Sweltering in BERLIN!

Sweltering in BERLIN!

[Music] Well, hello there. Welcome to Germany and welcome to the city of Berlin. YouTube is full of videos showing you what to do in Berlin, where to go, beautifully produced videos, very professional by people who know what they’re talking about. Is this going to be yet another one of those? Absolutely not. No. No. It’s our very first time in Berlin. It’s a very big city. We’re a little bit confused. We’ve only got some makeshift maps. We’ve got half an idea what we want to see. We’ve got a couple of days to try and find our way around. You’re invited. Come and have an adventure with us. We might get lost. In fact, we will definitely get lost. We already have trying to get here. It was close. And we’re going to have fun. So, you are invited. Let’s go on a bit of an idiot’s walk around Berlin. So, we found our way to Alexander Plats in what was East Berlin back in the day. and uh we’re going to be trying to cover a few bits of what was East and what was West Berlin and all that sort of stuff. This is the TV tower built by the East Germans, not only to transmit TV and radio, but also so they could see it over in West Berlin. Are we going to go up it? It’s €30. We’ve got other things to do today, so we may well give that a miss. But we’ll just look from the outside. Yeah. So, we just come out the back of the tower and there’s a lovely old church there. And then just over here, another very different church in the distance. And then there’s some wonderful fountains. Let’s see if we can catch them going off for you. And not a church apparently. It’s called Red City Hall, so I’m told. Here’s the fountains. They were looking spectacular a second ago. And of course, the second I get here, they switch off. I’ve been waiting 15 minutes, and they still haven’t come back on again. So, I think we shall move on. Well, I’m not sure who she is, but this lady looks like she’s had her um boobs rubbed a few times. No wonder she’s smiling. Oh, she’s not. Oh, never mind. And who’s that? Not quite sure. Yeah, Red City Hall right here uh is currently hosting the Berlin Hofffest and they’re just uh practicing on the big stage in there with the music as you can probably hear in the background. and they were just running through a series of cause hits uh including Runaway and all that sort of stuff and it was so realistic. It was so like the cause and it got me checking Google to see if the cause were actually playing here tonight. It’s not them. It’s a tribute band. But just by coincidence 3 days ago right here in Berlin, guess who was playing? Yeah, you got it. The cause just missed him. Right, we’ve moved on. We’ve caught another uban across the city and we’re now on Friedrich Strasa and we’re right here at checkpoint Charlie which I know there’s not a lot to see but it’s if you’re in Berlin you just got to see haven’t you really you are entering the American sector carrying weapons off duty forbidden obey traffic rules. There’s the picture up there. Aha. There’s the other side. Here’s the little US Army checkpoint. Everybody queuing up to have their picture taken in front of it and a hop off bus. And I’ve just noticed on this side of the the sign, on this side of the picture, you get a Russian soldier and on the other side it’s an American soldier. And of course, they got to make the most of it. So everything around this part of town is to do with checkpoint Charlie. [Music] And remember the old east German trabants. Look at this traby world. I think you can hire them. Can you hire them? I think you can, can’t you? Yeah, I think so. I think you go like a guided tour. You know, you drive around. Look at that extended one up there. Fabulous. Still three cars available. Would you dare to drive around Berlin in one of these? No. H having seen the traffic I’m not entirely sure and after the fun of Trabby World just across the road you come to something a lot more serious and this apparently it’s called topography of terrors apparently it was the headquarters in the second world war of Gestapo where thousands of Jewish people were rounded up and bit of the Berlin wall behind it and that big building behind there was part of the East German Ministry of something or other in the uh communist days as well. Nowadays, it’s all part of a big exhibition free to come into here. And just above that tragic place is the remaining 200 m or so of the Berlin Wall, which is now been designated as a monument. We’ve just walked up the road a little bit further and this is Pot Dama Plats. Very modern, very glassy. Big Deutschean Tower in the distance there. And the idea is that we are going to walk through the park area that’s in front of us that is called Teier Garden. We’re going to go and have a look at the Brandenburgg Gate and then we’re going to end up at the um what’s it called? The capital the rich tag. And we have got tickets to get into the dome this afternoon at 4:00. Whether that’s a great idea today. It’s 34° here in Berlin today. And we’re going into a dome that’s made of glass. So, uh we might just be a bit uh sweaty when we come out. Time will tell. Well, we were just walking up towards the Brandenburg gate and we saw this on our right hand side and I said, “What’s that?” And it turns out it is the Holocaust Memorial. Of course, it is. And there’s 2,700 blocks here, which were placed there to commemorate 6,000 Jewish people. Actually, 6 million 6 million, sorry, 6 million Jewish people who were murdered across Europe. Across Europe. That’s just unbelievable, isn’t it? And this was formerly the site of a building that was the home and the offices of the president of the Reich back in the years up to and during the Second World War. And it was demolished when they started building the Berlin Wall in 1961. And then after reunification, they built this. Very, very touching. a place of peace and sadness right in the middle of a very vibrant city center. And here we are at maybe one of the most famous structures in Berlin. This is the Brandenburg Gate. Of course, nowadays a symbol of reunification of Berlin. To be honest with you, I’m not quite sure what the history of the Brandenburg Gate is, but of course you can look that up for yourself. As I say, this is a an idiot Brit guide to Berlin. Well, not even a guide. An idiot wandering around Berlin with no idea at all. But anyway, it’s a very impressive place. And the whole square is absolutely gorgeous. Massive square behind it with a combination of big hotels and embassies as well. There’s the US embassy up on our right hand side. I need to highlight that. And here’s Nina. Her biggest concern is finding another bottle of water. Water. Water. Water. Right. It’s lunchtime. Berlin. 