The fifth Festival of Lights has ended, during the last two weeks, you were able to see Berlin in a different light.
Since 2005, every year in October, Berlin turns into a sparkling metropolis,
about 5000 LED-lamps, 750 LED-spotlights and 900 Fluorescent lamps, were used this time to illuminate 59 world-famous historical landmarks and spots in Berlin,
for the biggest festival in the history of the Festival of Lights.
These days, you can see a lot of advertisements which were inspired by popular things from the internet. In this case, the Messe Berlin used a famous pear called LOLWUT which is a combination of lol and wut, a corruption of what, popularised on the Internet by a picture called The Biting Pear of Salamanca, modified to include the phrase and posted to various message boards, used to express a combination of confusion, amusement and/or disbelief, usually in response to something bizarre or outrageous…
…to announce the upcoming Internationale Grüne Woche, or International Green Week short IGW.
The Grüne Woche is a one-of-a-kind international exhibition for the food, agricultural, and horticultural industries. Producers from all over the world use the IGW to test-market food and luxury items and establish a brand image. It will take place for the 75th time in early 2010.
Berlin got a new museum, a museum about a sausage, one of the most famous of Germany’s sausages, the Currywurst.
A journey through time, from the invention by Herta Heuwer in 1949 to the opening of the Deutsches Currywurst Museum in 2009, the museum concept pursues the idea of an interactive experience centre staging multiple facets and featuring many stations where knowledge is communicated in a playful manner.
The museum is located near the Friedrichstraße and the Checkpoint Charlie.
Update: Deutsches Currywurst Museum Berlin is permanently closed since December 21st 2018.
After the Big Giant and the Little Giantess woke up this morning in the Pariser Platz and passed the Brandenburg Gate in front of an enthusiastic crowd of onlookers, they are now strolling along the Straße des 17. Juni, happily reunited.
To send its giants off on their travels, Royal de Luxe needs skill, flair and organization. Otherwise the two giants, 15 meters and 7.5 meters tall respectively, would not move. Both marionettes are supported by vehicles which enable their massive bodies to walk through the streets. The giants move in an unbelievably lifelike way, as if by magic, but it takes 30 “Lilliputians” (actors) just to bring the 2.5-ton Big Giant to life. Though lighter than her uncle, the Little Giantess also weighs in at no less than 800 kg. The bodies of both giants are works of art, made of steel, lime wood and poplar wood.
Just to give an idea of their dimensions: the Big Giant has a European shoe size of 237, and the Little Giantess’s wig was made out of 50 horses’ tails. It takes an enormous effort to make these marionettes look human – a work of art far beyond the grounds of technical feasibility alone.
Now, after 3 Days of hard work, the Giants and their court are finally back in France, they left Berlin by water on their big boat.
Today on Reunification Day in Berlin, the Deep Sea Diver appeared out of the Humboldtbecken near the Hauptbahnhof.
Surrounded by enthusiastic spectators, this deep sea diver dripping with water has set off across the Moltke Bridge and through the government quarter in search of his niece.
Uncle and niece are searching each other, walking though the western and eastern part of Berlin. They got separated many years ago and maybe, they will find each other today.
A giant’s tale, narrated by Royal de Luxe,
during the next 3 days, the City of Berlin will be the stage for a “giant” open-air theatre spectacle.
“She’s here at last! Sleepy and confused, the Little Giantess opened her eyes this morning alongside her ocean-going boat in front of the Rotes Rathaus to see many sets of eyes staring at her.”
The fairy tale for Berlin begins, the story about losing and finding relatives was only written for Berlin by Jean Luc Courcoult, related to the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Today the Little Giantess will investigate the surrounding area of the Rotes Rathaus, from the Bebelplatz as far as the Gendarmenmarkt and the Lustgarten with wide-eyed curiosity.
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.
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.
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.
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:
