Walking Prenzlauer Berg

Another day, September 12th, still not ready for our usual museum marathons, we did the Rickie Stevie walk in the close-in suburb of Prenzlauer Berg, barely a kilometer from where we are in Mitte. It's one of those "there's really nothing to see but ordinary living and the evolution of the constituent neighborhoods" deals, which is fine with us. After dinner at a biergarten, the walk morphed into the Berlin Wall walk, which we did on the way back to our apartment. 

The walk more or less began at the Zion church, 
under-going pretty serious renovation, but noteworthy
to us since Dietrich Bonhoeffer did some time here,
confirmations and such, in the early 1930s; Bonhoeffer
was a theologian of note and a conspirator in the attempt
to assassinate Hitler in 1944; for which he was hung,
in April, 1945, just days before his concentration camp
was liberated; we had his wedding sermon read at our
wedding ceremony...

Interesting contemporary buildings along the way;
Prenzlauer Berg is an older Berlin suburb, going 
all the way back into the industrial growth of the
19th century; this and the next are exceptions, not
the rule, which is mostly later 19th and 20th century

Rather few bombs fell on Prenzlauer Berg, and
these new buildings may well mark those sites that
were destroyed in the war

Of special note to us: every street, every one, had RVs, mostly
class Bs, parked, sometimes as may as half a dozen on a block;
not lived in, just parked there, the owners presumably in a nearby
flat; a very camper-friendly place, Berlin

Prenzlauer Berg is only a hill really, but in flat Berlin it stands
out; on its summit are a pair on old water towers

Within is one of Berlin's few surviving synagogues; now under
police guard and not open to tourists

Public toilets along the way

And ever more campers

One of Germany's largest breweries is now a cultural complex

Immense, multi-block affair

On a thoroughfare, note the bicyclists lined up, awaiting the change
of the traffic light; several takeaways...1) Berlin traffic is unbelievably
light for a dense city of 3.5 million, because 2) most people seem to take
the extensive surface and underground trains, and trams and buses,
or, as here, ride bikes; the bike traffic is often denser than that of trucks
and cars, and 3) Berlin bike riders stay in their lane, rigorously, and 
obey the traffic laws and signs...unheard of in the rest of world 

Surface train and station

Dinner at the Prater Biergarten; Vicki alwas drinks her dark beer
through a straw

Sculpture at the biergarten

Early in the evening, weekday, plus it's getting cooler

Street scene; note the pastels on the left

Early 20th century bath house

Now in the funkier older part

Yes, east Berlin had its hippies; after the Wall came down, the
area had its squatters, whom the government helped to renovate
by supplying funds in exchange for labor

Also some pretty old buildings

Add-on elevator

Deep in an alley where east Berliners clandestinely
grew fruits and veggies

Different growth now, in the gentrified bits

Every now and then, a vacant area, where a bomb once fell

Berlin's oldest still-working fire station