Ich bin ein aderer Berliner day3 12 /6/15

Today we plan a bird's eye view of Berlin. We are heading first of all to the Fernsehturm, or TV tower. At 368 meters it is Berlin's highest structure. It was built in 1969 as a Socialist-Realist monument to the technical prowess of the Eastern Block and couldn't be more in your face. The globe which rotates 365° every 30 minutes contains a restaurant in the middle and a viewing gallery with bar below. Now I remember this from 25 years ago with brother Jonty. It seems a lot smarter today, as does all the surrounding area. Now you see it,

now you see from it.

Yes, this does show the shadow of the tower from the tower. The next shot is a view of the Rot Rathaus. Sounds grim but simply means Red Town hall in English.

Here is a view down Karl Marx Allee. The huge Boulevard was laid out by Hermann Henselmann along with the housing blocks to accommodate the homeless heroes. To be fair he didn't knock anything down to create his utopian world. We did it for him.

This next picture is quite important for your geography of Berlin. It shows a lot and I will try to describe it to you. Enlarge it as much as you can. We will start at the bottom and work up. We are looking West from the old GDR.The church is the famous St Marien's. At the cross roads above the church you can see some pink pipes going over the road. These are the still functioning community heating schemes which pumped hot water to all the buildings. The road then crosses the River Spree next to the Berliner Dom  (Cathedral) and onto Museum Island. Pretty well all the buildings left and right of the Cathedral are museums. The road kinks right and becomes Unter den Linden up to the Brandenburg Gate just before the woods of Tiergarten. You can see the dome of the Bundestag just above the big building that looks like a giant TV screen. 

After lunch we visited the Cathedral. Built by the Hohenzollern dynasty (remember them?) to reflect their power and glory. They needed somewhere to worship and be worshipped, to marry and be buried.  Started in 1747,the building has been altered many times. What we see today is Neo-Baroque, finished in 1905.  Well actually finished again in1993 after 40 years restoration.  This is Berlin we're talking about. 

We paid to take the round tour which we didn't realise involved climbing the 385 steps up to the dome walk. This was quite a challenge for Helen but she "rose"to the occasion and was rewarded with some great views from the top. As we went round there were some little listening posts with doctrinal information which were great fun. Part way up we got this bird's eye view of a wedding taking place which was accompanied by some magnificent organ music 

All the family sarcophagi are in the crypt and it was my privilege to meet one of the late Hohenzollerns. Well that was enough to dine out on, in Berlin. So we did.