Assyrian human-headed winged bull from Nimrud; 9th cent. BCE; Pergamon Museum, Berlin
A Lamassu is an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted as having a human’s head, a body of an ox or a lion, and bird’s wings.
In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity.
In ancient Mesopotamia the Lamassu was not only believed to be very powerful but was also a clear reminder of the king’s ultimate authority and as symbols of protection for all the people.
These creatures famously protected the theone room and important parts of the city.

These mythical creatures were also supposed to bless nearby houses

The Lamassu motif first appeared in royal palaces at Nimrud, during the reign of Ashurnasirpal II, and disappeared after the reign of Ashurbanipal who ruled between 668 BC and 627 BC.

The symbol of a lion a brave and strong head of a tribe, but also as a protector could have evolved from the Lamassu.

To prevent the bunker devolving into a Neo-Nazi shrine, the govt strategy was to ensure the surroundings remain anonymous and unremarkable.The immediate area was occupied by a small Chinese restaurant and shopping centre while the emergency exit point for the bunker (which had been in the Chancellery gardens) was occupied by a car park.

The exit

The entrance

On June 8, 2006, due to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, a small plaque was installed to mark the location. The plaque, with a plan of the bunker, can be found at the corner of In den Ministergärten and Gertrud-Kolmar-Straße, two small streets about three minutes’ walk from Potsdamer Platz. Hitler’s bodyguard, Rochus Misch, one of the last people living who was in the bunker at the time of Hitler’s suicide, was on hand for the ceremony.

To see what the bunker looked like inside, check out the virtual reconstruction that was made by Christoph Neubauer.

I wonder how India and Indians would have treated the legacy of someone like Hitler. Germany and germans very proudly apologise for all the atrocities committed by him as is evident from the various memorials

We left the Museum Island and walked on to Unter den Linden Street. There is no missing a beautiful neo-classical building. Drawn by the crowds there I also went in.

Originally built as a guardhouse for the troops of the Crown Prince of Prussia, by architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel the Neue Wache ( or New Guard House) building has been used as a war memorial since 1931.

Nothing prepared me for what I saw inside. Its a huge bare room with an open roof. Under it sits the Käthe Kollwitz sculpture Mother with her Dead Son and the oculus, which exposes the sculpture to the elements.

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The oculus or opening in the roof for the elements to pour in, seemed to me to symbolise the enlightenment of those who pause to reflect on the ravages of war.

Interestingly enough since Unter den Linten was in the Soviet part of Berlin , in 1960 the repaired Neue Wache was reopened as a Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism. In 1969, the 20th anniversary of the GDR, a glass prism structure with an eternal flame was placed in center of the hall. And the remains of the Unknown Soldier and of an unknown concentration camp victim from World War II were enshrined in the building.
Something which seemed quite incompatible to many!

Book Burning Memorial
In Berlin, some 40,000 people gathered in the Opernplatz / now Bebelplatz to hear Joseph Goebbels deliver a fiery address: “No to decadence and moral corruption!” Goebbels enjoined the crowd. “Yes to decency and morality in family and state! I consign to the flames the writings of Heinrich Mann, Ernst Gläser, Erich Kästner.”
On 10th May 1933 members of the SA (“brownshirts”), SS, Nazi students and Hitler Youth groups burnt pver 20,000 books.

Bebelplatz with the Opera House on the left ( being reconstructed) , the Catholic Church, St. Hedwig in the centre , and end of square and the law dept of Humboldt University on the right

Just near it a line of Heinrich Heine is engraved, stating “Das war ein vorspiel nur wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen” (in English: “Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people”)
Heine was one of the authors whose books were burned that day.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
There are many memorials in Berlin and most of them symbolic.

The most famous of these is the memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe also known as the Holocaust Memorial and is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. it is designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or “stelae”, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field.

There are many explanations for this design . To me it seemed like so many tombstones but apparently according to Eisenman’s project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.
According to s 2005 copy of the Foundation for the Memorial’s official English tourist pamphlet,the design represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial.
I suppose like all symbolism it depends on the imagination, scope and understanding of the viewer.

