Charlottenburg

On our last full day in Berlin we went to Castle Charlottenburg.

It's a big mansion with a large garden as you can see on this map.

I can't trample flowers?
Now that I call 'stating the obvious'.


Below the highlights of castle Charlottenburg:

Berlin - Brandenburg Gate

After all the graveyards we visited we went to see the Brandenburg Gate.

The Brandenburg Gate used to be a city gate, but at one time the people in Berlin decied to rebuild it somewhere in the center of the city.

In the old days the statue on top of the gate was supposed to stand for peace. But then Napoleon stole the statue and when it was finally returned to Berlin, they changed the statue to represent Victory.



And yet once more I could spot the Fernsehturm off in the distance.

Berlin - Graveyard 3

At the far end of the graveyard there was a special graveyard for broken tombstones. It was a sad sight.

The following pictures were taken at another graveyard that was next to the previous graveyard:








Lots of the tombstones were damaged by bullets during World War II.

Snails.



This was a very creepy statue:
A caterpillar with a human head!

Berlin - Graveyard 2

The next day we visited another graveyard.
When it's freezing they pack the statues in plastic to protect them. They hadn't removed all of the plastic from this statue.



This is a statue of a really scary bird, but the sun made it difficult to make a good picture.











I found a big cart full of compost.

Pine cones!



I found a bird egg on some stairs. Maybe it's from the scary bird, but I wonder why the bird laid the egg here.




Next time: even more graveyard pictures.

Berlin - Checkpoint Charlie

We went to see Checkpoint Charlie after our visit to the graveyard.

Berlin used to be divided into two parts by a big wall so people couldn't get from one part of Berlin to the other part of Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was a place where people could cross into the other part of town if allowed. Today Checkpoint Charlie is not a real checkpoint anymore, but a tourist attraction.

There were also some pieces of the wall at Checkpoint Charlie. Although I did wonder if they were real pieces of the wall, because some had paintings of the same artist on both sides! How did she do that if she wasn't allowed to go to the other part of the city? I don't think those Charlie people would have thought painting a wall was important enough to be allowed to cross.

Berlin - Graveyard

Those of you who saw my posts about Prague last year won't be surprised to hear we visited a graveyard next.

There were lots of beautiful tombs and monuments.







Some were damaged, like this statue that had no head.

There's a special story to this monument. It was made for a wealthy man who wanted a very expensive monument on his grave and he made his wife promise she would buy it for him. He wasn't faithful to his wife however, so she did buy the monument, but then didn't put his name on it, so no one would know who the monument was for.