Berlin Alexanderplatz

We went into town this morning to get my man some new trousers - somehow he manages to get holes into them quite quickly... It was a beautiful sunny day in Berlin today, nice and crisp and autumnal.

I took this picture of the "Fernsehturm" (TV-Tower) on Alexanderplatz stepping out of the U-Bahn and it made the blip today because it reminded me so much of my visit to the "DDR" when I was a child, it must have been in 1984 or something, we went with our preschool group I think and it was very exciting going over to the "other side", the East of the city. I remember it all being very grey, and going up this tower in an elevator which was SHAKING. It was pretty scary, but the view we got was amazing of course. We then visited some natural history museum with dinosaurs in it. I also remember all the uniformed men in the underground who checked our passports, it all made quite an impression...

Today, the city has grown together and you no longer need your pastport to come to Alexanderplatz. The tower hasn't changed, but the square has, it has retained its socialist character (in other words, it's pretty ugly), but some new department stores have opened and it's pretty lively. It most certainly is past its heyday though, which was back in the 1920s, when it was the centre of Berlin's nightlife.

The afternoon was spent very differently - a visit to "Dahlem Domaene", which is kind of Berlin's "Gorgie City Farm" - it felt like being in the country which was weird after being so much in the city earlier on!