March 11, 2012

Spring!...and a trip to Berlin


This was a fortnight ago.


Before you ask - yes, we do have snow left.
Still spring.
Wonderful!!!

This was yesterday, and higher up in the mountains.
The snow is getting wet and slushy.

We have had two wonderful weekends in a row, with sun and two-digit temperatures (speaking Centigrades!)
Unfortunately there was some more snowfall in the week between, otherwise I believe we would have been almost bare now.

Taking a break and looking at the view
I was in Berlin during the week, and as a consequence Fame had had two days off when I saddled her up on Saturday.
I felt we both needed a workout, so we headed up the mountainside for some intervall training.
Fame did not much bother with the intervalls.
She just found that gear marked "Maximum  speed" and took off.
I had to pick her up in the curves as I definitely did not want her to lose her footing at that speed, but otherwise I let her go.
It was a wonderful spring day, and we needed to air out the winter both of us.


I took her down to regain her breath a couple of times, but she did not take much time and was eager to go. I concluded that she is in a good shape, which is nice as we have the winter season behind us.


Saw some wonderful ice formations on the way down.
Unfortunately the camera does not do the colours justice, they were lovely opaque blue-green-grey in reality.
Made me think of the scene from the Lord of Rings when Frodo, Sam and Gollum is climbing up the mountain stairs to Mordor and the Nine Ringlords leave the ancient castle (which had this kind of colour).








This week I was in Berlin for a conference with my work.
I will leave you with some pictures:



Morning view from my hotel window


Checkpoint Charlie.
I am standing at the former East-Berlin side, looking towards West.


The American checkpoint is still left as a memory.
I guess no-one wanted a memory of the DDR one...


This picture is taken from the American checkpoint while the wall was in place.
We are looking towards East Berlin.

Picture taken shortly before the wall was built.
Taken from East Berlin side, looking towards West.



Nowadays only a few parts of the wall is left standing.
Where it once stood is marked with street stones so you can follow its earlier placement.

Here is one of three places where it is still left standing.

Brandenburger Tor in the background.

Brandenburger Tor.
What amused me was that straight on the other side, the former East, there was a Kennedy museum alongside a Starbucks coffee shop.

Hey, there's horses on the top!


And below!

My colleagues had to try a bike for seven.
One pilot, sweat and hard work for the others...


The famous street "Unter den Linden".
Used to be the epitome of style, but ended in East Berlin after WWII.


...where you still have some traces left from the East, strategically placed .


The famous car from the DDR-period, the Trabi.
Max speed 112 km/h (70mph), and made of hard plastic.
Two-stroke engine with noxious fumes.
Did not cost more than $200, so everyone should be able to afford it. If you were on the list and allowed to buy that is.
I remember when driving through West Germany in spring 1990, I saw many of them on the motorway behind a dark cloud of exhaust. Inside there were happy people, finally able to travel where they wanted.
Now a cult object.


Potsdamer Platz.
Bombed to pieces at the end of WWII.
The occupied sectors converged here and thus the area became no-mans land during the cold war,
placed in the mid zone of the wall.
Pink Floyd's "The Wall - Live in Berlin"
was played here in 1990, one of the largest rock concerts ever staged.

Potsdamer Platz in 1982.



 The fomer War Ministry in Benderblock where Stauffenberg was shot after the attempt on Hitler.
It is now suitingly enough museum for the German resistance during WWII.


Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin!

16 comments:

lytha said...

wonderful! this is a great summary of berlin. more than any place i've been in germany, berlin insists on being a city of memory (and regret). i love it because this is how it should be. NEVER FORGET is a big sign i saw on my first visit, and the gedachtnis kirche (the broken church that stands in memory) was shocking for me.

thanks so much for this tour of berlin for people who've never seen it.

lmel said...

Thanks for the photos from your ride (lovely in the snow) and from Berlin. I'd like to see one of those 7-man bicycles!

Grey Horse Matters said...

Thanks for the tour of Berlin. Interesting city. I've got to get to Germany one of these days, my grandparents immigrated from there in the 1920's. So I've heard a lot about it but never seen it. Thanks again.

Fame looks wonderful. Glad you're getting spring and some beautiful rides in.

Laura Crum said...

Loved the story about Fame finding that maximum speed gear. On the snowy road no less. I'm not used to snow--I would have feared slippage (!)

Dom said...

Loved all the photos.

trudi said...

Glad that Fame is on form!
Great tour of Berlin, it's 15 years since I was there last, very happy to be reminded by your super photos.

The Odyssey Farm said...

Thanks for the tour! I am old enough to remember the news reports as the wall was being torn down. Gives me chills even now remembering. Lovely photos of your ride, those ice formations are amazing.

HorseOfCourse said...

Lytha - thank you.
This was my first trip to Berlin, but I still have a vivid memory of driving through West-Germany in summer 1990 with all those Trabis on the motorway.
It was wonderful to see, and the sense of once again having a free Europe was fantastic. I cannot believe it is over 20 years ago.

Imel - thank you. Yes, the bikes were quirky, I have not seen any of them before!

GHM - I hope you do take that trip. There are so many beautiful areas in Germany. Old cities and villages too. Thanks for your kind comments.

Laura - she has studs in her shoes, but there is always a risk. Not so much if you have snow underfoot, but at this time of the year it thaws during the day, and freezes during the night, and you can get icy spots. Those are a bit tricky.
Still, the footing was good so we had a bit of fun ;-)

Dom and Trudi - thank you.

Odyssey - yes, it does give you a chill, doesn't it? The wall and the Eastern block was a very tangible threat and part of my world when I grew up. I am very grateful that it was possible to free those countries without more violence than it took. Thank you, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Then we got the Balkan war instead. Horrible.

horseracing system said...

what a beautiful experience you must have had in Berlin, I want to go there next summer and I want to go to see some German horses and perhaps even buy one, but I have to figure out how to take it to my home, it would be expensive.

online dramas said...

so nice blogger

Unknown said...
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Obat Peninggi said...

What a nice pict.
really inspiring

Thanks for the beautiful photos

Obat Peninggi said...

What a nice pict.
really inspiring

Thanks for the beautiful photos

kitchen set bandung said...

This is a nice explanation coz i have never come to Berlin and i read your article expland me about Berlin. Thanks

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