeting point of the walking tour (since we wandered off), we saw, or rather, I saw this! Isnt it pretty? Haha. It is prob not the prettiest pair of shoes but it IS pretty and since I love PUMA and green, it settles well with me. Well my brother's shoes which I bought from him were PUMA and had green too! Haha! Maybe my didi will do something that will surprise me? laughs. Anyway, am thinking of going back to Singapore to prob get a pair - it is cheaper there.

This is a photo of the remembrance church, and we passed by this in the bright early morning where we started out from the west berlin meeting point. Well the tour officially starts from the east meeting point but since we stayed nearer the west meeting point, and oh dear we do so have a habit of getting lost; we decided to go West. Haha. The guide said that this was a monument worth visiting and therefore, we did go back the same day. More about it later in the entry.

Brandenburger Tor! Where the tour officially starts actually. Haha. Erm this is at the metro station Unter der Linden, which means under the Lime trees from Wiki. But twin told me that the guide was saying that those trees are not lime trees. Hehs. Morning so wasnt paying attention. But anyway, both of us didnt catch which tree. What a pity!

More on Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). *Sidetrack: Its raining boo hoo* It is known as the spiritual support of the Berliners. GOsh. ANd the sad thing about this was that it was caught in the middle of the 2 Berlin walls during the Cold war and the Iron Curtain. People could not get to this place wor. So sad hor. ITs weird cos its monumental to them, yet they could not have access to it due to the many traps and landmines and so on that was planted there to prevent the East Berliners from crossing over tO West Berlin. =(

This is the statue atop the Tor. This statue has a very funny history in a sense. Haha. It used to be a PEACE monument wor. The lady in the statue was supposed to signify peace all over BErlin. Well it would have remained that way had Napolean not passed by to conquer Berlin and brought the statue back home for his own enjoyment. Laughs. So the Prussians (I think) decided to defeat Napolean, take a day trip to france to bring back the statue and erm modify it so now it becomes a war victorious memorial. Two modifications, the eagle crest and the weapon that the lady now carries. ITs kinda cool. Oh by the way people never forget. The symbolism of the lady, victory, currently overlooks the French embassy. *Grins*

One of the coolest things that we saw in Berlin. Traffic light! Haha kinda regretting it wor but should have bought the traffic lights souvenirs! Nahs anyway not cheap really. But still it is cool!

Ok. As you guys know, Berlin was separated by the Berlin wall till 1990 when reunification took place. So even though there is reunification for 16 years already, some things are still not uniform and one of them is the traffic light. However, it could also be due to the want of the East Berliners to retain something of their previous lives. Anyway, the West Berlin traffic lights are like those at home, but as you can see from the above picture, it is totally different for the East berliners. IT is cool that the traffic man wears a uniform and looks so smart and has his hands outstretched like to protect the people crossing the roads and telling them, DO NOT CROSS!
It is really nice to belong to a communist state i hear. Welfare rocks.

Anyway, this was taken during the walking tour. thot it looked beautiful. Anyway, it is near the Reichstag and all cos it is still in the Unter den Linden area. =)

After the traffic lights, a short distance away. we reached the Jewish memorial, built for the Jews who all suffered greatly during the Holocaust. According to the guide, the Jews requested for a space for their memorial in Unter den Linden because they did not want people to forget their suffering with the time passing =) and the designer of this memorial actually wanted a space twice as large as was given. Anyway, the designer did not specifically say what he wants to protray with his huge monument. Left to the tourists and passers-by to decide what is it that they see.

Alternative view of the monument so you can decide what is it that you guys do see. I didn't really enjoy walking through the monument though - shall not elaborate.

Haha. part of the 4th generation vandalised Berlin wall. So pretty hor. We realise that vandalism's a common thing in Berlin - in fact the reason why the Jewish memorial above is not vandalised is cause it is sprayed with anti paint spray. =) And it is cool that the Berlin wall is vandalised lol (sounds warped) cos during the time the Iron Curtain went up, no one dared to near the wall to vandalise, only to escape.

At the Ministry of Finance (I think haha but I am certain this building holds people in charge of collecting taxes!). Lol. The tour guide was telling us how this place is terrorizing - air force building during ww2 under Nazi Party, then under the socialist Russian govt during the cold war, and now, tax collection! Anyway, this was the mural in front of the building showing a scene during the demonstration when people all gathered outside the building to demand for rights. think this was during 1963, when the next day after the demonstrations, the Russians brought in tanks to quell the demonstrations. =(

A mural on the building talking about the ideal socialist life which apparently does not reflect the truth.

Another section of the Berlin wall, over which is the topology of terror exhibition. Cos everyone came here to steal a part of the wall, so they have decided to protect it with the wire fence.

Cool! This is the line separates East from West Berlin! The West side reads the words right side up =)

As the walking tour continues, we saw this! Haha. All the boyfriends in the world should come and see this place! It has mega big chocolate statues of the Titanic, the Remembrance church, the Reichstag and one more that I cannot remember.

Chocolate fountain! Laughs. It erupts de wor! Like volcano!

Gendermenmarkt! Haha. Twin prob will blog about Deustcher Dom! Haa. Anyway since she is going to talk about that and the French Dom, I shall show a pic instead of the music house in the centre and Schiller's statue. And you know when we were there, someone was playing the guitar very nicely wor.

Humboldt university. Where the Nazi book burning took place. =(

Memorial for the loss of the books during the burning. Empty bookshelves in the basement can be seen from this window on the ground.

This is a bridge we passed by, which has statues dictating the the life of a warrior. This is when he has died and the Gods came down to bring him to heaven!

We saw many of such horse rider statues around and found out that the number of legs of the horse in the end dictates how the rider died. All legs on the ground means he didnt die because of the war. One in the air means he suffered injuries during the war and died after the war. Two means he died in action. Hero!

We traced back the walking tour to see this - the IM Pei building. A transparent spiral.

One more thing to note. this used to be something related to the East Berlin, think it was their old town square or something. Its now being torn down to rebuilt the palace of the King.

As said, we went back to the church. So here are the pictures.