Your Berlin Tour Guide

Neues Museum Revisited

2009-03-22T16:49:00.006+01:00

I and Rik Mayda of mayda3000 blogspot fame went back a year later to see the final walk through of the rebuilt Neues Museum, the last of the 5 museums in the center of Berlin to be rebuilt from WWII damage. Now the exhibits will be installed over the next 200 days, but make no mistake, the building itself has become art in its own right through the clever architectural work of David Chipperfield. The final museum will house antiquities from Roman,Egyptian, Macydonian and other cultures, including the world famous Nefertiti bust.

New U-Bahn Station

2008-03-22T14:28:00.005+01:00

I (and 35 other engineers) recently had a chance to tour the new Brandenburg Gate U-Bahn station that is currently in construction. The tunnel away from this location towards the main train station is completed. The other direction toward Alexander Platz under Unten den Linden Street will be dug over the next ten years, so this station will be the end terminus of this line for a decade or so. This station will be finished in a year, with the train only running "pendulum style" through one of the two tunnels for the first few years to the Main Station, 5 minutes away.
Interesting to note is that the ground in Berlin is a sandy swamp, difficult and wet. To make it all easier for construction they actually injected refrigerator pipes here and froze the land so they could excavate it like an ice block! A first for Germany.

Berlin's "Festival of Lights"

2007-10-30T14:51:00.001+01:00

Berlin had it's "Festival of Lights, a two week lighting of over 50 famous buildings and landmarks using lights, strobes, searchlights, lasers, projections and fireworks. Rik (Mayda3000.blogspot.com) and I had a look at the festivities.

Neues Museum

2007-10-05T10:02:00.001+02:00

Rik Mayda (of RikMayda3000) and I had a preview of the reconstruction of the Neues Museum on Museum Island.

2007-10-01T15:37:00.000+02:00

Tom, Hey! Hope you are doing well! Just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for a fantastic tour of Berlin!! Had it not been for you Becky and I would have wandered around lost and missed all of the beauty and history that Berlin has to offer. We look back at our day with you in Berlin as one of our favorites out of a long trip. On the train ride out of Germany the two of us sat and tried to write everything down that we could remember from your tour. The list is pretty long (and accurate I hope), but only a small fraction of the great information you provided! Not to mention, we really miss that chocolate shop! Thanks you, and maybe one day we will meet again!

Above: Reflections at the Paul Lobe Haus

Below: Neue Wache Monument

Two pics from Peter and Mihali, May 6, 2007

2007-07-06T22:31:00.000+02:00

I just love my job! They were doing a photo shoot of people bouncing on a trampoline in front of the Reichstag, and I got a chance! The classic Brandenburg Gate shot (below)

Short history of Potsdamer Platz

2007-07-06T21:32:00.001+02:00

A quickly spoken history of Potsdamer Platz.

2007-04-03T13:46:00.000+02:00

Debbie, Gail and Cheryl enjoying their tour with me on March 30.

Bodemuseum, Berlin

2007-03-11T20:43:00.001+01:00

A fun day was had making a video for Rik from Mayda3000. The Bode Museum looks great after just 156 million Euros of renovation.

Dawn and Lisa do Berlin

2007-01-18T12:41:00.000+01:00

My New Year's day clients Dawn and Lisa on our day together. They were absolutely vivacious and irrepressably fun. We hardly noticed how cold the day was.

The swans are sailing on the Spree River in front of the Marie-Elizabeth-Lüders Haus. A curious sidenote: the Spree really never floods because Berlin is virtually a swamp. The ground is saturated to a high level, and the soil is sand. These two features allow the river to never flood, the excess water soaks into the sand and fills the huge underground aquafier. This is how we can build our buildings so close to the river without fear of flooding. The river flows virtually constant throughout the year.

The girls also forwarded me the pic of the babylonian "Gates of Ishtar" in the Pergamon Museum. The tiles are still vivid and intense blue, 4000 years later!

November 3, Evening touring...

2006-11-18T15:53:00.000+01:00

A beautiful twilight look at the DZ Bank building, designed by Frank Gehry. Located on Pariser Platz. The metallic amoeba form holds the Bank Board Room, with a 28 person table and big screens for closed conference meetings. Below in the foreground is a large underground conference room. Absolutely breathtaking architecture.

Berlin Dom Views, March 23, 2006

2006-10-24T00:28:00.000+02:00

Welcome aboard...

2006-10-23T21:06:00.000+02:00

I thank you all for tuning in! I have just started this site, and for that matter also the world of blogging. As my learning curve swings in I will feature short blogs of my tours and other fun happenings in and around Berlin. I look forward to hosting this site, and will regularly display fun passing events in pictures and blogs. A special thanks goes to Rik Mayda for bringing me into this decade with computers! You're the best Rik! You can visit his rather wild and fun site at: Mayda3000.blogspot.com

I actually feature in a few of his blogs of Berlin. So for the moment you can visit his site to view me on tour till I can get him all all linked to my site. Pray for me...

Tiergarten Winter 2005-6

2006-10-19T15:45:00.001+02:00

Tiergarten Winter 2005-6
Originally uploaded by sfwanderer2.

Touring on December 29, 2005. The show goes on!

Clients comment posting site...

2006-10-19T14:34:00.000+02:00

Here is a place for all my previous clients to write a brief thought about the tour they took with me. I've had so much fun over the years with my tours, and can only hope you did too!