Until a friend pointed it out during a recent trip, I hadn’t actually realized that I’ve made a habit of looking up opportunities to look down, from whatever tower or building offers the view. A scan through my posts told me it was true.
Here’s a selection of views from Berlin’s TV tower, the Fernsehturm, which inserted itself into a lot of my ground-level photos during my last visit. I was up on the tower just as twilight was developing, and you can see the different light in the photos.
Two of Berlin’s most recognizable landmarks are practically at the base of the tower, the Rotes Rathaus, or ‘red city hall’ and the twin towers of the Nikolaikirche. The small space around the church, reconstructed in the 1960s, is the only real remnant of the spot where Berlin was founded.
A little off to the side, two views looking south along the Spree River…
In the opposite direction, the Reichstag building with its glass dome, and the Berliner Dom (no ‘e’) or cathedral, built at the height of the German Empire’s pre-World War I power. Below that, the ornate dome that is the main surviving feature of the mid-19th century New Synagogue.
Farther in the distance, the huge main rail station, the Hauptbahnhof, where local, regional and international trains meet in a huge commerecial complex shoehorned fifteen years ago into the crowded site of an older, much smaller station. Berlin has one of the densest transit systems anywhere…
Two more distant views, and one near the tower, with the spire of the Marienkirche, or St Mary church, dating to the 13th century, although its exact date is still a mystery!
And last, just at the base of the tower, Alexa (no, she won’t answer your voice commands) the huge enclosed shopping center and entertainment complex that dominates the Alexanderplatz.
