Page 9 of 9
Berlin, Germany
Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable and lightness has a call that's hard to hear
I had one long, long day in Berlin, again sandwiched between overnight trains. I visited Berlin last time in similar circumstances, even though one long, long day is never quite enough for such a huge and complicated place.
All of Berlin seems like it’s still under construction as the old wall is gone and the city gets restitched together. There are some big things finished (more about that soon), but Potsdamer Platz isn’t one of them yet. Luckily the Info Box is still there, with great views on top and renderings and models inside. Every large construction site out there should have one of these, if you ask me.
It might look done from the outside, but I’m still at least a year too early to see inside of this, Daniel Liebskind's Jewish Museum, which looks pretty damn cool to me, at least from the outside..
I had a lot of time to kill in Berlin, just like I had a lot of time to kill in Bilbao in what seems like a lifetime ago but was probably only sometime last week. The real difference is that killing time in Bilbao was almost a burden, but doing so in Berlin was kind of a blessing. There is always something interesting to see, another building or park or street or neighborhood to explore. And while there was lots to see, there was one new building that was really a priority. It was this one, where a united Germany's Bundestag has moved back into the all too historic Reichstag, underneath Norman Foster's terribly fun glass dome.
The dome is more than just a dome, it’s a crazy fun tourist observation deck, with two sets of ramps (one up and one down) winding around to a rooftop platform, while in the center, mirrors redirect sunlight through a glass skylight into the Bundestag meeting room below. It is so over the top in so many ways, and an absolutely joy to visit.
To get in, you first go through a weird vestibule security room, then up an elevator to the roof. The dome is not heated or cooled, it’s outside, just covered. Inside it is almost overwhelming since there are so, so many things to see at the exact same time, and while the views out to Berlin from the dome are not amazing, every view and angle of the dome itself more than makes up for it.
After Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen, the Sognesfjord, Copenhagen, Tivoli, Cologne (or Koeln), Bruges, Barcelona, Bilbao, that missed connection in Cerbere, Carcassonne, Nimes, Nice, Monte Carlo, Ronchamp, Kaysersberg, Colmar, Amsterdam and Haarlem, after all of those overnight trains and overnight ferries and metros and buses and rental cars and miles and miles and miles walked, after all of these pictures and stories and after once in a lifetime experiences, we’re finally finishing things up with a second, same day (or I guess same night) visit back to the Reichstag for one last out of focus picture, knowing already that’s it only a matter of time before I figure out a reason to get back here to do it all again.