Topography of Terror

The most feared address in Berlin was the building located in the former Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse,now Niederkirchnerstrasse.I was easy to go in but almost impossible to come out. This was the Headquarter of the dreaded Gestapo and S,S the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era

During WW2 this location was heavily bombarded and whatever was left of it was later razed to the ground after the war.The boundary between the American and Soviet zones of occupation in Berlin ran along the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, so the street soon became a fortified boundary, and the Berlin Wall ran along the south side of the street.
Today there is an outdoor museum alongside the longest segment of remains of the outer Berlin Wall .

It chronicles the horrors and atrocities of the Nazis from the period 1933 to their fall in 1945.

This was one of the successful escapes from East Germany to West Germany using nylon ropes,

Soviets patrolling Berlin after the war

Watch the video here: Berlin In Your Pocket – Topography of Terror

Its only when we openly admit our mistakes that we can redress them.a
India can you hear me?nd wounds can heal and we can move forward like Germans have.

Bebelplatz with the Opera House on the left ( being reconstructed) , the Catholic Church, St. Hedwig in the centre , and end of square and the law dept of Humboldt University on the right

Just near it a line of Heinrich Heine is engraved, stating “Das war ein vorspiel nur wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen” (in English: “Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people”)
Heine was one of the authors whose books were burned that day.

After the end of World War II in Europe, what remained of pre-war Germany west of the Oder-Neisse line was divided into four occupation zones (per the Potsdam Agreement), each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers: the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union.

A map of Germany with the flags denoting which area was administered by which country.
Berlin was bang in the centre of the Soviet zone.

The capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was also subdivided into four sectors despite the city’s location fully within the Soviet zone.

Air passages were provided by the Soviets to the Allies.

Within two years, political divisions increased between the Soviets and the other occupying powers. Stalin had revealed to German communist leaders as early as 1945,that he expected to slowly undermine the British position within the British occupation zone, that the United States would withdraw within a year or two, and that nothing then would stand in the way of a united communist Germany within the bloc.
And on 7 October 1949 The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was declared .However, by a secret treaty, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy.

There was a massive difference between the quality of life and opportunities in West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany), which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy and a democratic parliamentary government. GDR or East Germany in contrast was a socialist state under Soviet control.
Very soon there was a massive immigration of East Germans into West Germany who took advantage of the zonal border between occupied zones in Germany.

Murals on an East German govt building ( still existing) showing glowing faces and happy workers . Whereas reality was discontent

The inner German border was officially sealed in 1952,but the border in Berlin was still considerably more accessible because it was administered by all four occupying powers and so Berlin became the main route for defection by East Germans to the West.
On Saturday, 12 August 1961, an order was signed by east german govt to close the border and erect a wall.
Overnight a barbed wire fence appeared. At midnight, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border and, by Sunday morning, 13 August, the border with West Berlin was closed. East German troops and workers had begun to tear up streets running alongside the border to make them impassable to most vehicles and to install barbed wire entanglements and fences along the 156 kilometres (97 mi) around the three western sectors, and the 43 kilometres (27 mi) that divided West and East Berlin

Overnight a people were divided.
Billy Wilder was shooting in Berlin the morning the Wall went up, and the crew had to move to Munich. When the movie opened that December, the writer-director appended this preface: “On Sunday, August 13th, 1961, the eyes of America were on the nation’s capital, where Roger Maris was hitting home runs #44 and 45 against the Senators. On that same day, without any warning, the East German Communists sealed off the border between East and West Berlin. I only mention this to show the kind of people we’re dealing with — REAL SHIFTY.”

On 15 August 1961, Conrad Schumann was guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall at Ruppiner Straße At that time, the wall was only a low barbed wire fence. From the other side, West Germans shouted to him, “Komm’ rüber!” (“Come over!”), and a police car pulled up to wait for him. Schumann jumped over the barbed wire fence and was promptly driven away from the scene by the West Berlin police. West German photographer Peter Leibing photographed Schumann’s escape, and this picture has since become an iconic image of the Cold War era.
This is a painting on a column in Berlin.