34° C. It’s time for one of these. And it’s a little beer. Just a small one. Cheers everybody. And um [Music] saloo. Here we are. This is the rice tag. the German Parliament. Yeah. So, we’re ticking off these sites one by one. So, we’ve got tickets booked to go into the the dome and the viewing area there at 4:00. It’s now 20 3. So, we’re going to have a look around first. Very impressive building. Yeah, it looks it looks like a a parliament, doesn’t it? And right alongside the rich stag, this is the river, the main river through Berlin. You can see the TV tower where we were earlier just in the distance over there. Well, as we expected, we’re here at the rice tag and we can’t go into the glass dome. It’s 34° and it’s way too hot to let people in there. But we can still go on to the viewing terrace. So that’s what we’re doing now. So, we should still get a nice view across Berlin. So, there it is, the dome. Now, when it’s open, you can walk all the way round and round and round on a big spiral slope. Go straight to the top. They won’t let us do that, but it looks like there are people on the bottom of it, so we should be able to get in there later. In the meantime, you are allowed to walk around here. Woo. That seems a lot higher than I thought it was going to be. So, we should get some nice views across Berlin. Hopefully. Reminds me a little bit of the the mushrooms in Seville where we were a few weeks ago. Very different, but similar in a way. Watch the video. It’s on this channel. So over on this side, we should get some nice views across towards the eastern side of Berlin hopefully. Yeah, look at this great view across to the TV tower. You can see the river in the foreground. I think that’s the is that part of the railway station there or one of the railway stations and you can see all the highrises of Berlin. [Music] Well, it’s good to hear they’re enjoying themselves. And there’s the dome. Yeah, absolutely stunning views from here. To be honest, I’m not too fussed about going up into the dome anyway. It’s only probably another, I don’t know, 50 60 ft higher, so the views wouldn’t change that much. And it’s really, really nice out here. There’s a little bit of breeze and you get a lovely view. Fantastic. And a nice view across the Teier Garden Park there. Tell you what, Berlin is just so enormous. I know. I knew it was obviously I knew it was a big city, a capital city of Germany, but it’s just vast, this place. Yeah. So, this is where you’d normally go and you’d start your winding round and round and round until you got to the top. Actually, it’s not that warm in here to be honest with you, but I can understand why they’ve stopped people going up there today. Look at this. Isn’t it spectacular? [Music] [Music] engineering, isn’t it? Now, I can see the reflection of the lower half of us. I’m not sure if you can. I’m short enough you can see me. [Music] And all the way around there’s history board showing you the development of the German government from the Second World War through to the split between East and West Germany where the West German government moved to Bon of course and then they moved back here to Berlin after reunification. And then this uh wonderful new rich tag was built on top of the existing historic building. And there was a friend of mine who I used to be involved in pirate radio with back in the 80s who uh was involved in some respect in the construction of this and the design of the engineering side. So hello Kai if you’re watching this. Very very spectacular. And here’s another very touching memorial in the tear garden just behind the rich tag. A memorial to the Cinti and the Roma people who were murdered under national socialism. And this is very tasteful actually just behind the German Parliament building. [Music] Lovely actually, isn’t it? So, there you go. We’re going to wrap this video right here for today. We’ve just had a very nice meal in a riverside location overlooking the Riverbay here in Berlin. Watching the boats go to and fro. Here’s another one just as we speak. Some really different boats. It’s really nice. They do short trips, long trips, all sorts of trips up and down the river Spain here in Berlin. So, we managed to see quite a lot today despite the fact we didn’t really have a clue where to go or what there was to see, but we managed to fill the day on this very hot day in Berlin. Thank you so much for watching. We’ve got another day ahead of us tomorrow. What are we going to do? I think it may include a boat trip and we may be going somewhere a little bit different. Uh, but I’ll leave that for you to find out when you join us next time right here on this channel. Thank you so much for watching. We’ll see you again next time. [Music]

Join us as we visit BERLIN for the very first time in 34 degrees C. We had no idea of what there was to see or how to get there but somehow we managed to visit a lot of interesting places. Part 1 of 2!

#Berlin #Germany #Berlin Wall #Reichstag #Checkpoint Charlie #Deutschland