The Main Tropical Greenhouse in Berlin’s Botanical Garden was reconstructed from 2006 until 2009 and is now again open to the public. After over 100 years, the technical equipment was obsolete and the framework was heavily damaged from rust, so the Greenhouse had to be refurbished. It has a ground surface of 60 x 30 m and a height of 23 m, thus ranging among the largest greenhouses of the world.
Taxonomic groups, like orchids, ferns and bromeliads, or to plants requiring similar cultivation techniques, like succulents, water plants, and insectivorous plants, are grouped together in some houses. Within the main tropical glasshouse, the left half contains plants from tropical America, the right half plants from tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific region.
The Greenhouse contains about 1.300 plants from different continents and pylons are explaining facts about the different kinds of plants to the visitors.
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A few weeks ago, Berlin got a new subway line, the U55. If you think about it, it’s nothing special, but you should know some facts about it. The U55 has 3 stations, Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Bundestag and Brandenburger Tor and does not connect to any other subway line.
The name Kanzlerbahn or Kanzlerlinie (Chancellor Line) is a nickname given due to its way through the government quarter. The whole project has cost over 350 million euros, therefore, it is the shortest and the most expensive subway line ever build.
But that’s not all, the famous Brandenburger Tor station is surrounded by a huge block of ice, so the temperature inside the hall is always about 0 °C. That was necessary to stop the groundwater to soak into the construction area.
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Once again, the IFA, Europe’s biggest exhibition for Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances, takes place in Berlin. With everything from giant flat screens to the tiniest TV mobile phones, from mobile media players to complete home cinema – IFA presented fascinating highlights from every area of entertainment. An interlinked network of 26 fair halls covering a display area of 160,000 m².
Now everyone is talking about new releases, inventions and technologies. I decided to give you some information about their new products but also a look at the fascinating decorated exhibition halls.
Sony‘s products were placed around a big main hall, in the middle you could chill and watch their laser show on six big screens. Sony came up with their new 10 frames per second Cybershot, an advanced live view for SLR cameras the PS3 in 3D, the new BRAVIA Mode, HD camcorders and a couple of small things like electronic picture frames.
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Sometimes, a simple sand castle isn’t enough.
“City of the Future” – Yesterday, the 2. United Sand Festival, Germany’s biggest and most established sand sculpture festival came to its end. Over 2,000 tons of sand were used to create 18 fragile sculptures of up to 8 metres in height. They all were made by the best sand artists of the world.
Here are some pictures from the most interesting sculptures of the festival:
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