Over the years there were many attempts at escape . They are documented in the Museum of Topography or Terrors,
The most heart rending is of 18 year old east German brick – layer , Peter Fechter who became one of the first victims of the Berlin Wall’s border guards while trying to cross over to what was then West Berlin.
After he was shot down he lay bleeding and crying for help in full view of both East and west German guards and yet no help was given.

Demonstrations after the death of Peter Fecter

Border at Checkpoint Charlie marked by bricks

The fall of the Berlin Wall

It’s always the small people who change things. It’s never the politicians or the big guys. I mean, who pulled down the Berlin wall? It was all the people in the streets. The specialists didn’t have a clue the day before.
Luc Besson

November 9, 1989 saw a new travel law when after the dramatic events such as a massive flight of inhabitants of the GDR via Hungary and big demonstrations in Leipzig on Mondays and after much discussion , the leader of East Berlin’s communist party , Günter Schabowski, said at about 7 p.m. in somewhat unclear words that the border would be opened for “private trips abroad”. Little later, an onrush of East Berliner’s towards West Berlin began, and there were celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate and at the Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin. On November 10, demolition works began with the aim of creating new border crossings. On November 12, a checkpoint at the Potsdamer Platz was opened, and on December 22, a checkpoint for pedestrians was opened at the Brandenburg Gate. So-called “wall woodpeckers” hammered pieces out of the wall, many of which were sold as souvenirs. A few larger segments were officially donated or sold.
On July 1 1990, an economic, monetary and social union between East and West Germany was formed, and all restrictions concerning travels were dropped. The wall had vanished almost completely by 1991; there are a few remainders at the Bernauer Strasse, the Niederkirchnerstrasse (near the building of the former Prussian parliament, now housing the parliament of Berlin) and as the 1.3 km long “East-Side-Gallery” near the railway station “Ostbahnhof”.

The Eastside gallery

On February 1997, a red line was painted on the pavement at the former “Checkpoint Charlie” to mark the course of the former Berlin wall. This line shall reach a length of 20 km and shall be replaced by two rows of paving stones.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie (alpha,bravo,charlie) was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.
Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of east and west.

A chilling reminder to those who went into East berlin…..

Museum at Checkpoint Charlie was created to document the so-called “best border security system in the world” (in the words of East German general Heinz Hoffmann). On display are the photos and related documents of successful escape attempts from East Germany, together with the escape apparatus: hot-air balloons, getaway cars, chairlifts, and a mini-U-Boat.

The checkpoint’s gate has been replaced by larger-than-life posters of a young American soldier facing east and a young Russian soldier facing west.

The rebuilt guard station now hosts two actors playing American guards who pose for photos.They charge 2 euros for it and 5 for a stamp. They even greet you in your language. We played guessing games. Italiano?, Espanyol?” till I told them I am an Indian. he promptly said Namaste and Dhanyawaad.

The former Einstein Cafe which served as a vantage point for espionage in cold war days

Some pictures from the Open air museum to the Berlin Wall, near Checkoint Charlie
Collage made by me. They show the historic moments in the history of the Wall

http://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/11/top-10-berlin-wall-movies/
TIME looks back at 10 movies that were set in the time of the Wall—and now have outlasted it.

Kennedy’s iconic visit to Checkpoint Charlie and the moment when Soviet tanks rolled up to Checkpoint Charlie
Soon after the construction of the Berlin Wall, a standoff occurred between U.S. and Soviet tanks on either side of Checkpoint Charlie. It began on 22 October as a dispute over whether East German guards were authorized to examine the travel documents of a U.S. diplomat named Allan Lightner passing through to East Berlin to see the opera.

The next thing on the agenda was to walk across to Park Inn and hop on the yellow bus. It being a Monday Saif had some work to do and so I decided to spend the time on Museum Island.

