Berlin 2008

Well so much to say about Berlin .. I didn't find it a beautiful city and I don't think I can see myself living there, but at the same time, there's so much History going on there from so many different eras, on each corner you have a monument that makes you realize the big and ferocious war that was going on there, every church every building that is still standing is rebuilt and you can see the obvious difference of materials used to rebuilt them, you can see bullet holes everywhere, although they filled them up with concrete (or something like that), but you still can see them (see pictures) and there's also this church Kaiser William Church, which is a landmark to remember the destruction after WW II (my favorite place, because it really makes you go back in time) , we can se pictures everywhere of how the city was left after the war and it's devastating, and impressive at the same time, how they where able the rebuilt everything practically from scratch, maybe that's also a reason for why the city is a big mess regarding Arquitectural styles.
Then you have the Berlin Wall related landmarks, also all around the city … you can fell the energy of these people who wanted to leave desperately, the communist side, even if it killed them (and sometimes it did) there are posters, pictures everywhere, the Checkpoint Charlie (pls see pictures) that was a connection point between the American and the Russian side, and where many people died, trying to cross, and others where able to escape. You can also view the extremely ugly buildings from the former communist side of Berlin, just plain grey concrete blocks, with tiny windows.
But you also have the magnificent structures raised by the Keiser (and he's predecessors) .. at least the buildings that where not completely destroyed, like the Charlottenburg Palace (picture) and Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral, picture). Of course we also visited the The Brandenburg Gate, The Victory Column (Siegessäule) with the angel on top, The Reichstag (Parliament, The building is perhaps most famous as being the centre of Hitler's dictatorship government from 1933)

And out of curiosity we passed by where once was Hitler's bunker (where he spent his last minutes and killed himself) there's just a sign, with the blueprint and explaining very briefly how it was build, actually it pretty impressive because it was huge, like a small city underground … today it's a parking lot :S …. and just 200 meters from there, there's the Jewish Museum Berlin's refereeing to all the Jewish people that died, plus the Monument (in my opinion extremely ugly and a huge lost of space, I'm not sure you can have the right idea of the extension, but it's basically hundreds of dark grey concrete blocks (different sizes) and reminds us of a huge cemetery full of coffins .. in my humble opinion I though they could do much better, like build a Garden with nice trees, for the children to play, and a statue or something like that, as a memorial .. but who am I anyway …
to finish … good shopping places, very good sales (shoes anyway ..) J ohh and great Wiener schnitzel and Great beer!!
That's it! I recommend visiting Berlin, full of story, not always an happy one unfortunately but it opens our eyes in so many ways, I felt like having a "reality check", telling me that, all this was not just in the movies, it was real!!!
Carpe Diem