Tuesday, November 09, 2004


St. Nikolaikirche, Berlin's oldest surviving church

The Ruskies rebuilt 'Old Berlin', but with concrete and steel-conveying medieval Berlin in a very odd fashion...but this sign was cool

Pro-Socialist memorial, with several communist-esque images etched into these silver monoliths

Another fine building by I. M. Pei. This is one of a hundred history museums, just off the Pariser Platz, near Brandenburg Gate. Oh, and that's one of the popular 'Smart Cars', small, fast, and electric hybrid, designed by the creator of Swatches!

The 'Stop' Man, of former East Berlin. After the reunification, the westerners started modernizing East Berlin bit by bit, including changing the stop lights, because they were 'sexist' showing a male figure. The Easterners weren't too happy with the sudden changes, despite how miserable life may have been, it was still their home. They allowed many structural and policy changes, but by all means, "Don't touch our stoplights! So they stayed! (Most of them)

The 'Walk' Man, in former East Berlin

2 things: First off, "let's use Grandma as a table for our map so we can figure out where the hell we are?!?" Secondly, those bikes in front of Grandma, those are GPS-enabled rental bikes. You call the number on the bike, give them your credit card info, you get a code to unlock it, and off you go on your ride. When you're done riding, you call them and they charge you for your time (about 3 Euros/hour) and you just park the bike and it locks itself up again so no one can ride it-and the GPS system lets the company track the bikes all over the city. Impressive!

Yes, in Europe, they serve your lattes in a pint glass. My guess is to force you to slow down and enjoy life a little, and not be in such a rush (though most places do have to-go cups, in Germany, at least... We're at an American-owned coffee bar, one of the few duking it out with Starbucks here!