In the area called the "Gendarmenmarkt" there are two virtually identical churches facing each other. One of them is called the "French Dome", the other the "German Dome", if I remember correctly. I have no idea which one this one is, but it really doesn't make much of a difference as the churches indeed are identical twins on the outside.

This building is called the "Rotes Rathaus". It's located near Alexanderplatz, which was one of the main protesting areas before the fall of the Wall. The Nikolaikirche is in one of the side streets closeby. The Berlin Fernsehturm is close to this square as well (to the left), if I remember correctly.

At the time I was there it was not obvious any more which side was facing the former East and which one faced the former West. To me the city gave the appearance of trying to entirely erase the memory of the former separation.

Much later I could clarify this point: On the other side of the gate you can see the famous Hotel Adlon. I could verify that this hotel was in the East side of town.

To the left from where this photo is taken is the location of the Reichstag -- see below.

A friend of mine brought up an interesting question when he saw this photo and I translated the slogan on the building. "Dem Deutschen Volke" means "To the German People" in a sort of old-fashioned way.

My friend asked if the Reichstag was actually built in the 3rd Reich. Actually I didn't know at that time. In the meantime I checked this and, of course not: The Reichstag is much older than that (but it had been destroyed (WWI?) and rebuilt around that time. But of course, the slogan is just a statement that this is for the country and the people (as it should be if you think about it).

One of the greatest museums I know is the "Pergamonmuseum" in the former East part of Berlin. I would have to write an entire Web site just about his to adequatly describe it. One of the main attractions there is the Ishtar Gate, the gate to the ancient city of Babylon.

Behind me you would see...

...this.

This long corridor (about 100m long) leading towards the gate is the street leading towards the Ishtar gate and into Babylon.This was not an ordinary street, as you may guess, but a procession street for religious purposes.

But the main attraction of the museum is the "Pergamon temple", from the ancient city of Pergamon (east mediterranean). Some time in the 1900s, archeologiests were able to reconstruct almost the entire temple from a huge pile of rubble and they rebuilt this temple in this museum.

I don't have any really good photos of this one, because it's so huge... What you see here is less than half of the temple.

Below you have two more of the many wonderful pieces in the museum. The left item is a 4m tall door made of ceramics. To the right you see a small (!) part of the "Aleppo room", an entire room ornated in incredible wood carvings. It originated somewhere in the east mediterranean as well (somewhere close to Aleppo would be my first guess ;) )

This building (according to my map of Berlin this might be the St. Hedwigs Cathedral) is on the Bebelplatz, opposite to the Humboldt University.

Bebelplatz was the site of some of the Nazi book burnings. There is a very thought provoking monument to this event: in the middle of the square is a skylight into an underground room full of empty, white bookshelves.

The Berliner Dom.

Did I mention there is a lot of construction going on?

Imagine a building that has a very nice outside you want to preserve, but the inside is not worth preserving or cannot be repaired well?

Here is the European solution: You carve away the insides and try to keep the facade upright till you are done building a new building inside this shell...

(The U.S. solution would be to raze the building and build a shopping mall and a parking lot)

At some time this area was called the biggest construction site in the world. Actually there is construction also to the left and behind this viewing point.

What you see in the distances is the new cupola of the German Reichstag (a transparent steel/glass construction to symbolize a transparent government).

A true relic of the former East: the Ampelmaennchen. The East had different symbols on their traffic lights than the West (note the hat).

At the time when I visited Berlin the city had grown so unified already that the symbol on the traffic lights often was the only indicator you were in the former East.

Although many people want to keep the Eastern Ampelmaennchen, I predict that they will sooner or later disappear entirely. Too many people don't want to be reminded of the former separation.

To see for yourself: go to Berlin and try to find the famous "Checkpoint Charlie". Good luck. There is nothing left. Just a plaque on an ordinary building which you might not even notice if you don't search for it.