Berlin - can I go back soon? I'm a bit sad I probably won't be there this year. Anyway, last time I was there I ended up taking a trip over to Potsdam, which is at least on the Metro system even if it's obviously not Berlin as such. Close enough to belong in this thread though, I reckon.
The first bit I actually got round to taking a photo of could almost be in a 70s redevelopment anywhere in Scotland, in the form of a scabby old DDR-era library (belonging to the Uni, if I remember rightly):
Not far round the corner is this:
Which a helpful local told us had been a canal (um, until the Allies bombed the hell out of it):
There are plans afoot to restore at least a bit of it. There's a strangely pleasing shabbiness about some corners of the town: most of the centre has been beautifully restored, but then theres this kind of thing:
And a slightly down-at-heel side street. Take away the modern bikes and this could be any time in the last hundred years:
A wee bit further, a DDR-era theatre, currently awaiting some purpose:
Some of it is certainly not shabby though, like the
other less well-known Brandenburg Gate:
And in Sanssouci, it gets over the top. Here are the terraces and steps seen and posed on in countless photos of Allied servicemen shortly after the 1945 surrender:
Fancy doesn't even begin to cover it:
In fact it's a bit silly:
Worth a visit though.
All the world seems in tune on a Spring afternoon, when we're poisoning pigeons in the park.