So, yet again, for 2 years or so I have noticed this big 'Die Welt' (The World) newspaper balloon that every now and then would pop up into the sky. Well, time arrived to give it a try....here the balloon descends to pick the new passengers up. I honestly couldn't believe that the only thing that prevented people from floating off was that ONE CABLE! JUST ONE CABLE kept the people from floating off into Poland...
Looking to the East....you see the wonders of Stalinist city planning, i.e. lots of Hochhauser (skyscraper apartment houses)...
Now looking south, you can see off in the distance a wide, open area...that is Tempelhof Airport where the Berlin Airlift took place in 1948-49.
This is looking west, there you see the 'green' of the Tiergarten and ultra-modern Potsdamer Platz popping out at you....
This is looking north....
And here is an East-Northeast look, with the TV Tower, Berlin Cathedral, etc. below...
Here is a zoomed pic looking westwards, the 'white' spheres you'll recognize from earlier posts as the American listening staion near where I live and then to the right, THE FUNKTURM! That is where I've lived for the last 3 years!
Here is an U-Bahn train going on a bridge over the old East-West border, that are now sand volleyball courts and golf ranges ;)
Starting from the back: there's the 'black' of the Hauptbahnhof; then the Dome of the Reichstag; then the Quadriga statue of the Brandenburg Gate (by the trees)....
And then the 'white' building in the middle is the new American embassy. And then all of those 'stones' are the 'Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe' (makes more sense in German). At first I thought that was the dumbest memorial, but a friend of mine Tara explained things from an artistic perspective and now I think it's UBER-appropriate!
Close up of the Berliner Dom and the TV Tower...
Close up of the New Synagogue, that wasn't burned down during Kristallnacht...
DON'T LOOK DOWN! AHHH! ;)
The complex of buildings on the left is the old Luftwaffe/Air Force headquarters from the Nazi era, that later became the East German govt's offices for government ministeries and now it's the federal tax office ;) You can see 'us' as balloon-shadow in the photo....
Right near the ballon ride is a company called 'Trabi Safari', I've shown photos of them before driving around town in the old East German Trabi's...
Parked and ready for more passengers!
Thank you, Die Welt balloon! What a marvelous way to say 'auf wiederbyebye' to Berlin! And I was most grateful for the wonderful weather = answer to prayers! ;)
