on day 3 in Berlin, i went and rented a bike from Fat Tire and went out on my own city tour, hitting back up the spots i wanted to spend more time and take more photographs (if you know me, you know i like photos). it was on this day i realized that this trip was only possible by myself, as i don't know of anyone else who would have wanted to ride around in the weather conditions that existed yesterday. after just the first 2 hours of riding around, i had to retreat to a cafe to order a large cup of coffee...not to drink, but to warm my hands. i did finally drink it and scarfed down my Sunday german brunch (complete with lots of sausage) and was ready to head back outside, the weather cleared up some, but it never completely stopped raining.
i think all in all, i probably traveled 10 miles at a minimum on this day. some of my highlights were the Berlin wall, Potsdamer Platz (a new real estate development within the last 10 years that revitalized the area), Bradenburg Gate (where Reagan made his famous "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!), the Holocaust Memorial, and some other really cool sites. after i got cold for the second time and the sun started to go down, i actually went to the cinema at Potsdamer Platz and watched Inglorious Basterds, which was crazy to watch in Berlin, considering the subject matter (if you haven't seen this film yet and you appreciate Tarantino's style and sometimes patient character dialogues, i think this is some of his best work). after the film, i stayed out on my bike until about 10pm, grabbing some night shots of some of the same sites i saw during the day, and I am glad i did (make sure to check out the full photo album at the end of my post).
i gotta say, being able to bike an entire city, complete with your own bike lanes, and even bike traffic signals is pretty nice. i seriously lost any track of time during the day and just "got lost" in the city, wandering around until i found something cool to do. this city is utterly amazing and full of so much history. a lot of cities of the world have history, but very few have so much history that is so recent and not hundreds of years ago. the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin wall is only next month, hitler was in power less than 70 years ago...just biking around right over all of this history blows your mind - not to mention the fact that 90% of the city's buildings were bombed and or destroyed during the war, so the fact the city looks as it does today is crazy.
imagine if you were a younger German and you learned of the terrible past your country had and some of the atrocities it committed through Hitler and the Nazi regime...frightening indeed, but they do not try to hide it or not admit to its occurence, and try everyday to go forward with better actions and show the world what it really means to be a German today. the city of Berlin is a living, breathing example of that, one that is reinventing itself daily with new buildings, memorials, etc popping up all over town. the berliners have plunged the city into over $80 Billion in debt (if i remember correctly from our tour) trying to rebuild the city and make it something again, and from what i can tell, i think they are doing an awesome job.
"Berlin ist arm, aber sexy." said the Mayor of Berlin in 2003, which means "Berlin is poor, but sexy". i think i am going to have to agree with him.
-zack!
i think all in all, i probably traveled 10 miles at a minimum on this day. some of my highlights were the Berlin wall, Potsdamer Platz (a new real estate development within the last 10 years that revitalized the area), Bradenburg Gate (where Reagan made his famous "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!), the Holocaust Memorial, and some other really cool sites. after i got cold for the second time and the sun started to go down, i actually went to the cinema at Potsdamer Platz and watched Inglorious Basterds, which was crazy to watch in Berlin, considering the subject matter (if you haven't seen this film yet and you appreciate Tarantino's style and sometimes patient character dialogues, i think this is some of his best work). after the film, i stayed out on my bike until about 10pm, grabbing some night shots of some of the same sites i saw during the day, and I am glad i did (make sure to check out the full photo album at the end of my post).
i gotta say, being able to bike an entire city, complete with your own bike lanes, and even bike traffic signals is pretty nice. i seriously lost any track of time during the day and just "got lost" in the city, wandering around until i found something cool to do. this city is utterly amazing and full of so much history. a lot of cities of the world have history, but very few have so much history that is so recent and not hundreds of years ago. the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin wall is only next month, hitler was in power less than 70 years ago...just biking around right over all of this history blows your mind - not to mention the fact that 90% of the city's buildings were bombed and or destroyed during the war, so the fact the city looks as it does today is crazy.
imagine if you were a younger German and you learned of the terrible past your country had and some of the atrocities it committed through Hitler and the Nazi regime...frightening indeed, but they do not try to hide it or not admit to its occurence, and try everyday to go forward with better actions and show the world what it really means to be a German today. the city of Berlin is a living, breathing example of that, one that is reinventing itself daily with new buildings, memorials, etc popping up all over town. the berliners have plunged the city into over $80 Billion in debt (if i remember correctly from our tour) trying to rebuild the city and make it something again, and from what i can tell, i think they are doing an awesome job.
"Berlin ist arm, aber sexy." said the Mayor of Berlin in 2003, which means "Berlin is poor, but sexy". i think i am going to have to agree with him.
-zack!
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Zack! Your pictures are BEAUTIFUL! I can't believe it's already been over a year since I was in Berlin and on my own Fat Tire bike tour. :) Enjoy it - I know your time there will go by all too quickly! When we were there, we also went on a bar crawl with the Fat Tire people and some other non-Germans (Danes, Swedes, Spaniards, etc.) who had been in our tour group. GREAT time and great memories - I highly recommend it if you have the time/interest. Can't wait to read more about your adventures!
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