Unserer Deutsche Zeit

Our gracious host, Marco and Petra have been showing us around Berlin and Potsdam, and we are really enjoying this part of the world. It seems that roads in these medieval cities must start and end with a gate. So below is the Brandenburg Tor in Berlin which marks the start of the road to, you guessed it, Brandenburg.

Brandenburg Tor in Berlin

Another view for the scale 

Berlin transport

Potsdam also has a gate that connects it to Brandenburg. So of course, this must also be called the Brandenburg Tor, Potsdam style.

Brandenburg Tor in Potsdam

The mall that ends in Potsdam gate

We saw so much wonderful architecture in Berlin. Much of Berlin was destroyed in the war. The rebuilding has resulted in a wonderful pastiche of old and new. It doesn't seem to clash, so you have this mixture of old Baroque palaces and official buildings like the Reichstag, mixed with modern offerings of steel and plate glass.

The Reichstag

The Reichstag, frontal view

A modern plate glass offering

Classical style Pergamon museum

A spiral staircase

Megan's wonderment in the museum of German history

I love this Bauhaus style - German history museum

Stadtschloss, Berlin

The Harvel flows through Berlin

Perfect expression of the old and new

When is blast off? Berlin TV tower

We also visited SanSouci, the palace built by Frederick II as his summer home. SanSouci means 'without cares', and the palace reflected this name, an amazing rococo decorated pleasure palace, with extensive gardens, statuary, sightlines to artificially created ruins and other wonders.

The portico of the palace

Classical themes with a rococco touch

Sans Souci, note the comma and full stop.

One mystery about the palace is the meaning of the name inlaid on the front facade. You might notice that SansSouci is spelt 'Sans, Souci.'. There has been much speculation about the meaning of that inserted comma and full stop.

The front of Sans Souci

A pavilion in the garden

A folly at the end of a sight line

The Chinese house

The functional windmill at San Souci

We also attended a symposium for guitar luthiers, that featured guitar builders from around the world. We sat in on some demonstrations, talks and small concerts.

French acoustic guitars

3 necks, 3 drone sets and the kitchen sink!

More tasty guitars

Looks like they're growing on tree's

An unusual creation

Solid bodies of all shapes and persuasions

A spanish guitarist demonstrating a luthier's model

Help, we are surrounded.

The symposium also staged a concert in the evening at a local church with excellent acoustics. We were treated firstly to a Ukrainian classical guitarist, then a jazz duo of guitar and bass, a fiery and inspirational flamenco session, then a session of Brazilian music with guitar and mouth organ. Of course, there was the grand finale where all the player's jammed together.

Ukrainian classical guitarist

Jazz duo

Fantastic flamenco player

Brazilian duo

Grand finale

The christmas season is building in Berlin, with all the usual grockle in the stores, along with the odd demonstration and protest march. It is Germany, after all!

A demonstration for animal rights in Berlin. They are pig foetuses they're holding.

Christmas Gizmo's

Ecumenical christmas crockle

Megan and Petra, shopping till they dropped.

So, we're loving our sojourn off the boat in Germany. It also amazes us how close all things are here. On a whim, we decided to go to Prague for a few days. So our next blog will come from Czechoslovakia! Till then....