From December 15th to 21st, 2012, I got the chance to visit Berlin, Copenhagen and Malmö which I’d consider to be three of the great cities of Europe.
Berlin
It’s one of the great regrets of my vacationing life that I never got to Berlin in the immediate years either side of its reunification. Any thoughts I’d missed the opportunity to really get a feel for communist East Berlin were dispelled as soon as I landed at the dreary Schönefeld which was once the city’s “other” main airport and it feels like little has changed at this dreary dirty facility in the intervening years which makes it quite fascinating ironically to students of history such as myself. Berlin is bursting with history in fact and is rich in culture despite its near destruction during WWII. Its architectural past has been faithfully preserved or imaginatively reinvented while the redevelopment of large parts of the city continues apace. Seosamh Macgiollaphádraig
Berlin Hauptbahnhof – An Eastbound S-bahn train arrives at the upper level of Berlin’s Central Station which was opened in 2006.
The Brandenburg Gate – The Brandenburg Gate quadriga at night.
The Berliner Dom – Berlin Cathedral was terribly damaged by Allied bombing in 1944 but the building has now been completely restored to its pre-War glory.
Unter den Linden – The equestrian statue of King Frederick II of Prussia, which stands on one of Berlin’s great thoroughfares.
Bismarck Memorial in the Tiergarten – This magnificent memorial statue commemorates Prince Otto von Bismarck, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia and the first Chancellor of the German Empire. It was sculpted by Reinhold Begas.
© 2013 Seosamh Macgiollaphádraig All Rights Reserved
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