Berlin - Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate

A video is included at the end of this post. If you are viewing in an email, you will need to click on the link at the bottom of the email and view the video on the web page.

The walking tour follows Unter den Linden (street name which means 'under the lime trees').  It is a wide boulevard with large pedestrian sidewalks, bike lanes, and a walkway in the middle of the street shaded with trees. There are a lot of park benches.  There are subway stations all along the route, marked as U-Bahn/S-Bahn, and bus stops all along the route. This walk can be as long or as short as you like.

Reichstag - Houses Germany's General Assembly

Using Rick Steves Berlin walking tour, the tour starts at the Reichstag building.  There is a large glass dome at the top and visitors are able to walk the ramp to the top. I didn't realize that a reservation was needed, so had to be happy looking up and at the building.  The big nearby park is the Tiergarten, a huge park that seems to stretch across the center of Berlin.  The white crosses hanging on the fence commemorates some of the East Berliners who died trying to cross the Wall.  The location of the Wall is marked in the pavement by brass markers and indented cement, and by bricks where it crossed the road.  You can see this in photos below.

The Brandenburg Gate was impressive, "the grandest-and is the last survivor-of 14 gates in Berlin's old city wall". (Steves)  If the four-horse chariot at the top looks familiar, you saw it earlier on top of the arc that is outside of the Louvre.  Napoleon took it to Paris in 1806 and the Prussians got it back in 1813 (Steves).

A lot of the photos include the wide range of construction projects that are going on across Berlin.  Some of the photos may have just construction shots (a habit from when my sister and I traveled with our parents...Dad loved construction).  It will be interesting to compare the photos with all of the construction with the completed projects on a (potential) return trips.

The plaza that is around the Brandenburg Gate is the Pariser Platz "Parisian Square".  The buildings that were here were bombed during WWII and used to be a deserted no-man's land, cut off from the East and the West, but it has been rebuilt.  A Starbucks has prime real estate.

SCAM - The scam happening around here is the "Do you speak English?" one that is frequently used in front of Notre Dame in Paris.  Hey Lady, this is not my first rodeo!!

Front of the Reichstag is blocked off and guarded.
Across the river (far end of the parking lot) shows
a very modern looking building.

New, modern looking buildings built next to older buildinings.
This glass fronted building reflects the other archetecture
and has a pedestrian walkway above the street.

Three photos of the Reichstag so that you can get
the full appreciation of the size.

You can see a part of the glass dome that was added to
the reconstructed building.  There is a spiral walkway inside.
Reservations to walk here need to be made in advance.
(Very organized with the touring aspect of the buildings!)

Side of the Reichstag and across the street is the Tiergarten
park.

Displays are all around the town, detailing the importance of the
location or the building, with photos of previous times.
This photo shows the building after it was bombed.

This picture shows the building in the early 1900s in its original
state.  Notice that the text is in English. There were German,
English, French and Spanish descriptions. Very handy
for tourists.

The location of the Berlin wall is marked by a double row of
pavement stones on the streets.

The location of the Berlin Wall was outlined in the pavement
with a brass descriptive marker.  Very well done.

Crosses hung on the fence around Tiergarten as a memorial
to those who had died trying to escape.    There is another
memorial planned to remember the Roma (Gypsy) victims of
the Holocaust who lost the same percentage of their population
as the Jews.

Underground construction on the back side of the
Brandenburg Gate.  Visitors were routed through the
construction. See the tall information board on the left.

The pavement sometimes uses the individual blocks.

Looking up from the middle of the gate.  It is in great condition.

View of the Brandenburg Gate from the Pariser Platz.
The chariot with the four horses is at the top.
Much tourist activity is going on in the Platz, selling
carriage rides, tours, scams.

Tours on two wheels!

Rebuilding around the platz.