The first stop of course was Pergamon Museum. The site was designed by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann and was constructed in twenty years, from 1910 to 1930. The Pergamon houses original-sized, reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus, all consisting of parts transported from Turkey. The Pergamon Museum was severely damaged during the air attack on Berlin at the end of the Second World War. Many of the display objects were stored in safe places, and some of the large pieces were walled in for protection. In 1945, the Red Army collected all of the loose museum items, and it wasn;t until 1958 that most of the objects returned to East Germany. Significant parts of the collection remain in Russia.
I had heard about the Pergamon altar bur nothing had prepared me for the scale of it! it has to be seen to be believed.

with my ordinary camera there was no way I could do justice to it but whatever I could capture reinforces my memory.

There was a sense of peace in the room, even with so many people trying to get the best camera position or just sit on the steps and soak in the atmosphere

The Altar was built during the reign of King Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis of the ancient city of Pergamon in Asia Minor.
The structure is 35.64 meters wide and 33.4 meters deep; the front stairway alone is almost 20 meters wide. The base is decorated with a frieze in high relief showing the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods

A model of the actual altar.

There are so many treasures in the museum and it isn’t within my scope to post more than the two highlights of the museum and a few pieces which caught my eye.

The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city.
Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušḫuššu (dragons) and aurochs.Originally the gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the world until, in the 6th century AD, it was replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way was built at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin out of material excavated by Robert Koldewey and finished in the 1930s
It was a double gate; the part that is shown in the Pergamon Museum today is the smaller, frontal part. The larger, back part was considered too large to fit into the constraints of the structure of the museum; it is in storage.

Every time I go to a museum in the west I feel i am in one of the world’s largest chor-bazaars!!!!

The size of the gate can be seen from the size of the people in front of it. Its cobalt and gold colors are just as vibrant today and I can appreciate its awe inspiring effect on visitors to the market in 575 BC…

The Mshatta Facade

This is the decorated part of the facade of the 8th century Umayyad residential palace of Qasr Mshatta, one of the Desert Castles in Jordan,
The facade was a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, who had heard of its beauty.

It’s an important monument of early Islamic art and architecture, demonstrating early forms of the arabesque and also animals carved in relief.

This wall ran around the mosque and hence no animals just flowers

Some more exhibits from the museum:

temple to a goddess

Pitcher Perfect

The Aleppo Room is a reception room from a broker’s home in Aleppo, Syria that was commissioned during the Ottoman Period

dhoondho dhoondho re saajnaa more kaan ka baala

Literally an arms lenghth ( measurement standards on stone)

We decided to take advantage of the glorious sunshine and take a cruise along the River Spree.
You can take the cruise from Museum Island

Berlin is such a lovely welcoming place. The people are friendly and the transport system great.
There is so much to see and so much to do.

Booking.com

I had made all the hotel bookings and itinerary via reviews on booking.com. Most of the reviews are very trust worthy. Tip :I would advise anyone making bookings not to book any place which gets less than 8 points.Also if you are dependent on public transport , check the distance from the nearest underground station. You don’t want to spend time on traveling instead of sight seeing.

Tip: Another advise would be unless you have small children, who need special food which you have to cook, don’t opt for an apartment. They don’t provide housekeeping services and it’s nobody’s idea of fun to clean or make beds on a holiday. Also the bathrooms become too messy!

I had booked an apartment in Berlin, since I was there for a week and thought I could do some cooking for my son who I (and my maid back home) felt needed some pampering and hot food….
But so much for plans of mice and men! The kitchenette was just a platform with a cooking range, tea kettle and micro wave. Though there were pots and pans etc but I could only manage to make breakfast and tea. ( That also with dollops of help from the neighborhood bakery)

Tip : Buy a Berlin welcome Card or Berlin pass if you plan to visit Berlin’s magnificent museums.
Here is the link.

You can study both schemes and decide which is best for you.
There is also a pass for 28 Euros for all public transport , valid for a week which I took. I did not know about the welcome card or pass so ended up paying a lot for the hop on hop bus and entry into museums.

Hop on Hop off Bus
the best way to see any unknown city . especially one teaming with history is to get atop a hop on hop off bus.
I preferred the yellow bus as for 22 Euros and is valid for 2 days. It also covers maximum places.
The buses start from Kurfurstendamm/corner Rankestrasse – opposite the Memorial Church and Alexanderplatz / opposite Park Inn Hotel. You can get to both on the public transport which I must say is excellent.

