Berlin By Bike

After a good breakfast at the Michelberger we walked the ten minutes to the bike hire shop and obtained two steeds for this and the next day; they were big, black and Dutch, the handlebars reaching up to our ears.

A lovely day and we cycled into the centre parallel to the River Spee. Soon the familiar spire of the cathedral welcomed us. We holed up in the tiny square of St Nickolas (Propstrasse) whilst I made a drawing tormented by the smell from a stand selling Lach Kebabs (salmon kebabs) and the wailing of a girl singing in Spanish. Tuneless music, old or modern delivered with or without amplification is a feature of this city.

Berlin  Street food abounds

We moved on a bit and found ourselves again in Hackesher Markt. Sian found us a table in the sun and we ordered curry wurst again.  Close by an Argentinian singer covered John Denver songs, closer still, on the next table, two German ladies joined in his Beatles selection, especially Hey Jude.

Hey Damen, please don't join in . . . 

We followed Super-Beth's route across the river to Museum Island.

We peddled up the Unter der Linden and rested in the sun shine at the Brandenburg Gate. Watching the crowd we wondered what lone Scottish piper, making his sorrowful laments, was doing here.

Secretcitytravel.com calls the former Nazi air ministry building: A classic example of muscular Nazi architecture, the former Reich Air Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium) on Wilhelmstrasse was built on the orders of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring between 1935 and 1936.  

Now the building houses the Ministry of Finance. We stopped there with Beth yesterday, today a I made a drawing. It is a simply lustful piece of construction!

Ministry of Finance Building

Further up the street we visited the The Topography of Terror exhibition

This is an outdoor and indoor museum. It is located on Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS.

We were amongst one million of people who visit this place every year. The exhibition is a thorough as it could possibly be. It takes you from the rise of the National Socialism right through to the end in 1945. This is a breath taking show and you need stamina to complete the journey. 
Like the War Remnants Museum in Saigon one can see visible effects on those visiting.