I caught the train into town (changing twice along the way), heading to the Sony Centre first up. I remember that was in the process of being built last time I was sight-seeing in Berlin. It's turned out quite nicely, I think:
There's a set of rooms from the former historic Esplanade Hotel where you can have functions and one of them is a restaurant. But there's a constant stream of tourists walking by and gawking into the windows, so I wouldn't recommend it.
Over coffee, I planned the rest of my day in Berlin. I'd intended to go out to Spandau to see the Citadel, but the rain put me off so I headed off to the Brandenburg Gate instead. Google maps wasn't as useful here as in Brussels because the transit data wasn't available, so I had to install Offi - a German app that has transit data for probably every German town and city. It's quite good. I think it gets its data from the DB app/site, but at least it retains the last query results instead of clearing them like the DB app. Anyway...it got me to the Brandenburg Gate, which was quite busy with tourists:
I walked over to the Reichstag, but didn't go in this time. The queues were too long and I don't remember it being that fascinating.
There's a bus stop for line 100 (the poor man's tour bus) just outside, so I hopped on that instead of walking all the way to the Bismark Statue and Victory Column:
You could go up into a higher part of the column, but I didn't want to pay 3 Euro for that - it wasn't very high and you wouldn't be able to see a lot more from there than ground level. I was going to get the bus again, in the other direction, but instead of waiting, I headed down the road and through the park for a little bit before stopping across from Bellevue Palace:
The bus took me back down towards Berlin Mitte (middle) and I got off near the Museum Island. There's a whole lot of construction going on in Berlin - for the new subway that's going in, as well as for the new Berlin Palace project (they're rebuilding a facade of the original Berlin Palace that was destroyed during the war):
Across from there is the Old Museum:
And the gorgeous Berlin Cathedral. This was another one I didn't go into (they wanted 5 Euro and I've seen a church or two...hundred):
As well as a few other museums and pretty buildings:
Including another University that makes me envy the students:
And past Old Fritz (Frederick the Great) riding down the road (Unter den Linden):
Across the road is another section of the University:
Close by is the St Hedwig's Cathedral, which is quite beautiful on the outside, though surrounded by construction sites. The inside is quite plain and I nearly didn't go all the way in. I'm glad I did though because the downstairs section was quite pretty:
Further up the road is a church - Friedrichs-Werdersche Church - which is the Schinkel Museum now. It has some really nice statues in it too:
I headed over to the Gendarmenmarkt for some more lovely architecture. The two buildings that look like churches aren't actually churches (and never were, though one is partially used as such) are the French Dome and the German Dome. The big one in the middle is the Concert House:
It being after 3pm, I stopped for a yummy lunch of rib eye steak and salad for 12.50 Euro at the Maredo steakhouse just off the Gendarmenmarkt while I waited for the weather to improve again. Then it was back to explore the Concert House a little more closely:
I headed off again towards the Berlin Cathedral, intending to pass the Ephraim Palais etc. Unfortunately I got a bit lost. I happened to see a bus heading to the Alexanderplatz which I knew to be near the Cathedral, so I hopped on and got off at the red City Hall, after photographing the current City Hall from the bus:
St Mary's church is opposite the red City Hall and not too far from the TV Tower:
Red City Hall is really nice and admission was free so I had a look inside. There's some really pretty stained glass windows inside, as well as another statue exhibition:
As I headed towards the Berlin Cathedral again, I was overtaken by this strange multi-cycle. Must be a nice way to do sight-seeing in a group:
I finally got to the Cathedral only to get rained out. I stopped at the Radisson Blu Hotel to see if they have coffee and found this amazing aquarium instead:
The told me where to get a coffee and wait for the weather to clear. It took forever because 20 other people had the same idea as me...But the weather did clear up in the meantime so I got a bit of sunshine for my photos of the Spree river and the Cathedral as well as the Museum Island:
The walk in the direction of the Nikolai Quarter took me past these statues along the river bank opposite the Berlin Cathedral:
back past the Red City Hall, now looking gorgeous in the sunshine:
The Nikolai Quarter was very nice - leafy and quaint:
And I finally found the Ephraim Palais with its beautiful gold filigree wrought iron balconies:
I headed back to the Alexanderplatz to get the train back home, snapping a couple of pictures of the TV Tower:
My aunt picked me up from the station even though it wasn't raining, for which I was very grateful. My feet were quite sore after all that walking today! Almost an early night - only had to work on my photos and catch up my blog a little!
