Tuesday-Thursday

Nikolai quarter with the East German TV tower.

Tuesday - did the Berlin for beginners walk via the Rathaus, the Nikolai quarter, the Koncert Haus Humboldt Uni, a shopping strip, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Bundestag, Tiergarten and the Red Army memorial, which ended up on the west side.

The Koncert Haus is on the left.

The pictures of the ruins of the Brandenburg gate and the Reichstag there are impressive. 70 odd thousand people died in the taking of Berlin as the Germans would not give in. The big guns have some extremely bad welding done, and a T-34 tank looks like it was made from crazy concrete, not steel. I suppose they never lasted too long with all the battles.

Me, and the boys, at the Red Army memorial.

They're redoing Berlin. The centre is beautiful already. There are cranes all over the place. Plus they're putting in new underground rail U5 and U6 lines.

We're goin to the zoo the zoo the zoo

We went home by the main station, the Hauptbahnhopf. It's amazing, like George Lucas set it up for a Star Wars film. It's got shops, escalators like the endless staircase puzzles, and the S-bahn trains traversing the whole station overhead.



Wednesday - was in Spandau. Besides the famous rock band and the citadelle/prison, there is a nice pedestrianised old town and Rathaus or Town Hall, not for rats.



The late afternoon, we head to our local park with its flying fox, climbing net, jogging tyre thing, and a couple of things for children. Louis squeals with joy, the poor deprived thing.

Hanging around.

Thursday - we went to the zoo to see the monkeys swinging, the apes humping and the sea lions doing tricks. The lions pace their cells. The penguins look depressed. Only the jackas penguins look like they're having a good time chasing each other.