Berlin. Alexanderplatz.

I started reading German books when I found out I was seriously outdone bij the casus. Never properly learned them. Did reading German books help? Yes. In no time I knew more ways of talking around the casus thing and could thus communicate better (and more!).
Plus I finally read Alfred Döblins Berlin Alexanderplatz.

And now we were in Eastern Germany and saw Berlin - never been there before - on the road signs.
I told Pieter I very much wanted to see this Alexanderplatz IRL. We decided to visit Berlin, before heading back to Holland.

Entering an unknown but famous city is, IMHO, one of the major pleasures in life so I was enthralled while Pieter followed the directions on our GPS.
We drove into an old, industrial part of the city and crossed a little river.
I looked sideways and saw Indonesia. Barges turned into cafe's in a redeveloped industrial area.

A very IT sort of place. Lot's of young, modern urbanites speaking English to their international friends with a strong German accents. The cafe's served excellent coffee.

But it was the Alexanderplatz we wanted to go to.
So we went on, drove on into the city centre, parked our car next to the Alexanderplatz and - may I warn you?
If you know about Alexanderplatz because you read Döblins book - don't go there.
The place is turned into an example of post war, Soviet influenced concrete blocks.

The whole Platz has been bombed to bits in WWII, of course. And when they rebuilt it, it was very modern at the time. Not any more. So be prepared.

I include one pic of todays Alexanderplatz (the last one). Check out Google for some gorgeous pics of the pre-war square.

Of course that wasn't all we saw of Berlin. So read my next blog, and see if you like the city as much as we did!