Walk around old Berlin April 3

Sunday April 3 Berlin.

I got the 9:04 from Dresden to Berlin arriving at Berlin on-time at 10:14. I immediately bought all the maps and guides at the tourist office. I also bought a combined 3 day museum and 5 day all transport pass for 52 euros. 3 museums and 2 ride/day will break even. I then walked to the hostel and dumped my gear. I was on the streets at noon.

The first thing I now do in a new city is to get to know it. So I caught the metro from the hbf to the Markisches Museum station. Here I started a self-guided walk through the old area of Berlin and the churches which defined the original communities. There were 2 cities originally, Berlin on one side of the river Spree and Colln on the other. Industry and trade were based around a river port and a mill. When they decided to construct a bridge the became the city of Berlin. The most important church in the area was the St Nikolai Church and I could see its two steeples all the time during the walk. The area is called Nikolai Quarter. We traced a depressing route around some ancient and bombed out churches. We passed the old parliament house and the old mint. Getting back to the Spree river again we entered the grounds of St Nikolai. Almost all of the buildings here have been rebuilt retaining the small shops and cafes. This was a truly delightful place. The restaurants with their umbrellas lined along the river bank (wall) and spring colours starting to show. All the Berliners were out enjoying the Sunday in the spring sun.
Crossing the Spree again to an island where there were many important buildings built over many years. This island is called the museum island as there are 5 very large museums built on it. A number are still undergoing extensive repairs.

After 65 years Berlin is still a reconstruction site with large holes and big cranes all over the city. Some individual projects are said to 1 billion euro. The amount of money the tourists are pouring into these cities I'm sure they will get the money back.

I continued along Unter den Linten Boulevard, which was the horse trail for the Kings to ride to their hunting grounds in the Tiergarten, to Bebelplatz where the Nazis book burning took place. I believe that this was where the Berlin opera house was (now call the State Opera) located. When Churchill bombed this Hitler retaliated by bombing London and Covientry. I walked on 1 km or so to the very famous Bradenberg Gate. The Boulevard was full of tourists and there were many restaurants. There was an excellent guitar player drawing a large crowd. It was late in the day and I hope the photos are ok. Particularly the one of myself.

Although there were a large number of people on the street all the side roads were completely empty. Together with construction going on at every turn this gave the city-scape a surreal and artificial feel. I could have been on a movie set.

After sitting and studying the gate for a while I felt it was time to find food. It was not the best place to look as it was one huge tourist trap. I got the U Ban back to the hostel and I had to settle for some take-a-way. I negotiated some steamed fish with onions and fried potatoes. Not the best meal I have had.

My hotel room was now filled with its quota of 4 and I set myself up in the lobbie cuddled up to a spare power point for a few hours.