26 June - Day 102 Tuesday
We went on a Fat Bike Tour of Berlin. Instead of doing the touristy tour of all the Lonely Planet sights, we decided on the Raw Berlin Tour to see the aspects and hear the stories of Berlin that one would not come across normally. There were 8 people on the tour and after introductions were done, we had 5 Kiwis. Two from Highbury, two from Mt Maunganui and Sam our guide from Auckland (studied German History at Victoria U). All the bikes had names, so that we could identify which was whos, because they all look the same. Berlin is very flat, so the bikes only had 3 gears. We started from Alexander Platz, the city centre of East Berlin. You can't miss this place, there is a tall TV tower here, like Aucklands Sky City. From there we biked to an industrial part of Mitte (Middle) where there are many abandoned industrial buildings. Some of these are taken over by squatters, some for political protest reasons. So we learned a bit about the radical non conformist side of Germany. Something we have not seen in the other parts of Germany. One of the issues these protesters have (amongst others - very good ones I thought), was the gentrification of working class suburbs thereby raising the cost of living for them and a less communual community as well. One of the many drivers of gentrification is of course tourism. Sam say we are well beyond bottle throwing distance from the "squat" so we are quite safe.
Next we entered the suburb of Kreuzberg. Another working class, though West Berlin suburb, where Sam himself lives.
This used to be a hospital run by some church, but the death rate here was so high that people avoided this place if they valued their lives. Even the army won't send their wounded here. In anycase, today it is another "squat" and also home to one of the prominant street art curator of Berlin. On the other side is an open air cinema showing mainly gay/lesbian and alternative type movies and I think you pay what you can afford.
Sam is second from the left. He annouced the movie on that night, but I was thinking blockbuster Spiderman.
The street art is really good, and some building owners commission paintings as well. This one above is by a guy called Rio. Sam advised not the bother commissioning someone like him because he will take your money and paint something else to retain his artistic integrity. Business integrity is not on the radar.
The Berlin wall is a double wall and in some areas that is a huge space in between. This is Angel Lake formerly, a death strip between the walls now a beautiful lake and garden. The crappy apartments around soared in value when this was developed.
Unlike the Spanish and Italians, modern German architecture is functional. These buildings represent an attempt to add a little character to them.
We next came upon a gas storage area. But when Berlin adopted electricity, gas became obsolete. So this place was converted into a bunker in WW2 to hold about 5,000 people. But at the height of Allied bombing, it has held 20,000. This sign says Berlin underworld tour, a guided underground tour of Berlins bunkers and tunnels which Sam recommends. We then biked to Templehoff airport and stopped for a drink at the Bier Garten there. Marcus has a Club Mate, a fizzy cold tea.
Templehoff airport was the Berlin Nazi airport and is also famous for the airlift when the Russians cut off land tranport to Berlin in 1949. So for 11 months Berlin was supplied by air. This is fuel and food for 1 million people, an incredible logistical effort. Even Templehoff could not cope and the French army built Tegel airport in 3 weeks. Tegel still works today, and we will we flying from Tegel to Stockholm to meet the girls this Sunday :-) Templehoff was shut down in 2009, and today is a public park, and you can cycle, run, sail kites on the runway. Here is Marcus going past the main terminal built by Albert Speer the Nazi architect.
On the main run way which can handle 747s. On the left is a kite surfer.
This is a public communual vegetable garden in between the runways. People in this area are keen to grow their own veges and flowers. It gives a sense of commune, cheaper food and for some to flight globalisation. Sam said that all the big corporates only use one kind of seed to grow their fruits and veges because like McDonalds, consumers want their bananas to taste the same wherever they go. These guys a are trying to ensure the genetically diverse seeds are not lost as a result of this standardisation.
It was an unusual tour, not just from the off-the-beaten track thing, but also an insight to the progressive and diverse way of thinking about our world, our neighbours and values from this very eclectic but not well understood example these Berliners are setting.
27 June - Day 103
We wanted to go the the East Berlin DDR museum, but there were hundreds of school kids ahead so we moved on.
To Gendarmenmarkt as plaza which has the German Cathedral, a concert hall and another dome. Must be a good area because the Hilton and Carlton Ritz are here.
We then walked to Check Point Charlie nearby. Very touristy. They retained the checkpoint:
some of the signage
including the East German ones, I think.
We heard plenty of American voices here. Must be GIs returning to their old assignments.
There are lot of slices of the the Berlin wall here well decorated by street art.
And a shop hiring out the notoriously unreliable Trabant also call Trabi.
Down the road there is a 50 m stretch of the Berlin wall retained in an enclosed area. Just a step below is a narrative of how Hitler came to power and the bad things he did in Berlin and his demise.
This area is called the tour of terror because the museum nearby talks about the Gestapo. We have not visited this museum yet.
We got a bit hungry and had some lunch. Then it started raining so we decided to switch to indoor activities. We took the metro to Potsdam Platz to visit the Sony Centre.
This complex is very spacey, with a high roof covering five towers with restaurants underneath.
I got a 2 for 1 coupon for Legoland so we popped in for a 16 euro look. They just about built all the Berlin icons in Lego. The Brandenburg gate above with Unter den Linten running along.
The German Federal parliament, Reichstag.
The Sony Centre in Potsdam Platz.
Jaws and Marcus.
R2D2.
Indy.
And Peter Parker (not Lego), Berlin premiered the latest installment of Spiderman.
We went on a Fat Bike Tour of Berlin. Instead of doing the touristy tour of all the Lonely Planet sights, we decided on the Raw Berlin Tour to see the aspects and hear the stories of Berlin that one would not come across normally. There were 8 people on the tour and after introductions were done, we had 5 Kiwis. Two from Highbury, two from Mt Maunganui and Sam our guide from Auckland (studied German History at Victoria U). All the bikes had names, so that we could identify which was whos, because they all look the same. Berlin is very flat, so the bikes only had 3 gears. We started from Alexander Platz, the city centre of East Berlin. You can't miss this place, there is a tall TV tower here, like Aucklands Sky City. From there we biked to an industrial part of Mitte (Middle) where there are many abandoned industrial buildings. Some of these are taken over by squatters, some for political protest reasons. So we learned a bit about the radical non conformist side of Germany. Something we have not seen in the other parts of Germany. One of the issues these protesters have (amongst others - very good ones I thought), was the gentrification of working class suburbs thereby raising the cost of living for them and a less communual community as well. One of the many drivers of gentrification is of course tourism. Sam say we are well beyond bottle throwing distance from the "squat" so we are quite safe.
