Arrived late afternoon and thought I’d capitalise on good weather to get onto the cable car and a view over the city….thwarted by railway officials telling me I needed czech money and no, euros wouldn’t do! Didn’t mention that I could use card machine….I went in search of an ATM, got local currency, came back…and there was a horrible queue. Lots of muttering under the breath!!!!! Finally got to the top, and lovely views..well worth the angst.
At the foot of Petřín Hill one can find a monument by sculptor Olbram Zoubek in cooperation with the architects Zdeněk Hölzel and Jan Kerel. The base of this monument is a staircase, on which seven figures descend. However, the farther away the figures are from the lowest stair, the more ruptured their torsos appear, with missing limbs and broken chests. This monument is the Memorial for the Victims of Communism that was unveiled 12 years after the fall of communism, in 2002. 
compelled to read each and every one, lest someone’s story be forgotten. These are a few of the images that I felt captured the essence and the horror so fully that I haven’t been able to get them out of my head – a man refuses to salute with other workers at the launch of a German navy training ship, Hamburg 1936; soldiers from a concentration camp relaxing with female camp attendants on “time off” 1942; young boy surrenders to SS during Warsaw Ghetto uprising 1943; young women reach out to shake hands with Hitler, Breslau 1937; German task force executes Lithuanian jews on the outskirts of Kovno Ghetto; the sneer/smile on the face of the German soldier at the Jewish man’s humiliation.
After the grim Topography of Terror museum visit, sat outside in the sun and my attention was drawn to a balloon hovering in the sky very close by, which had the word “Die” emblazoned on it. Not a great marketing slogan I thought, but when the balloon turned slightly and I saw it was actually “Die Welt Balloon” (“the World Balloon”)…a strong steel rope attached to a basket allows you to hover 500 feet in the air and to enjoy a panorama over the city. On my way there, a demo happened out of nowhere, celebrating diversity. Sun was shining, great demo, perfect day.
a musical composition. This is the distribution of the chain through Germany! A dish of sliced and grilled pork sausage with a sauce consisting of ketchup and curry powder – the snack was first created on September 4th 1949 in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, by the German woman Herta Heuwer. At the time, the area was under the control of the British. In the post-war period, Allied soldiers were introducing new foods and eating habits to Germany, such as Americans eating tomato ketchup with steak, which was adapted to eating sausage with ketchup. Curry powder was brought over by the British. My view….pork sausage and mustard still a winner!! The little sampler you got after your tour of the museum was enough for me, had to pair with a prosecco for lunch! 🙂
Berlinische Galerie (of Modern Art) had an exhibition of Swiss artist Christine Streuli’s latest work which I wanted to see….loved the chromatic intensity, patterns and shapes, quite surreal. Not so much Monica Bonvicini’s offerings (a wall of steel scaffolding – her work explores the relationship between power structures, gender and space – don’t ‘hear’ what she’s trying to convey through the scaffold medium!).
Charlottenburg is the largest and most important palace complex in Berlin of the former Brandenburg electors, Prussian kings and German emperors.
It was one of the favourite residences of the Hohenzollern family, who over the course of two centuries had individual rooms designed, redesigned and elegantly furnished, while devoting equal attention to the gardens.
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