Melodic ambience

As I mentioned a long time ago, a lot of fireworks happen at various occasions in Berlin. Yesterday, when I arrived at east downtown, another one was starting right away. Obviously unexpected by the other Berliners too because hardly anybody was there to watch it. People were apparently surprised to watch such a gigantic fireworks with a lot of never-seen-before effects. The sollution: At the moment the International Symposium on Fireworks is happening in Berlin and this fireworks behind the Brandenburg Gate was presented by Weco, one of the big companies in that field. Seems to me that they wanted to present their new innovations. Anyways, a nice surprise to us, the people who were able to watch it.

It’s almost 11.30 pm, just 30 mins. to go until the light installation “Raypainting” at the Pariser Platz will end. The reason for this event is the beginning and opening ceremony of the Hungarian cultural year in Germany. As with any other installation in this city that puts buildings of Berlin in different lights I put this in the “needs to be visited” list right away as I was watching a report about it at a culture magazine on tv. When I come to the Pariser Platz, a lot other people are already there taking pictures.

Actually waiting until the last day of the installation has it’s big advantage - the snow on the ground delivers a perfect layer for the colours being projected on it. And speaking of the ground: It turns out that the nicest view is not presented by the Brandenburg Gate which is basically set in yellow colour schemes - so, not much different than the usual illumination - no, it is the very colourful ground and the fact that everything, even a light post (see first photo) reflects the different colors of the projected art.

So, congratulations to the artists for this nice idea.

While many areas in Berlin are clear and easy to walk there is some others that turned to blank ice. Large areas at Unter den Linden, the Lustgarten or Hackescher Markt are almost ideal for ice skating. While at Hackescher Markt they at least made a path to walk, a large segment of the walking path directly at the Lustgarten is almost impassable.
Thinking of that especially here a lot of tourists are walking around the city leaves not a good impression .
The situation in the sidestreets or less central parts of the city is not good either. Various times I saw some joggers running on the streets instead of on the sidewalks.

But winter in the city has it’s nice views too. This photo here shows one of the few fountains of the city that work troughout the year. It is situated at the Beisheim Center.

Just a while ago a new statistic came out saying that in the last year Berlin had the biggest growth of all european cities concerning the number of tourists. Looking at the amount of people visiting this city it is on position no. 3 now behind London and Paris. (more…)

Berlin does not have the reputation of being an expensive city. Nevertheless there are some things you can do for free or for just a small amount of money while you visit this city - and they are pretty enjoyable. Here are some that I noticed since I moved here, this list might get longer as times goes on. (more…)

So, who wins? The spirit of christmas and one of it’s institutions - the christmas market - or just another remake of King Kong? Well, at least at the European premiere of King Kong in Berlin where Peter Jackson, Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody said “hello” King Kong won. The problem for the organisers of the premiere was, that the red carpet area in front of the theater was already occupied by a christmas market. So, those guys had a simple sollution: Big parts of the advertising material and setting was just put over the christmas market stands and some of them got a temporary new task as the press counter. But see for yourself.

Christmas market stands hiding under King Kong advertisement material

or

Christmas market stands as the press counter

Congratulations to the media counsel of Berlin.
Before Condoleeza Rice visited this city the counsel had to redistribute the Berlin frequencies for stations on the FM radio. There was a big competititon between the more conservative “Voice of America” station which had it’s own frequency so far and the liberal “National Public Radio” that wanted to start here. Only one of them was allowed in. Even the US government was very much interested that VOA is able to stay. Outcome: Voice of America lost and has to leave, NPR will be new in the city.

Yes, of course conservative americans being in this city should be allowed to have their radio station too but I am looking forward to the change. Not only because of my political opinions but because VOA did not even use the 24 h that they could have had on their frequency. Most of the time a local rock station used the time that VOA gave them, only some american news in between and some hours in the evening and night were declared VOA time.

So, I’d rather listen to an american station here in Berlin that uses the time that it has as it’s disposal.

One of the reasons why many tourists visiting Berlin at this time of year enjoy their stay might be the special fascination of german Christmas markets. Berlin is big, and the variety of Christmas markets is huge. This year more than 50 markets are spread all over the city - many of them opened today.
To get an overview have a look at the list of market descriptions that the Berlin tourist office published in english.

Now, some of them are very small (5 - 10 stands), a few of them consist mostly of stands having nothing to do with Christmas, but most of them are definitely worth experiencing. My favorite is the one at the Opernpalais where the ambience is warm and romantic.

There are beautiful historical buildings surrounding the Christmas market and there are many diverse stands. It is located on Unter den Linden where all the trees down the street are nicely illuminated every year (hopefully the big construction zones will not ruin the mood).

I recommend visiting more than one market because many of them have their own special atmosphere.

More christmas time photos of Berlin can be found here.

November again. It is as if somebody pushed the lever and the scenery in Berlin changed totally. The weather shifted from sunny to cloudy, from dry to rain and due to the end of daylight saving time, people sit in the cafes and eat their cake while it is already dusk outside. Temperatures at night are much cooler, the remaining leaves on the trees that didn’t want to drop to the ground so far are heavily considering to do so.

And the streets and places in Berlin are - at least later in the evenings - basically deserted again. This is the time of the year, when the bowling clubs and other tourist groups that visited the city in september or october are gone and the people who are craving for the hot and spiced wines at the christmas markets have to wait until they are being served and the markets start.
Through the last years the number of tourists in Berlin increased a lot which was not only an effect of a special advertising campaign for the winter but simply because word of mouth spread around that not only London or Paris are worth visiting while staying in Europe.

But this time of year seems to be hard to sell, so everybody in the tourist offices of this city awaits already the start of the advent time. Some shops couldn’t wait at all anymore though and put up their christmas decorations.

It is sunday and that is the perfect day to write some words about the “Ladenschlussgesetz” - the “you have to have your shop closed at certain times law” - one of the oddest things about Germany. While it forbids to have your shop open after 8 pm on working days - which is stupid - it forbids to have your shop open at all on sundays - which is also stupid.
The two main arguments against opening the shops on sundays are ridiculous:
(more…)