Berlin
three walks through Berlin first in a
rainy day the second in a kind of
overcast day and the third in a sunny
day a total of 35 miles beautiful
beautiful city so much variety so much
culture such great food
for
for
[Applause]
okay
bullet holes from the Second World War
so
there is no mistaking the Soviet style
apartment architecture
apparently people came out in droves to
tear down the wall themselves with
chisels and Hammers and nails and this
is one of the few sections that remains
as it was in 1990
kind of a quieter part of the city this
canal just kind of runs through the
middle without any major roads on either
side these are some quirky houses indeed
look at those crazy windows
mind your head mind your head
the
tree filled with shoes can you see them
all pedestrian only
bridge look at this lovely Trail it goes
right along the canal that goes through
the heart of the city i r this on a boat
last night and now I get to walk a few
bikes dredged up from the bottom of the
canal cool statue just on the trail
particular Reas I just love the uh
apartments on the edge of the little
Canal here a delightful place to live
and this goes right through the middle
of town
is that
graffiti or is it
art hard to
tell German architecture is certainly
grandiose more of this Ultra modern
architecture
spot right here really just captures
Berlin for me we have this very
traditional parlament building and some
other traditional
buildings and then we have this Ultra
Modern
thing just right next to each
other this square is absolutely Alive
music people about food music so
British
Embassy I’m really looking forward to
this this is the Holocaust Memorial here
look at all these strange cubed
shaped things everywhere it’s designed
to make you feel
disoriented and feel a a little bit uh
lost can’t wait to get
in as you get deep into this the sounds
of the city kind of
fade people kind of appear and disappear
unexpectedly which I believe is one of
the
intents of the
artist it’s quiet it’s
solemn interestingly they suggested you
don’t participate in parkour I wouldn’t
think of
it that’s
it about an acre maybe an acre and a
half sort of look like tombs
a chronology of the
Holocaust and through this little gate
here is
memorial it’s very Serene here the
interesting thing about
this is that it’s right in the
shadow of the central government
building it’s like almost an orwellian
building so
grandiose
so Ultra Modern and we’re a little bit
cold
this is a cool walkway don’t get me
wrong next to the river and all but I
can’t help but wonder the purpose I
wonder if this used to be like a
railroad or a tram or a road or
something of course I guess San
Francisco is not the only place that has
the Homeless Problem look how intricate
this lamp post is
and all that next to this Ultra Modern
building these weird pipe things are all
over the city and I asked local about
them and she said that when they’re
doing construction this takes the waste
water out cuz the groundwater is so high
it’s so weird but never seen him
anywhere else but
here really cool apartments in the river
this really neat Trail and then all
these little pullouts where someone who
could sit on the bench and watch the
world FL by
spe
for
a
Legend has it that the red marble from
this particular subway stop is from
Hitler’s pallets up in Cloud’s rest
which is uh kind of strange they decide
to put it here but it certainly looks
different than all of the other um
subway stops in
Berlin little tiny park with a little
tiny piece of the Berlin Wall most
museums in the world will consider this
a prized possession but it’s almost an
after past half a dozen different
embassies here the British one looks
kind of weird you look at the security
and the Very postmodern look to it it’s
kind of
cool andom building amazingly
ornate this diarama shows rough layout
the Berlin Wall
more complicated than I thought there’s
like different
zones take strange
angles so these tall things are guard
houses these little pegs stick out
they’re
lights and then the little tiny pegs are
signal fences we have the interior wall
which is smaller and the exterior wall
which is larger when the wall was torn
down
then sections of it here in the middle
of this graveyard just because it had no
better place for it and it’s really easy
to see the difference between the East
German side and the West German side
which is covered in graffiti protesting
the wall and this is kind of how I think
that the Berlin Wall is filled with this
kind of
grati so when I think of the Berlin Wall
I definitely think of the graffiti now
I’ll notice that they have this round
top on it so grappling hooks cannot be
on it so be more difficult to climb and
when the mall came down a collection of
people called woodpeckers would come
with hammers and chisels and make little
holes in the wall like this one now
today at this Memorial they have this um
metal grading to signify the passage of
people through the wall it’s a lot
easier now than it was then but it’s
still a little bit
tight apparently this is pretty
authentic to how it looked on the East
German side free of graffiti because
there was a couple other layers of
protection between here and the German
side and of course you know the citizens
were not allowed to protest this is the
outline of the church it was demolished
in
1985 long serving a symbol of the
divided place and this is All That
Remains of the bells that were in the
church these Mark locations of various
tunnels that were dug under the
wall most of these in the early 60s
before they established more um robust
monitoring mechanisms wall marker you
can see it everywhere in Berlin
apparently it’s the middle of the
building now
streets just for bikes apparently and
local traffic how cool is that more bike
only
infrastructure they’re serious about it
here if that is not a stereotypical
burin sight I don’t know what it is it’s
the radio tower Museum Island the
sightseing boats
the people everywhere on the street
perfect trying to figure out why the
sidewalks blocked off I think I figured
out this is the Russian Embassy and
here’s all the
protests and here is the US Embassy
right in the shadow of the
gate all these little lovely ponds
throughout the park statues at the end
so this is more of that strange pipe
work that you find fine throughout
Berlin apparently it’s all
temporary apparently the um they’ve put
it for construction purposes just to
drain the construction site and then
they take it down but it’s everywhere so
strange I can only surmise this is the
remains of a once proud Cathedral that
was was bombed out or
something imagine what this looked like
in its best
day and now it’s just a shadow of
itself well are serious about their
transportation
here what do you think the purpose is of
this office here
Three walks through Berlin with a nice mixture of parks, historical places, and cultural sites. 35 miles in total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11100226493
https://www.strava.com/activities/11113546760
https://www.strava.com/activities/11121624808