I brought glorious sunshine with me to Berlin , ideal for sightseeing atop an open double-Decker.

Though my personal recommendation is that you must do the walking tour, if you can walk for 4-5 hours comfortably
(Pack comfy walking shoes)
The Insider Berlin walking tours show all the main sites while delivering a gripping narrative on this city’s history, character and contemporary state.
I loved it. Unfortunately I came to know of it a little late so missed most of their tours, including Dresdem ( which is only Sundays and Wednesdays)
I just took The Famous Insider Walk:Hidden Berlin & ALL Main Sites

Memorial Church
The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche or Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is one of Berlin’s most famous landmarks. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The present building, which consists of a church with an attached foyer and a separate belfry with an attached chapel, was built between 1959 and 1963. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained and its ground floor has been made into a memorial hall.
The damaged tower is a symbol of Berlin’s resolve to rebuild the city after the war and a constant reminder of the destruction of war.
In the collage i have made you can see the original church tower and the one being rebuilt under cover with just the spire showing.
The new building was something which seemed to the purist in me like pigeon holes and I didn’t like it. Actually I couldn’t figure out what it was to start with.
Did not take any close ups of it either!

The new church and the covered tower under renovation can be seen in this.

KadeWe
Since I strongly believe in the deen and duniya concept, my next stop was at KaDeWe.

The Kaufhaus des Westens which means English “Department Store of the West” is known to us shopoholics as KaDeWe. With over 60,000 square metres of selling space and more than 380,000 articles available, it is the second largest department store in Europe; second only by Harrods in London. It attracts 40,000 to 50,000 visitors every day

The lobby

What made it stand out for me were the displays.

For the brand conscious

for those with a shoe fetish

for those who like to smell of roses

for those with a sweet tooth

for those who would like to buy 450 Euro Miu Miu shoes!

or 2500 euro Ralph Lauren bedsheets!

I sent these pictures by whatsapp to my sisters and nieces back home from the shop and in return got a picture from them with the caption, “Rana our desi malls, just for you.”

me: ” at least I can buy there. here it was only a case of , “Look Maa no hands!”

Driving Ms Rana
The big yellow bus drove me through Berlin.

Berlin is full of symbolic memorials

The Berlin Philharmonic‘s golden building.Like many parts of Berlin, the orchestra’s first concert hall was destroyed in 1944. Since 1963, the orchestra has been resident at the Philharmonie, which was constructed from 1960 until 1963, following the design of architect Hans Scharoun.

The Potsdamer Platz is named after the city of Potsdam, some 25 km to the south west, and marks the point where the old road from Potsdam passed through the city wall of Berlin at the Potsdam Gate. Once the most bustling traffic intersection in Europe, it was totally laid waste during World War II and totally desolated during the Cold War era when the Berlin Wall bisected its former location. Since German reunification, Potsdamer Platz has been the site of major redevelopment projects.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, the square became the focus of attention again, as some 60 hectares in an attractive location suddenly became available in the centre of a major European capital city. As part of a redevelopment effort for the area, the Sony center was constructed.

The Sony centre was designed by Helmut Jahn and construction was completed in 2000 at a total cost of €750M.
It is crowned by a spectacular and innovative roof. The architect Helmut Jahn wanted a roof that would cover the plaza like an umbrella, without being sealed or disconnecting users from an outdoor experience.
The exceptional glass membrane roof rests on a 500t ring beam.

It houses shops, restaurants, a conference centre, hotel rooms, luxurious rented suites and condominiums, offices, art and film museums, cinemas, an IMAX theatre, a small version of Legoland, and a “Sony Style” store.

A well earned rest after all the walking!

A giraffe made entirely with Lego stands outside the centre.

Museum Island
Museum Island (German: Museumsinsel) is the name of the northern half of an island in the Spree river in the central Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, the site of the old city of Cölln. A complex of five internationally significant museums give it this name.

