Autumn Visit to Berlin
26/11/2005
This Autumn, I was visiting my good friend Tomas Schelp in his city of residence, Berlin. I was hoping for cold weather and luckily for me the Berlin skies provided ample snow for snowballing and the streets were kind enough to ice over too. I was only there for a few days and I was hoping we could see a bit of the city and do a few of the 'tourist' things and sure enough Berlin came up trumps with a crisp sunny Saturday and Tomas taking me in to town.
Reichstag
First off was the Reichstag, built late 19th Centuary by Kaiser Wilheim II and host to a number of key Historical scenes, this grand building stands in the centre of Berlin, a stones through from the old east/west Berlin wall. Tourists can meander their way up to the roof and check out the glass dome on top. It's free, but not without a queue. You can see me there on the roof looking at the fantastic view of the city.
Autumn Leaves in Tiergarten
Next we went for a stroll in the Tiergarten. Both tomas and I were taken by the rich autumnal colours. Tomas, being the photographer he is had to stop and take a few snaps of some golden leaves (you can see me in the picture also).
Statues in Tiergarten
The Tiergarten is a very serene park, even though it's in the centre of a large city, it was very quiet when we visited, except for a regement of speed walkers, the only remnants of city life was the distant hum of traffic. One aspect of the park that grasped our attention was that a number of the statues still had bullet holes and schrapnel damage from the fighting at the end of WWII, you can see me surveying one such statue.
Siegesuele
And in the centre of Tiergarten sits a grand momument the Siegesuele - 'Victory Column' something to do with Napaleon I think. Here's a picture of me nearby, I feel it has a sort of Japanese feel to it myself.
Road to Siegesuele
Further into the park and we came across this rather busy 3 lane dual carrageway. We quite liked the view of the Siegesuele from here hence me poseing again in the middle for another photo; strangely a couple of girls at the roads edge seemed to be applauding us, not sure what that was about!
Back in The Park
And here I am for the final photo under one of those delightful autmunal trees.
Photo Credit
Photo's by my very talented friend, Tomas Schelp