Pamela
Pamela

Travel

Berlin Diary II

Art by Michael Lin
Art by Michael Lin

2005 March Easter Weekend

Freshened up to kickstart our day and decided to delve into Germany’s past. We took the metro and got off at Potsdamer Platz. To combat the cold, we had coffee at Starbucks just outside the metro exit.

From here, we walked to Checkpoint Charlie - a crossing point between East and West Germany during the Cold War and the Berlin Wall Memorial. The scenes blurred as the present dissolved into the past. Images flashed through our minds of 1989 when the news headlines flashed with the demolition of the Berlin Wall. The wall no longer divided east and west; instead, the city straddles past and future.

As this is close to Friedrichstrasse, known for an upmarket shopping area like Lafayette, we strolled there on our return towards the metro station of Potsdamer Platz. We visited Helmut John’s Sony Centre - the skyline is a mixture of buildings marked by WWII shrapnel and glass-steel giants, a symbol of the new Berlin office-cum-shopping centre.

In Berlin, the past is everywhere, like Gendarmenmarkt - a classical square in Berlin whose name dates back to when the city was occupied by Napoleon. This square is bordered by two cathedrals - the French Cathedral and German Cathedral with Konzerthaus (Concert Hall) - the home of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra between the two cathedrals.

Then, we visited the darling of Berlin - the bust of Nefertiti, which was adorned at the Exhibition Hall of Kulturforum (Culture Forum - This museum often houses temporary exhibitions during which the permanent collection is usually not on display) near Potsdamer Platz as the Egyptian museum was closed.

On the way to Brandenburg, we went to see the Siegessäule (Victory Column) close to Tiergarten, standing in the center where five roads meet.

After having a late light meal, we once again set off to see the past, which expresses the euphoria and great hopes for a better future for all people of the world. This city’s divider was also the world’s longest canvas that stretched for miles, covered with graffiti painted on the east side - an open-air Gallery close to station Ostbahnhof.

Came back to Zoologischer Garten, took some night mode shots of Kaiser Wilhelm church, and after all the sightseeing, it was time to eat. We had an awesome Portuguese dinner at one small restaurant nearby and then headed towards our hotel.

The top picture and finding its significance took some time as writing after a long time is always a challange. While taking picture we did definately knew it was a great picture of some art which we captured with a 3MP digital camera. Glad we did. This art is by Michael Lin is an artist living and working in Taipei, Shanghai, and Brussels. .

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29 Jan   2008