Berlin Misadventures - Day 2 - Of Bears, Bread and Bemusement

Today, I walked and walked and... You get the general idea.  Before I started this trip, I decided to create an itinerary for myself to give me some idea of what to do.  An antidote to possible boredom.  Well, it finally ended up consisting of about thirty things to do and see.  Of course, I am unlikely to complete this list on account of my sense of direction, which is not the best.

Before starting today's proceedings, I found myself getting lost trying to find the locations where I could obtain my Berlin WelcomeCard (pre-ordered online, you pick up at various tourist information offices scattered around Berlin).  Basically, the card provides money off of entry to a number of the attractions, free transport and discounted meals in some restaurants etc.  I was originally going to go to the Tourist Office near the Zoo, which I couldn't find (I found the Zoo but the Tourist Office remains as vital and elusive as Atlantis).  My second option involved me attempting to traipse to the main railway station through Tiergarten.

Tiergarten is enormous.  It provides a pretty green counterpoint to the many concrete buildings that occupy Berlin.  Having said that as is the case with most parks, signposts are not in ready supply.


Okay, they did have the odd signpost and map but where was the 'You are here'?  Tee hee.

 

A sculpture or monument.  You decide!  It could also suggest a foot fetish on the part of the writer.

Lamppost like egg.  Illuminating the dreams of lovers by night.  By day, simply raw potential.

Beautiful lake in Tiergarten. 

Piece of art or simply brickwork with delusions of grandeur?

Tree.  I still marvel at the beauty of trees and their gnarled perfection.  Nature's fighters, humanity's saviours.

 

Quite by chance, I probably managed to cover at least a third of Berlin by foot today.  I have visited the Potsdamer Platz (Modern style centre, not unlike the o2 consisting of restaurants, museums and a big Lego giraffe), Brandenburger Tor and Pariser Platz (strikingly impressive and out of place in modern Berlin.  The American Embassy lurks behind it.  I was confronted with the very curious sight of a couple of men, carrying respectively the American and Russian flags.  In the distance, outside the American Embassy, paranoid looking security guards watched the crowds) and also the Holocaust Memorial (picture lots of blocks on an uneven surface of various sizes that people can run around and hide behind.  It seemed oddly sacrilegious seeing kids sitting on the blocks).

 

   Brandenburger Tor

The image speaks volumes and does not need me to tarnish it.

Sony Centre, visually stunning component of the Potsdamer Platz.

Lego Giraffe.  Plastic lovers stop here then pop off to the Legoland Discovery Centre.

Holocaust Memorial.  Strikingly original yet loses its meaning as kids whoop and run bumping into the people who wish to remember.

Dead flower on Holocaust Memorial.  Somehow, the most poignant photograph I took during my trip.

 

I also went to the Dali exhibition, which was lovely.  I was made aware of how important butterflies were to his work, which led me to realise how influential Dali must have been to Damien Hirst, who is also fascinated by butterflies.

 

I was curious to detect how important the sex industry is in Berlin.  I walked past the Beate Ushe Erotik Museum (I may go tomorrow) and various strip clubs).

 

Today also brought home the realisation that like London, Berlin has a problem with homelessness.  I was saddened when I saw a guy looking in the bin, clearly praying that his luck would change.

 

The Film Museum was fun, although confusing to negotiate being on multiple levels and ironically, focusing more on T.V. than film.

 

This evening, I am just going to read 'Sons and Lovers', have a bath and plan tomorrow.  I can vaguely use the transport system now, so potentially tomorrow may not be a three hundred mile walk.  (I was pleased to get my Berlin WelcomeCard from Brandenburger Tor's Tourist Office).

 

Oh yes, the Bears are part of some weird 'Spot the bears' thing.  They have all been designed by different artists (I think?) and capture something of Berlin's cultural, economic and political scene.  It's a bit like that Olympic Mascot thing in the U.K. (only these bears are pretty!)  The 'bread' reference in the blog title concerns my breakfast in the hotel today, nothing more profound.  (I am occasionally a man of my stomach as opposed to my heart or mind). 

 

 Picasso Bear.

 

 

Not much more to say, except I wish that my esteemed German companion were traipsing around with me.  She would have laughed when on two occasions, I was mistaken for a German citizen.  One lady asked me for advice on the transport system and another where the local McDonalds was in German.  Ouch!

 

                                                                                                           Barry Watt - 10th September 2013.