US-President Barack Obama in Berlin

The President of the United States, Barack Obama, together with his wife, Michelle and his two girls Sasha and Malia visited Berlin on Wednesday June 19th 2013.

During their stay, the Family stayed at Berlin’s luxury hotel, the Ritz-Carlton and while President Obama was meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, his wife and the kids visited different historical locations like the Holocast Memorial or the Checkpoint Charlie.

Their famous plane, the Air Force One, was parked at the military part of the Berlin Tegel Airport, visible for everyone through the windows of Terminal C.

Continue reading

The Berlin Domino Wall – Thousand Pieces of Art

As I mentioned yesterday, today was Berlin’s 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Many World leaders and dignitaries were invited.

Chancellor Merkel said some Words in front of the Brandenburg Gate, she herself grew up in East Germany and was one of thousands to cross into the West on Nov, 9, 1989 – “Today marks a truly happy moment of the German and the European history,” She said. “Twenty years ago the door to freedom opened up and a seemingly invincible wall that divided a people and an entire continent suddenly became permeable. For me, it was one of the happiest moments of my life.”

The Main Event was a symbolic Fall of the Wall in form of 1,000 dominoes to symbolize fall of the communist regimes and iron curtain in Eastern Europe. The first stone was pushed by the former Polish politician Lech Wałęsa.

The 1,000 Stones, 2,5m high, all hand-painted, were lined a 1,6km long portion of the route once occupied by the wall. I took a couple of pictures from some very interesting Stones.

Continue reading

The U55 Kanzlerbahn


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.

Continue reading