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versione italiana
February - April 2005 (Newcastle, England
& Berlin, Germany)
At the beginning of April we visited Berlin for a short
break and it is a fascinating city that we'd recommend
to anyone, looking for somewhere to visit for a few days.
The city is very lively and culturally rich and it is
now in a state of continuous growth and renovation. We
went on a free walking tour of the city which was excellent,
(www.newberlintours.com for info on the free tour), and
below you can see a picture of the infamous wall which
separated East and West Germany until 1989. In this picture,
you may have noticed that there is a hole in the wall.
This hole is not the result of bullets, bombs or of some
violent revolutionary act. It is in fact caused by the
tourists, who, after the wall fell, wanted to take home
some pieces as souvenirs. As a consequence, the city council
decided to create a fence to protect the wall. The very
same wall that was knocked down, now needs to be protected.
All
photos by Valeria Lo Iacono & Paul Symonds - 2005
Below on the left I am standing with Valeria
in front of another piece of wall, in the area called
Potsdamer platz. In the 1920s and 30s, the Potsdamer platz
was the busiest and one of the liveliest squares in Europe.
This all came to an abrupt end in 1943 when the Potsdamer
platz was left in ruins by allied bombing. After the Second
World War, the square located between the American, British
and Russian sectors, became a no-man's land. It was completely
flattened with the construction of the wall in 1961 when
the demolished buildings were pulled down. In the 1990s,
the Potsdamer Platz became what was known as the largest
construction area in Europe. The projects included several
landmark towers, a shopping arcade, an entertainment centre
and residential buildings all designed by famous architects.
In the picture on the right you can see the Sony Centre,
a complex designed by Helmut Jahn, which includes an Imax
theatre and an office tower. The structure at the top
of the picture (below right) is one of the main attractions
in the Sony Centre and by night the ceiling changes colour
every few seconds.
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The two pictures below we took in Berlin
Aquarium, (which contains reptiles and insects, in addition
to fish). We didn't write down the name of this sea-animal
or the snake. Let us know if you know. Isn't the snake beautiful
, with its slick light green skin. Lovely.
Before the trip to Berlin, (on 30th March), we went to
see the World Cup qualifier England v Azerbaijan. The
picture on the left below, shows thousands of fans holding
up coloured cards, to create the red St.George's cross,
the flag of England. The photo on the right, shows the
teams as they do their best to sing the national anthems,
just before the game commences. I don't think the England
team will win any prizes for their singing ability, although
I hear that Beckham can sing in a rather high voice. England
won the game 2-0 in the end.
Below (left) a picture from our living room window,
taken in March. The winter in Newcastle, UK has been
very mild, with snow only falling briefly. On the right,
a university friend, Paul Bradley with his Scottish
wife Jackie - who invited us over for dinner and made
us appreciate the finer aspects of Scottish cooking.
Thank you again Paul and Jackie if you are reading this.
The salmon was excellent.
The last picture below was taken in Berlin. It is a sculpture
inside the New Guardhouse, which is Germany's central war
memorial. The sculpture, by the Berlin sculptress Käthe
Kollwitz's (1867-1945) , is called Pietà
and it shows a mother mourning over her dead son. Käthe
Kollwitz's son, after the outbreak of WWI, just eighteen,
volunteered for the German Army. He died on the Belgian
front. The sculptress also lost her grandson to World War
II.
Above the sculpture there is a hole, which illuminates
the two figures from above, isolating them against the dark
background of the empty room. When it rains, the rain enters
from the hole and collects at the feet of the sculpture,
as a pond of tears surrounding the kneeling mother. When
it snows, a white blanket covers the two figures.
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