The Country Mice

Our hotel sits very near Potsdamer Platz. During the 1920s it was bustling and vibrant but during WW2 was reduced to rubble and then left as a derelict wide open space, a no-man’s-land beside the Berlin Wall. With reunification, the square was redeveloped and is now packed with shiny new and modern architecture.

Looking up at the roof of the Sony Centre. Rises like a volcano on the Berlin skyline. Covers a piazza clustered with artists selling their paintings under canopies, outdoor dining with red-checkered tablecloths, fountains with alternating patterns of jet sprayed water.

Light reflects off the glass buildings which line the interior of the open-air piazza.

Holocaust Denkmal — holocaust memorial. A undulating field of 2700+ concrete slabs. They vary in height, no true right angles.

Brandenburger Tor — Brandenburg Gate:  The quintessential symbol of Berlin and located in what was East Berlin. Built in 1795 and modelled on the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens (so cool!).

Historic note: In 1806 it was dismantled and hustled off to Paris on Napolean’s orders. On its return in 1814, it was declared a symbol of victory and the goddess received the staff bearing the Prussian eagle and the iron cross adorned with  a laurel leaf. VICTORY!

My favourite auto maker.

Meat. At last. And beer. Ahhh. Life is good!

Yup. Life is good.