A bronze map of Museum island near Pergamon Museum.
The museums are
The Altes Museum (Old Museum)
The Neues Museum (New Museum)Destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt under the direction of David Chipperfield for the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and re-opened in 2009.
The Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) hosts a collection of 19th century art donated by banker Joachim H. W. Wagener
The Bode Museum on the island’s northern tip, which exhibits the sculpture collections and late Antique and Byzantine art.
The Pergamon Museum, the final museum of the complex, constructed in 1930. It contains multiple reconstructed immense and historically significant buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.

The Pergamon Museum

The Altes Museum

The Bode Museum

Flea market
However, the day being Sunday my interest in the Museum Island were not the magnificent museums there but the wonderful flea market which is set up on the banks of River Spree on the weekend.
Inspite of dissuasion from my son who felt that there’s no percentage in running after the past and i should buy new and swanky stuff, the collector’s instinct in me pulled me there. Unless we preserve our past how do we save our future?
After much bargaining I purchased a couple of Limoges coffee cups and a few porcelain figurines from the vendors.

CharlottenBurg Schloss
Since the sun sets much later in the west and there was glorious sunshine we decided to hop on the next yellow bus and hop off at CharlottenBurg Schloss. of all the places we wanted to visit this was the furthest. The rest are more or less within walking distance from Alexanderplatz.
This is the largest palace in Berlin and is framed by a baroque-style garden. The Old Palace, has baroque rooms, royal apartments and a large Chinese and Japanese porcelain collection. In 1696, Sophie Charlotta the wife of Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg had the original Charlottenburg Palace constructed at Lützow by Arnold Nehring: here, she lived independently from her spouse and had her own court. Her spouse was only allowed there by invitation, such as in 1699, when she hosted a birthday party for him there. From 1700, she regularly lived there in the summer months. She surrounded herself with philosophers and scientists and inspired the foundation of the Prussian Science academy. She was interested in music, sang and played the cembalo, had an Italian opera theater constructed, and employed the musicians Attilio Ariosti and Giovanni Battista Bononcini.

The new wing

The palace was severely damaged in World War II, and rebuilt starting in the 1950’s.The dome seen in this ppicture is a rebuilt one.

The gardens at the back

Sophie Charlotta’s piano.

Baroque style ceiling

The porcelain collection

for 98 Euros you can also go for an Evening at Charlottenburg Palace, with dinner, a self-guided palace tour and concert featuring the Berlin Residence Orchestra included. This tour is normally booked weeks in advance, so with a choice of four seating categories available, book ahead of time to avoid disappointment!
I had even carried a silk suit to wear as a guest of the palace at the concert but was unable to attend it du to shortage of time.
But I would advise those who like music to book in advance and attend it

On the way to CharlottenBurg Schloss we passed by Schloss Bellevue which was built for a Prussian prince, a German architectural first. Today it is the official residence of the German president.

Schloss Bellevue

The Victory Column is a very tall structure located in the middle of Berlin’s Tiergarten, constructed between 1871 and 1873 to celebrate Germany’s victory over France in the 1870/71 Franco-Prussian War.
It is 66 metres tall and is crowned by a bronze statue of the goddess Victoria.
Originally the column was placed directly in front of the Reichstag and was moved by the Nazi government in 1939 to its current location as part of their plans to extensively redevelop the centre of Berlin. At the same time the column was heightened by about 7.5 metres.

The Tier park ran alongside the roads which our bus took to CharlottenBurg Palace and it’s worth a visit. I spent one quiet evening there with Saif talking about “shoes and sghips and sealing wax and cabbages and kings.”

The bus takes us to the antique market after Charlotten Schloss. I did not get down and only indulged in some window shopping.

For one day we had packed in quite a bit and decided to call it a day.
Of course we went out for dinner to Alexanderplatz.
My problem as a vegetarian is that I normally ended up eating only Felafel sandwiches at Doner shops.
After the 2nd World war , Turks were brought to help rebuild Berlin and they have a huge presence there. For those who like me want helal food, the Doners are always helal