Kirche bells ringing in the Karl August Platz at 10:00 hours. I had some Milchkaffee at Limericks um die Ecke and think I will head to Rathaus Schöneberg, the place where JFK was a dounut to the Berliners when he said "Ich bin ein Berliner."...but we know what he wanted to say and inculcate way before Ronnie ever got around to telling Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall."
Freitag, after my FedEx arrived, I headed out to Spandau, an older part of Berlin that escaped much of the bombing and retains a lot of its medieval architecture. A nice walking tour can be found here proceeding from the U-Bahn Zitadelle stop through the Altstadt ending up at the S-Bahn stop in Spandau.
The Zitadelle is a big structure which according to the plaque at the entry is
"one of the most important and best preserved renaissance fortresses in Europe."
The basic form of the fortress was completed in 1594. I didn´t go into the fortress, thought I would save that for when Jason gets here. I did walk through the woods (grünewald) around the moat...sehr schön und rühig.
Ater Spandau, I went to the Ku´damm to the KaDeWe which is the big department store, similar to Macys but much much more. Anything you want, you can find here (well, maybe not car parts but you get my drift...because I didn´t see any doesn´t mean they weren´t there). In the men´s department I looked at the brands of underwear available: Joop, Armani, Calvin Klein, Jockey, AussieBums, Dolce & Gabbana, Zimmerli, Hanro, Hom, Schiesser, Olaf Benz, Mey, Hugo Boss, and a bit more! It was quite the display.
And the sixth floor, OMGs, that was the food floor and there were stations galore of varius gourmet selectins which you could try: seafood, meats, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, wines, beers and that´s just skimming the surface. I tasted one beer that was called Budweiser but it was not the Budweiser that some drink in the United States. This was quite good and came from Budvar in the Chech Republic.
Later I by visited to the Bear where I met Antonio who was from Venezuela and was living in Paris. We talked and then went around the corner for some Italian food. Nice evening.
Next day Saturday I woke up to the Wochendemarkt again...I strolled through but this time I didn´t purchase anything but went to Hackescher Markt which is actually in East Berlin. I had some beer and Rhabarberkuchen (rhubarb cake; I am the one with the sweet tooth. From there I did a walking tour that took me along Unter den Linden a boulevard lined with lime trees...sehr schön.
My walking tour took me though the Bebelpaltz which was the place where the Nazis encouraged people to riot to burn 25,000 books from the Humbolt Library. Here, there is a monument in the ground in the center of the Bebelplatz where one can look down through a transparent square to a chamber below that is filled with empty bookshelves. This was quite stirring. Things like this upset me especially when we still hear of efforts back home of those conservative right wingnuts who work so hard , as our shrub says, to ban books from libraries and schools. Let people decide what they want to read!
Well its Sunday and I am off to Rathaus Schöneberg ... photo album Flickr Berlin 5.6.2007...
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