Berlin; Saturday, 21 February, 2004

After another gorgeous breakfast it was off into another clear and cold day. First stop was the Tiergarten and the statue in the centre.

After a short climb up (nearly 300 steps!) I could look out over the whole of the Tiergarten and down to the Reichstag and Brandenburg gate.

Next stop was Alexanderplatz to go up another tower (lift this time) - the TV tower, however as the queue was already out of the door I decided to leave that to later and instead headed over to the other side of the city and a related item the Radio tower to go up that instead (If you haven't already guessed I did spend most of the holiday at least 100m up in the sky!) Located in the International Conference Centre in the Western suburbs the views from the top of the tower are spectacular if only for seeing the complexity of Berlin's motorways which all seem to intersect just below the tower. The only real problem with the Radio tower is that it is built to withstand extremes of weather and in such a way does gently sway with the wind. When it is very windy this swaying becomes slightly disturbing.

Once down on the ground it was time to go back across the city to the East Side Gallery. These are the Murals on the only major remaining section of the Berlin Wall. About 1KM of wall has been retained running along the course of the river and decorated with some of the most famous murals that were originally done on the West side of the wall!

After that I crossed the city again (by this point I realised that I had not planned today particularly well) and out to the Olympic Stadium. Built for the 1936 Olympic Games the building is a fine example of how to impress by sheer brute force. The whole site is large and brutal looking almost the same as the major Soviet buildings. The view from the top (surprise, surprise) of the clocktower however is breathtaking looking over all the woodland areas south towards Charlottenburg and the state capital of Potsdam.

Back over then to Alexanderplatz where the queue for the TV Tower still had not shortened but I did have time to look round the square that was once the international show piece of the DDR (Deutscher Democratik Republic - East Germany)

The it was back towards the hotel to visit the Story of Berlin. This multimedia exhibition tells the story of the history of the city from a small hamlet first mentioned in the 13th Century through its rise to prominence in the Prussian empire, its creation as a German capital, its role in the events that lead up to the First and Second world wars, its separation and eventual reunification.

Then, finally it was back to Alexanderplatz to the TV tower and the fortunate site of no queue so I could go up the TV Tower and see Berlin at night!