Kind of hard to say Good-bye

Well, time to think about packing up and going home. What a piece of luck to have had the chance to settle down in Berlin for four months. Of the many good things that I'll miss, here are photos of two. The first is "Paulchen" (little Paul, literally, though not so little at all ), definitely the ugliest and probably the most beloved dog in our neighborhood. He goes for an hour-long walk every morning with his keeper, someone who loves to talk to him. Actually it's a love-hate relationship. He gets scolded a lot.
The second is my line dancing class at the 'Seniorenclub in der Herthastrasse'. Maybe you can tell from the picture that we bonded pretty well. Lots of fun on Monday and Tuesday afternoons and a great bunch of people, and I'm missing them already.

The Germans' love affair with English

Take a look at this poster, which is all over the city right now. It starts out fine, going along in German, and then all of a sudden it closes the deal with an English sentence. Now, we keep asking ourselves, when and why did the Germans decide that their language wasn't quite good enough ? English words pop up everywhere, not just when there's a good reason (that is, no German word exists, such as 'laptop'.) Some here are beginning to view it as a problem, including the Chancellor Angela Merkel who's had some sharp words to say about it, but I've the impression that most young people just imbibe it, maybe not so much as the language of the U.S. and Great Britain but as the language of the world.

Strolling around a Berlin Christmas Market

It's easy to find an outdoor Christmas Market here, there are so many. St. Nick put in an appearance at the market in our neighborhood yesterday, and you didn't need to stand in line to talk to him. If you like low-key, find one of these local Christmas Markets. You can buy fine crafts, not so fine crafts, junk . . .and food . . . or play games or do art projects, if you're a kid. If you go into the city center, you can check out the other kind of market, with some surprises, like the stall selling all kinds of brushes (!!!) Not what you had in mind for giving this year ? Maybe a wooden ornament instead ? You can eat yourself 'satt' here, too, of course. Or spend a little time hanging out around Onkel Jou.

A rather creative, athletic St. Nick

St. Nick is popping up all over the place here in Berlin, a slimmer, more athletic Santa than we usually see in the States and more often on his way up than on his way down. He's good at pulling himself up with a rope and climbing up ladders. Once in while you spot him drifting down with a parachute. He uses a little backpack instead of lugging around a huge sack. Works well, since then he has his hands free for all that climbing . . . .

"Stumbling Blocks"

These are a few of Berlin's 1400 "stumbling blocks" (Stolpersteinen), small paving stones, about 4" square, covered with brass and placed in the sidewalk directly in front of a house or apartment building where a victum of the Nazi regime resided. Each has the name, date of birth, and fate of a person who lived at this address. An artist named Gunter Demnig came up with the idea about 15 years ago and today these stones are in many German cities, whereever a school class or neighborhood group has taken the initiative to place them.

Leierkastenmann and Lucy

Yes, that's me, caught in the extremely unlikely act of posing with one of Berlin's many organ-grinder men. Judging from the sky and my jacket, must've been back in October when the weather was warmer ! This guy was hanging out near the Brandenburg Gate where all the action is, but you'll see his twin all around the place, including in front of my local grocery store here in Wilmersdorf. Do you like his monkey ?

St. Nicholas in Spandau

Another take on good, old St. Nick, this time touching down in Spandau, Berlin's oldest suburb. The Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) here dates from the Middle Ages. Inside is a new sculpture (below) depicting St. Nicholas as both the esteemed Bishop of Myra, reading the Bible, and as an engaged helper, rescuing a shipwrecked sailor. His motto: "Do good, and share with others."
In front of the church (above) this handsome statue celebrates Prince-elector Joachim II, who introduced the Protestant faith to Berlin and Brandenberg in 1539.

