Berlin, Germany! Home to 3.4 million making it the second-largest European city in terms of population behind London's mammoth 8 million. It is now the capital of Germany as a whole but its last century of history has been a complete mess. It has been the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich (under Hitler), and was then divided after World War II with East Berlin becoming the capital of East Germany and West Berlin becoming something of an exclave surrounded entirely by the Berlin Wall (a lot more on all of that later). Be that as it may, Berlin is now a world city of culture, politics, science, and techno music hehe. The shot on the left is the TV Tower in the city centre. At 368 metres high, it is the tallest structure in Germany.

We had just two full days here to check the place out, which isn't really enough but is sufficient to get a good overview, and we wanted to do the Poland thing. The best way to get started in a massive city with so much to see: bike tour!

The tour was one of the Fat Tire Bike Tours I've done in Paris and Barcelona (I really recommend them by the way). It was spread over six hours and covered a myriad of stuff including: a sculpture of these two chaps whose significance I've completely forgotten...

The site of the Nazi book burnings in May 1933, in which some 25,000 “un-German” books went up in smoke...

Gendarmenmarkt, supposedly one of the most beautiful squares in Europe (it's not bad ;) There are French and German cathedrals here, and they, like most everything else, got bombed to bits during WWII and were later restored to their former state.

Brandenburg Gate, a former city gate and one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which one would formerly enter Berlin back in the day.

Just in front of Brandenburg Gate is the hotel from which Michael Jackson famously dangled his baby over the balcony in 2002.

And we saw a lot of this: what's left of the Berlin Wall.

I've had to do a lot of research on this just to try and comprehend its intended point and purpose, but to be honest I'm still at somewhat of a loss. Having said that, why anyone would support the persecution and mass murder of some six million Jews has me at somewhat of a loss as well. The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 by the East German government, completely encompassing West Berlin thereby separating it from East Germany (including East Berlin). The official justification was that the wall was erected by East Germany to protect its population from fascistic elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people in building a socialist state. Basically, the Soviet Union wanted to stem the flow of emigration westward through what had become a "loophole" in the Soviet border system. After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between around 100 and 200 due to the shoot-to-kill policy employed by the East German guards. We were told a story by our tour guide about some dude successfully escaping with his family from the top floor of the building in the centre shot above. He hurled a cable over the wall to his waiting friend on the other side, and then proceeded to ride it down and over the wall flying fox-style hehe - nice one! The wall eventually ‘fell' 28 years later (and coincidently this just happens to be my 28th-birthday trip) in 1989 thanks to a rather amusing fuck up by an official of the ruling party of East Germany. Full story of that here.

Checkpoint Charley was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Germany and West Germany during the Cold War. Today, there is an open-air exhibit here containing a myriad of information which has become one of Berlin's primary tourist attractions. The shot on the right shows part of the list of successful escapes. I particularly liked the entry for 16 August, 1965 hehe.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial. As the name suggests, it is a memorial to the Jewish victims and other victims of the Holocaust. It's a 4.7-acre site covered with about 2,700 concrete blocks of varying heights. The slabs are treated with a chemical that makes it easier to remove graffiti. There was apparently outrage during the construction of this memorial when it was revealed that the company producing this anti-graffiti chemical has links to the company that produced the gas used by the Nazis in the concentration camp gas chambers (I think one company is a parent of the other or something).

One of the last remaining watchtowers of the Berlin Wall...

...and I broke in and climbed it hehe. Well the door had already been pulled back, so I just had to hoist myself through the hole :)

The Reichstag is the meeting place of the modern German government. It was originally opened in 1894, severely damaged by arson in 1933, partially refurbished in the 60s, but not fully restored until 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. There is a huge glass dome which you can see here at the top of the building providing 360-degree views over Berlin. Anyone can go in, but unfortunately due to a lack of time and the long queues, we missed out on this.

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) on Berlin's Museum Island. Evidently a good sunbathing spot.

The 210-hectare Tiergarten in central Berlin - bloody nice! Back in the day it was part of West Berlin, and its eastern borders were crossed by the wall.

We cruised through as part of the bike tour and had a good German feed of random kinds of wurst (sausage) - yummy!

Yeehaw!

After six hours of cruising around and learning the history, we decided to chill out for a bit. I had the GPS find the nearest supermarket, we bought some 'quality' red wine for €1.39 a bottle, and went back to the Berliner Dom.

The sun bathers has moved on but there was nowsome free entertainment (minus the tip we gave them) in the form of these percussionists - they were amazing!

There was also some dude doing push ups with his lady friend, and this chick doing cartwheels.

So Karen impressed them all with her roly-polies, and I whipped out the big handstand!

And so ended our first day in Berlin.

It's good to be the king!

After a bit of a sleep in due to the late night before, we started at The Berlin Wall's East Side Gallery - a 1.3km section of the wall near the centre of Berlin.

Approximately 100 paintings by artists from all over the world cover this memorial for freedom and make it the largest open air gallery in the world.

As you'd expect, many of the works are politically motivated, but some of them on the other hand appear to be totally random though very cool.

There are a few places along its length to jot down your own 10-cents worth (or just your name hehe).

After more wandering we ended up heading back to soak up some more rays and drink up some more crap wine at the Berliner Dom. This is Alexanderplatz, a large public square in the city centre, towered over by the TV Tower, and apparently a popular hangout for the local Goths / Emos / whatever the hell they are (and they seem to prefer the shade ;)

That's what you like to see on the side of a hot air balloon - “Die”.

It was pretty warm out there today, and a bunch of folk were cooling themselves off in the fountain in front of the Berliner Dom - good idea I thought!

While there I noticed a shitload of police gathering and just milling about. Then a massive march come thundering past - something about the Israel / Palestine thing.

The bear is the symbol of either Berlin, or the whole region, or something. Either way they're everywhere. This one was in a metro station dressed in the metro map hehe (note the wine on his left paw ;)