I Write About Books and Things: Berlin, Day 3 - 16/11/19 - TV Tower, DDR Museum and Berlin Cathedral

Today, I went around the Alexanderplatz area. One thing to remember is that this area of Berlin was on the eastern side of the wall. However, it's now a thriving, if touristy and commercial, area of Berlin. I went up the Fernsehturm (TV Tower), the DDR (Deutsches Demokratische Republik/German Democratic Republic) Museum and the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)
Alexanderplatz was a relatively easy trip from my hotel, since it was a stop on the 245 bus. It's also a rather touristy area, but one of the things I like to do is interspace lesser-known places with tourist areas, and find unique things to do in the more well-known spaces. The first thing I wanted to do was to go up the TV Tower. I like getting views of a city from up high.

Here's the tower as I first saw it!

As you can perhaps tell, it was a bit foggy. However, I feel like that added to the effect on some of my photographs.

See what I mean about the fog being dramatic?

In this picture, you can see the Berlin Cathedral!

This is where they were currently constructing a Christmas Market

It was pretty nice to walk around and just look out of the windows, but it was too busy to get to some of them, and the rotating restaurant was full even just after midday. I took myself down through the shop and bought myself a snowglobe and another bookmark. I've never collected snowglobes before, but I've always liked how they looked, so I'm going to start. This might have been about the time where I realised that maybe I was buying a few too many bookmarks.

I stepped out to find somewhere to eat, and I'd spotted a place called The Reed, which had been recommended by a friend. It was a nice place, decorated in a style that brought the feel of a outside on a tropical island to indoors in Berlin in November.

Smoked salmon and avocado is one of my favourite combinations, and with a
cappuccino to drink.

I had a wander down in and out of the shops. I went into many of the souvenir shops, looking for a Berlin city fan to add to my collection (I didn't find one all trip). I also went into a branch of a shop called Pylones, which we also have in the UK, and bought a handbag hairbrush. My hair is long and tangles easily, even when down. I've been on the lookout for a brush I can keep in my handbag. I also picked up a bag holder that can be used to keep your bag off the floor in cafés.

I also did have a crepe within view of Berlin Cathedral! Ended up sharing
some of it with the birds. Yes, I have heard that you shouldn't feed wild birds, but
I've also heard that wild birds are struggling because people aren't feeding them.
I wasn't sure what to do for the best, so I gave them only a little.

I found myself in what was called the DDR Museum. This was a museum about the daily life of people in the DDR. One thing we do forget about places like that is that they were full of people just trying to live their daily lives. It went into things like childcare, holidays and sporting events, and had a model home to look around. Something I liked was the inclusion of postcards for their historical value! It was very interactive, hands on, and actually would be a good place to take children if you ever happen to have some in Berlin. In fact, it was nice to see a large number of younger people looking around. We need to keep this interest in history if we want to prevent it from ever happening again.

After that, I checked out the Berlin Cathedral. The main nave was closed, but I could still go up to the roof for a reduced price. Please be aware if you plan to visit it that it was a lot of walking, and a lot of staircases with no alternative routes.

A model of the cathedral - I think little models of
buildings like this are really cool, especially with this much
detail and on this scale.

One of the museum rooms also had models of the same style, of other buildings both around Berlin and outside of it. The last image is St. Hedwig's Cathedral.

Another thing I spotted was a room full of parts of the cathedral that had been removed for restoration. It was like seeing backstage at a show.

This image is important more because, you see that gold dome there? That's the
New Synagogue of Berlin. It was built in the 19th Century, survived the events of the
November Pogroms (9th and 10th of November, 1938 - what is commonly called Krystallnacht, but
as that was the term applied to it by the Nazis, it is not one I am comfortable with using.)* but was still
heavily damaged during the next few years, with large parts destroyed or demolished after the war.
Now, it is part of the modern-day Jewish community of Berlin.

You know, I can see why some people wouldn't agree with graffiti on old buildings, but
honestly, people have been doing it for centuries. Here we've got names of people from
all over the world who have stood in this very spot. There's a cathedral near me where people
have been carving into the stone since it was built, and graffiti has even been found preserved
in the ruins of Pompeii. But it may also lead to thoughts of what's an appropriate place to put
graffiti, and a religious building of any sort may not be it. All I can say is, personally I like it,
but I may not be the person who should have any say in this matter.

And here is a shot from outside. You can see where the restoration work is taking place!

I did find myself walking around a craft market with some interesting and different pieces to buy, such as coin necklaces, but my feet were getting too sore to want a proper look. It's very easy to overdo it in Berlin, with the amount of museums, and getting to a point where you don't like any of it. It was a cold day and I also had a cold building in my nose, so I decided to go for an early dinner and then stay back in the hotel room for the evening.

Earlier, I'd passed a Vietnamese restaurant called Shi Mai. Berlin is one of those places that has had so much immigration that to only stick to German food would be a mistake. And it was so cold that I had been craving a large bowl of pho since I saw it. They also did a cold-busting tea with orange, ginger and mint.