I can’t resist taking photos of the Fernsehturm in Berlin, especially on sunny days.
This photo was taken as I walked under the TV tower from Alexanderplatz station in November after taking the shot featured in my Snapshot: Fernsehturm and Alexanderplatz Station post.
This photo was taken during a holiday in Berlin 2010 as I lay on my back on the cobblestones in front of Alexanderplatz station getting some very strange looks.
Watching the sunset from the Fernsehturm was one of my highlights of 2012.
This photo of the Ferris Wheel near Alexanderplatz in Berlin, set up as part of the Berliner Weichnachtszeit Christmas Market, was taken from a spot near the base of the Fernsehturm, as the sun began to set on an autumn evening.
Click here to see an image of the same Ferris Wheel at night.
Another new series on andBerlin, Photos From My Phone, is a monthly round up of some of the things I’ve seen and done in Berlin, many of which I won’t have blogged about.
If you follow me on Twitter or Like my page on Facebook you may have seen some of these snaps before.
So here’s a taste of what I got up to in November:
I saw this Street Art with some bears attacking the Fernsehturm by Bimer after brunch with friends at Café Aroma.
I took a quick snap of the Fernsehturm at night from Alexanderplatz.
I saw this graffiti – Wem Gehört die Stadt (Who owns the city) when I went for a burger at Burger de Ville.
I went for some very tasty cocktails at Reingold.
And then onto a party at Adam’s (from Travels of Adam) apartment, where I saw this sticker on one of the doors in his building (it translates as sexist shit shit).
I spotted this picture of the Tempelhofer Berg, a proposed mountain on the site of the Tempelhof Airport whilst enjoying a great night out with friends at Rock n Roll Bingo at White Trash Fast Food.
I went to see a friend of a friend, Thimo Sander, play guitar with German band Plan B at Postbahnhof in Berlin.
Christmas Market season in Berlin started and I went to Schmankerl-Hüttn (twice), an Austrian ski chalet themed bar at the Winterwelt am Potsdamer Platz to listen to German Schlager, dance on the benches and drink beer and Jägermeister.
I hope there will be another couple of trips to Schmankerl-Hüttn and other great nights out in Berlin on the cards in December.
This is the same Ferris Wheel as featured in my Snapshot: Fernsehturm and Ferris Wheel post. It has been set up in Berlin near the Neptunbrunnen (Neptune Fountain) on the south western side of the Fernsehturm as part of the Berliner Weihnachtszeit Christmas Market near Alexanderplatz. In the background you can see the Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall).
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to take a VIP trip up the Fernsehturm in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz and to make it even more special I got to watch the sunset form Berlin’s highest vantage point.
I had been out for the afternoon with my friend Bine doing the Schnitzeljagd (Scavenger Hunt) around the Berlin of the middle ages. The Schnitzeljagd is part of Berlin’s 775th Anniversary celebrations, which also includes an exhibition celebrating the City of Diversity on the Schlossplatz.
I had been up the Fernsehturm once before during a holiday in 2010 but I have to say that getting the VIP treatment (no queuing necessary) made this extra special.
At 368m high the Fernsehturm (German for TV Tower) dominates the skyline in Berlin, a generally flat city, and is therefore a useful landmark to navigate by.
The lifts take just 40 seconds to reach the observation deck, travelling at approximately 6 metres per second, which somehow doesn’t feel fast at all, and from there you have a wonderful 360° view of Berlin.
It was strange to look down on the Sun Deck of the Park Inn Hotel, another great place to look out over Berlin, which is where I watched the sunset for this post.
As we had spent much of the afternoon on the Schnitzeljagd, the light was already beginning to change when we climbed the Fernsehturm and it wasn’t long before Berlin was bathed in a beautiful golden light.
And not long after that the sun began to sink and gold turned to orange.
Once the sun dipped below the horizon, a pinkish hue appeared in the sky.
This was a magical experience and I will certainly return to the Fernsehturm to take more pictures in daylight.
If you’re in Berlin, it is well worth visiting the Fernsehturm to see spectacular views over Berlin and if you can time it so that you get to see the sunset too, you won’t be disappointed.
I’ve been meaning to check out the view from the Sun Terrace of the Park Inn Hotel on Alexanderplatz since @SandyInBerlin tweeted a link to a post about it on Just Travelous.
So when Luci from In A Berlin Minute was scouting a location for her next video last week I joined her.
The Sun Terrace is on the 40th floor of the hotel and accessed by taking Lift A to the 37th floor and following the directions up the stairs from there. The €3 entrance fee is a small price to pay for the view it buys you.
And what a view it is.
Whilst I enjoyed the view from the Siegessäule and the Französischer Dom (both of which also cost €3) the proximity of the Fernsehturm made this just a little bit more special. The changing light before and after sunset made Berlin look even more beautiful than usual.
The influence of Soviet-style architecture on DDR-era construction in East Berlin is plain to see on Karl-Marx-Allee, which runs from Alexanderplatz to Frankfurter Tor.
Yesterday, I set out from home with no plan other than to make the most of the sun and get a bit of fresh air. I just wandered. And I ended up walking along the Karl-Marx-Allee.
Unfortunately, because of my lack of planning my feet were tired and I was ready to call it a day by the time I reached Frankfurter Tor so my photos are mainly from one side of the street. I will have to go back another day and walk from Frankfurter Tor to Alexanderplatz on the South side of the street.
There is an excellent article about Karl-Marx-Allee on Journey to Berlin with more detail about the history of the street and plenty more photos.
These two were having great fun handing out Free Hugs on Alexanderplatz yesterday.
I added a trip to Loxx to my to do list as soon as I read about it on überlin.
Loxx Miniatur Welten Berlin is on the third floor of the Alexa Shopping Centre so I’m not quite sure how its existence had escaped me up to that point.
Boasting 4.8km of track, more than 400 trains, 10,000 cars, 45,000 trees, 50,000 figures and 120,000 lights it is an impressive sight. Day turns to night every 20 minutes and thunderstorms roll in periodically. With everything built on a scale of 1:87 the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) still dominates the skyline at more than 4 metres tall.
There are faithful representations of many Berlin landmarks: the Reichstag; The Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall); and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of the Cultures of the World or the Pregnant Oyster as it is known to locals) to name a few.
There are also depictions of people going abut their daily lives: a bride on the way to her wedding; people playing table tennis and volleyball; and a crowd gathered at a concert.
And you’ll also find flights of fantasy and witty scenes : the three wise monkeys on the steps of the Siegessäule; Laurel and Hardy (or Dick und Doof to the Germans) strolling through a park; and a fire drill gone wrong.
In fact the residents of this miniature world seem to be very accident prone, which all adds to the entertainment.
Loxx Miniatur Welten is captivating for adults and children alike but at €12 for adults and €7 for children up to 14 years old (a family ticket for 2 adults and up to 3 children under 15 is €30) it’s not cheap.
If you like what you’ve seen here you should check out Zoë’s pictures on überlin, which are far better than mine.