Berlin, Germany - Page 3
Between the (former) West and East, there was a HUGE area of land called "no-man's land" over which, if you tried to escape to the West, you would have been shot.
Now that all the barbed-wire and watchtowers have gone, the land is very valuable indeed. What do you do on valuable land in the biggest city in Germany? Build tall buildings of course! This is going to be the Sony Centre.
Once one of the most depressing places on Earth, Postdamer Platz is now a shrine to Capitalism. I certainly don't have a problem with that.
And then we walked along "Unter den Linden", leaving the Brandenburger Tor (and the bright and beautiful West) behind us.
Although there has been a lot of development along this street, it is very obvious that is was once run by the Russians. We saw Aeroflot offices, the Russian embassy, a Romanian travel office, and many ugly 1960s and 70's depressing buildings. Here's the old East German Parliament, where once a hammer and sickle hung (the little circle on the right). At the moment, they're trying to rid this building of asbestos.
There's still a chasm of disparity between the West and East, and I guess I'm not helping, so I'll shut up now and show you the positives (and there were a few).
Here's a pretty picture of some big church or another.
And here's another one with the TV Tower in the background.
Of course, we wanted to get to the TV Tower (for dinner) as quickly as possible, so we took a shortcut through Alexanderplatz.
From the TV Tower, you could see absolutely everything. Here's the view of Alexanderplatz.
Here's a picture facing East of a river and loads of residental apartments.
Finally, here's a picture facing back West. You can see a lot of development in the top left corner. The Brandenburger Tor is at the bottom of the park where the buildings start and the Siegessaeule is in the middle of the park.
I want to go back to Berlin in 5 or so years when all the redevelopment is complete and have another look. It's a nice city - I'd definitely recommend a visit if you're in the neighborhood.