Berlin's mighty Pergamon Museum

Someone has described this museum as 'a lifesize picture of antiquity'. Berlin's most popular museum, it draws around 2000 visitors a day. The museum's name comes from the reconstructed Pergamon Altar (Asia Minor, 170 BC) that has pride of place here. Photo above and left is a sample of the marble frieze that surrounds it. The gateway to the market at Miletus (120 AD, Asia Minor) is the second treasure: my photo (last one, below) shows a piece of it, looking up. Fragments from both made their way to Berlin late in the 19th c. and early 20th, all very legal. The middle photos give an idea of the Ishtar Gate from Babylon, 6th c. BC, with its blue enamelled bricks, and the Processional Way that led to it. About 1/10th of the bricks are original. Can you see which are ? Ceremonial processions used this route into the city on New Year's Day, during the time of Nebuchadnezzar II.

Dresden . . . alive and well, 63 years later

About two hours south of Berlin, Dresden makes for a splendid weekend trip, even in November. Much of the city is in fine shape, after long years of reconstruction following the firebombs of 1945, but it still looks like a construction site in many places. We walked along the Elbe, both sides, and spent a half day at the Zwinger art gallery, a real treasure house. Just walking around the city is fun, especially when you come upon surprises like this one. The top photo is a look inside the restored baroque church in the center of the city, the Frauenkirche, perhaps the city's proudest accomplishment. We were there on a sunny morning with light streaming in from the high windows.

Saying Good-bye, with feeling, to Tempelhof Airport

This poster is everywhere in Berlin right now, expressing a heartfelt good-bye (and thanks) to their oldest airport before it closes down for good. It features a 'Rosinenbomber' (literally, 'raisin bomber'), one of the Allied planes that kept the city supplied with food and fuel and other things during the Soviet blockage in 1948-9. The American name is 'Candy Bomber', its nickname after the crews started dropping chocolate and gum (and something with raisins, I guess) as they flew over the city and started to land. Kids used to wait after school for the planes to arrive, and the candy would come down in small packages with mini-parachutes attached. One of our prouder moments in history.

Lighting Up Berlin

For about ten days in October, some of Berlin's landmarks are lit up in novel ways and the evenings turn into street parties, with lots of people toting cameras and tripods. Richard's camera caught this image of the Berlin Dom (cathedral), with the Fernsehturm (television tower) in the background.

Telling us what to do with peelings, in a lighthearted way

I spotted this poster while waiting on the platform for the S-Bahn and gave it an A+ right away. What a clever way to encourage us to put our biodegradable waste in the right container. Throwing something away here requires just a moment of thought, since you are expected to sort your trash into paper, white glass, colored glass, 'light packing material' (aluminum cans, plastic containers, etc), biodegradable and "all the other stuff". Big bins live out back behind our building, to collect everything. It doesn't take long to learn the system and I think most people believe it's worth the effort and do it routinely.

Don't Drink and Fly

A few weeks ago we spotted this plastered witch about a block away from our apartment and we get a chuckle from it every time we walk by. 'Seems that the Germans have imported Halloween from America with a passion and are having a good time with it.

Day trip to Wittenberg--the city of Luther-- with Jerry and Wilma

Well, when an October day dawns bright and crisp in these parts, you're wise to make the most of it. We decided to head for Wittenberg, with my brother Jerry and his wife Wilma who were spending a week with us. Takes about an hour to get there, travelling through rural countryside, heading southwest from Berlin. Life is quieter there and moves at a slower pace, but we were surprised to find out about all the famous people who've lived or visited there: Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Peter the Great, Maxim Gorki, Tsar Alexander the First . . . . .
Martin Luther, of course, is the person who's put the city on the map. People come here to see where he lived and preached, leading up to his split with the Catholic Church. His statue has pride of place in front of the Rathaus. Other things to see here: churches, paintings by both Cranachs ("Weinberg des Herrn", Lucas Cranach d.J., photo below), and surprises like this half of a bike advertising a bike shop, spotted by Jerry, the inveterate photographer.

On the way up, climbing the Schlosskirche tower in Wittenberg

Jerry and I decided we couldn't pass up the chance to see Wittenberg from up high, so we paid our 2 euros and climbed the tower of the Schlosskirche (castle church). This is the view when you've just about made it to the top. The climb is on a well-worn spiral stone staircase, and it's a tight squeeze if you meet someone along the way.

