The Wall That Seperated Berlin
How much do you know about Berlin Wall?
Before this, all I knew about Berlin was about the Berlin Wall; a wall that ran through the heart of Berlin for 28 years and 1 day from 1961 to 1989. The Soviets occupied the East and the Allied which consists of the American, British and French controlled the West.
The only place to cross between East and West Berlin was at Charlie Checkpoint. Today it’s a famous landmark in Berlin even though there’s nothing interesting there except a guard house, and 2 men wearing Soviet and Allied uniform holding the USSR & USA flags. Photos with them costs 1e each. You can also stamp your passport with the old stamps between East/West Berlin.
Further down the road, away from Charlie Checkpoint is the Berlin Wall Museum. Part of the Berlin Wall is still standing there. I think it’s about 300m long and there are no graffiti on it, unlike those at East Side Gallery. It’s a temporary open air museum where you can read the history of Berlin and WW2 on printed boards. The actual museum is being constructed on the empty land beside it.
Walking even further down the road, you’ll reach Potsdamer Platz; the center of Berlin where everything comes together. Even though the wall is no more there except for 3-4 blocks with paitings, the scars are still clearly visible. Just look at the ground and you’ll see a long scar line running through the middle of Potsdamer Platz where the wall used to stand.
I guess most of the Berlin Wall photos that we’ve seen before are from the East Side Gallery, situated opposite the east Berlin train station. It is still standing today and it’s 1.2km long; the largest open air gallery in the world.
It used to house 106 paintings but over the years, they have now deteriorated to such a bad condition that most of them have been replaced by graffiti. I had my signature there as well. Some newer paintings were painted over the past few years and the government is now planning for restoration works on all the paintings later this year.
This is one of the newer ones, painted in 2006.
Aachen September Special!
Where else can you find FREE concerts from 1500hrs to 2230hrs for 9 straight days? All kinds of music; hip hop, rock, jazz, R&B, etc..
It started last Friday and will last until this coming Sunday.
The initial plan was to go together with my other colleagues, but I arrived late and they were already busy dancing to the tunes at 1 of the 4 stages. The stages was setup in and around the town hall and cathedral, isolated from each other. There’s ample space for a few hundred of people for each stage, tables and not forgetting beer stalls!
They even have a ferris wheel, as big as The Eye in KL!
While everyone was busy dancing and drinking, I was happily snapping pics. The thing I like most about this concert is that I can get really, really close to the stage, for free. With my 17-55mm, it was just enough to get some closeups of the performers.
But I still miss the reach a longer telephoto. A 70-200mm would be ideal, or maybe 135mm.
Lighting wasn’t that good on some of the stages. Luckily enough I had my flash gun with me when I need it from time to time, depends. My gears’ settings were pushed to the max; F/2.8, ISO 1600, 1/200s to freeze those people jumping up and down.
Good thing was, most of the shots were keepers.
Here’s another one with ISO 1600.
The remaining photos are in my Flickr.
Sights of Aachen
The Aachen Cathedral at dusk around 2045.
It’s one of two very famous landmarks here in Aachen, besides the city hall which is situated directly opposite of it. You wouldn’t miss them if you’re in the right place. It’s that big that it will definitely catch your attention and your camera’s.
And mine certainly did.
Last week, I was lucky enough to join a customized, short guided tour around Aachen. 2 hours of walk and 10 euros didn’t come to a waste. At least now I know a little history of the place that I will be until next year.
The cathedral was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It was built around 800 AD by Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, and is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe.
The name Charlemagne is pretty much synonymous with Aachen. There are events named after him, his statues etched at important places and he was buried here when he died in 814 AD.
If you have a good look at the structure, there are 3 different types of architecture there. All these 3 are built in different centuries. It started out with the structure in the middle, initially called the Palatine Chapel.
From 936 to 1531, it was the church of coronation of 30 German kings and emperors. Charlemagne’s throne was used for these coronations.
600 years later in 1414, on Charlemagne 600th death anniversary, they expanded the structure by building a 2 part glass chapel on both sides on the Palatine Chapel.
And it has since been called the Aachen Cathedral then.
Wait. Did I not say that the Aachen Cathedral and the Aachen Town Hall used to form what they call Palace of Aachen? It was a collection of residential, political and religious buildings used by Charlemagne as the center of power of his Carolingian Empire.
But today, most of the palace has been destroyed and only the cathedral and town hall are still standing, facing each other. (The photo of the cathedral was taken from the place where the tourists are standing in the photo above)
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