Silvester 2007

The weather was so nice on the last day of 2007 that I decided to go up the 368-meter-high Fernsehturm (TV Tower) to get a good view of Berlin.




A typical communist-era mural


Skating at Alexanderplatz



Unfortunately, the line for the elevator stretched down the stairs and out of the building, and the tower was closing early, because somebody had reserved it for a private party, so I headed over to the Brandenburg Gate to see the preparations for Berlin's big Silvester (New Year's Eve) party.




Marienkirche and the Neptune fountain


Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the founders of communism, have their backs to the skeleton of the Palast der Republik, the former headquarters of the communist East German government.


I don't know what this is, but those people don't look like they're having a good time.


Berliner-Dom and Zeughaus (and a Salvador Dali bicycle?)


Old National Gallery and New Synagogue


Bode-Museum


Can you see the bullet holes from World War II in this building?


The giant Silvester party stage in front of the Brandenburg Gate


The site of the bunker where Hitler killed himself is now a parking lot in front of an apartment building.


Ice slide at Potsdamer Platz


Lego Santa and Christmas tree in the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz


Bundesrat (upper house of German parliament)


Lights on Friedrichstrasse and fireworks in front of the French Cathedral at Gendarmenmarkt


When I finally found Fassbender und Rausch Chocolatiers, which my dentist told me to visit, it was closed. I had to settle for admiring this chocolate model of Kaiser Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche through the window.


The Red City Hall




I returned to the apartment in time for a late Kaffeetrinken, and then Kristin, Manuela, Johannes, and I went down to Unter den Linden to watch the midnight fireworks display.


Unter den Linden looked like it was on fire.



Watch the video on our earlier New Year's post.