View from the top of Wittenberg's Schlosskirche

So, this is your reward for climbing up to the top ! Look one direction and you see a farm surrounded by the city. Another direction, far in the distance, you can see ultramodern windmills.

Windows along Sophienstrasse, Spandauer Vorstadt

Spandauer Vorstadt shop windows and courtyards: an interesting part of Berlin to explore on foot. Once a struggling working class district and the home of many Jewish immigrants from the east, now it's full of pricey galleries and shops and has a thriving theater life at night.

St. Hedwig's Krankenhaus

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Still in the area called Spandauer Vorstadt, Berlin's oldest Catholic hospital (St. Hedwig's, 1844) has this welcoming inner courtyard. We found it by accident when we were looking for restrooms (of course . . . )

Workers' Movement

In a city that often seems very much 'under construction', you still find many reminders of the past. This is the entrance to a courtyard in the district called Spandauer Vorstadt, once the meeting place for workers who founded Germany's communist party, led by Karl Liebknecht. He called for a German proletarian revolution in 1918. Germany ended up with the Weimar Republic instead, and very hard times that opened the door for Hitler.

Berlin's Jewish Museum

This striking new building designed by Daniel Libeskind has a footprint that looks like a bolt of lightning. The shape and design of the structure itself is intended to convey something of its difficult subject, two centuries of Jewish life in Germany. Full of odd angles, slit-like windows that look out over 'voids', and uphill passageways, it's a challenging place to visit. Airport-type security at the entrance and crowds inside, of all ages.

Memorial near the former Jewish Cemetery

Berlin is full of reminders of the Holocaust, such as this very moving memorial, built where a Jewish old people's home used to be, a place used as a detention center for young and old about to be shipped to concentration camps.

Sometimes the reminder will be a small plaque on a building, telling you about what happened there or who lived there, or it might be a large poster mounted behind glass at a bus stop, such as the one near the Philharmonic, where concertgoers can see the face and read about the man who was one of Hitler's legion. Some are very recent markers, so I think you can say that this is an unfinished subject here.

Berlin's New Train Station

Berlin's magnificent new train station (2006), its Hauptbahnhof, has five levels, some of them underground, and you can actually look down from the upper levels and watch trains arriving below. It took a while for some architectural critics to warm up to it, but now the consensus seems to be that it's a huge success and something the city can be proud of. Try to imagine a place that can handle 1100 trains per day and 300,000 people. Its nickname is 'the glass cathedral'.

The Hackeschen Hoefe

This is one of eight inner courtyards called the Hackeschen Hoefe, built between 1905 and 1907 and restored during the 1990s. Mosaic tiles decorate the walls, in an art deco style. Inner courtyards like this one, combining living quarters and workshops and the 'backyards' of stores facing the street, were common in Berlin at one time, though very few as beautiful as these. Today one of the hot spots in the city, with cafes, galleries, shops and a few small theaters.

Harvest Festival at the Johannesstift in Spandau

Last Sunday was great weather for this harvest festival at a church near Spandau, the Johannesstift. Fun stuff for kids to do, and an old threshing machine cranked up for action, but mostly people come here for the food and to listen to the music. Lots of different kinds of cake (32 at one place, according to their sign) and wurst, of course, so you can imagine how good it all smelled. I brought home some Zwiebelkuchen for our supper. It's an 'onion cake', savory rather than sweet , and traditional for this time of year in Germany. It's good.

The Chancellor's Headquarters

Tagging along with Richard's students, and after a security check that resembled the airport, I had a chance to get inside the Bundeskanzleramt a few days ago. The photo to the left gives you an idea of the size of the place. Angela Merkel, Germany's current chancellor, presides here now but the building was the pet project of Helmut Kohl, chancellor when Germany was reunited 19 years ago. A large building for a large man, so goes the story. Lots of glass, used very intentionally to suggest transparency and openness, in contrast to the heavy, fortress-like Reichstag that you can see across the way (top photo). This view of it is from one of the balconies of the Bundeskanzleramt.