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.
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| 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... |
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| 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 |
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| Rather few bombs fell on Prenzlauer Berg, and these new buildings may well mark those sites that were destroyed in the war |
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| 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 |
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| Prenzlauer Berg is only a hill really, but in flat Berlin it stands out; on its summit are a pair on old water towers |
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| Within is one of Berlin's few surviving synagogues; now under police guard and not open to tourists |
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| Public toilets along the way |
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| And ever more campers |
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| One of Germany's largest breweries is now a cultural complex |
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| Immense, multi-block affair |
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| 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 |
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| Surface train and station |
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| Dinner at the Prater Biergarten; Vicki alwas drinks her dark beer through a straw |
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| Sculpture at the biergarten |
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| Early in the evening, weekday, plus it's getting cooler |
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| Street scene; note the pastels on the left |
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| Early 20th century bath house |
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| Now in the funkier older part |
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| 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 |
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| Also some pretty old buildings |
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| Add-on elevator |
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| Deep in an alley where east Berliners clandestinely grew fruits and veggies |
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| Different growth now, in the gentrified bits |
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| Every now and then, a vacant area, where a bomb once fell |
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| Berlin's oldest still-working fire station |
