Berlin - The second day (around Kurfürstendamm and Potsdamer Platz) - 22nd of April 2011

As we walked out of the Wittenberg-platz U-bahn station we came across a beautiful fountain just across the KaDeWe which according to the guide book  is the largest departement store in Europe, having soon after the second world war become a symbol of economic success in Germany. It was fairly early in the morning and apart from that a public holiday in Germany, so we might not have a chance to see what it looks like on the inside.

The facade of the Peek and Cloppenburg warehouse to the left of Taeuntzienstrasse caught our attention because of its originality, though its central bedgarden has a well known twisted and  interwinned bar sculpture named "Berlin" symbolising the former divided Germany.

The facade of the Peek and Cloppenburg warehouse (Left). The Wittenberg Platz fountain (Right).

Two different perspectives of the "Berlin" sculpture.





As we reached the  1895 neo-roman Gedächniskirche, which I had been wanting to visit for a long time, I realised that not only was it closed and framed but under repair works, so I will not be able to see its majestic mosaics nor even get a glimpse of its facade.

"Es ist schade", as the Germans would say ... and it really is a pity ..., but there will certainly be other things to see that might get me distracted from the fact that one of the things I mostly wanted to see will have to wait for an "unknown" period of time.

We then turned onto Kantstrasse to see what was on stage at the Theater des Westens, whose neo-classical facade incorporating some Art Nouveau elements is worth looking at.

Theater des Westens

We ended up unexpectedely walking onto the Potsdamer Platz and some remains of the Berlin Mauer to soon find ourselves walking around the Topographie des Terrors memorial walls exhibiting shocking pictures and descriptions of some of the nazi crimes. These reminded me of some of the images of the extermination camps and if I had not visited Auschwitz and Birkenau before I would have most probably been extremely disturbed ...

Some Berlin wall remains (Left). The Topographie des Terrors gallery (Right).





We haven't stopped since early morning and still have quite a few kilometres to "cover" till we reach the Charlottenburg area, which we want to walk to so that we may see a few interesting things on the way.

(To be continued)