The Day I turned 30

I can't believe that I haven't posted for two weeks!


pic of the Fernsehturm from today

On my 30th birthday, which was Feb 26th, it was rainy so we didn't get to make our day trip out of the city (to a nearby lake) that we had originally planned. Instead, R took me to dinner at the top of the Berlin Fernsehturm (TV Tower). That is the big tower pictured above.


entrance to the elevator, bottom of the Fernsehturm


observation deck

First we went up to the observation deck. We went around sunset so that we could get good daytime and nighttime views of the city.



Here we are with Berlin in the background.


SW view

This is the SW view which features the river Spree heading west through the city. When the city was divided the wall ran along the north side of the Spree in the west. You can see a stark difference across the river from the smaller, older German building on the 'west' (south side) of the river and the East Block housing on the 'east' (north side) of the river. This view overlooks the areas of Friedrichschain on the left and Kreuzberg across the river on the right.


SE view

Here is the river Spree running to the east. In this pic you can see the main boulevard we spoke about earlier, Unter den Linden. It runs from Alexanderplatz (the plaza surrounding the Fernsehturm) to the large city park, the Tiergarten (animal garden) where the zoo is. That park was royal hunting grounds back in the day. If you pull up the larger pic you can almost see the Brandenberg Gate, which straddle the entrance to the park from Unter den Linden.

In the foreground you can also see the Berliner Dome, Berlin's cathedral. It is on the middle of 'Museum Island'. The Spree splits right before the island and you can see the second part of it on the right side of the pic.


NE view

This is the norteast view that overlooks the Mitte. I made a little arrow pointing to where we live...which is very near Alexanderplatz. Much of this area was bombed out during WWII and has been rebuilt since the 70's.

We learned that the block area we live in, the block that is cut diagonally in half by our street, is called Scheunenviertel. This area was originally just outside of the city walls. In the 17th century they built several barns and housed hay and cattle there. In 1737, the King required Jews to settle there. It has a long history of being a Jewish neighborhood but was not the center of the Jewish community...that was actually in nearby Spandauer Vorstadt where the New Synagogue is located.


NW view

This view overlooks Karl Marx Allee, the road leading off into the distance to the right. This is a great way to see the expansive east block housing projects that line the boulevard.
In the foreground you can also see some construction that is still ongoing around the entire city.





After checking out the observation deck, we headed upstairs for dinner in the rotating restaurant. While our table circled the dome 3 times in every hour, we looked down on Berlin below as it darkened into night.