Berlin

"Terbulent" is the word that can be used to describe the past of Berlin. No city in world must have had such a burning history (from Napoleon Bonaparte to Adolf Hitler). Berlin has witnessed the World War I, World War II and the Cold War...

This weekend I and Harshad (the camera guy) happened to visit Berlin. The ICE took 4 hrs to reach Berlin at 11pm on Friday. We stayed in a very vibrant Youth Hostel. The trip was planned by yours truly, so we already knew the sequence of places that we would be visiting.

The Wall: Saturday morning, after a sumptuous breakfast, we went straight to Berlin Wall (13th August 1961 - 9th November 1989). Now called East Side Gallery (with numerous wall paintings), it is the longest existing stretch of the famous wall of Berlin that divided the east from the west side of Berlin.

TV Tower: After the East Side Gallery, we went to a place called Alexanderplatz. The Berlin TV tower (359m) stands here. We went to the observatory at 200m by a lift travelling at 6m/s. From here a beautiful view of the capital city of Germany was for the taking. At 207m was a cafe which rotated 360° and you could see the city while sipping on to your cup of coffee (apple juice in my case). It was also here that we got an idea of the location of places that we were about to visit.

Unter den Linden: It is the most famous boulevard of Berlin (like Rajpath in Delhi). Along this street are located the numerous wonderful monuments. Our walk from the tower towards and along the street was a joy. Notable architectural beauties were the Berlin Dom, the Concert Hall with two Doms on each side (termed as Europes most beautiful square), the University building (where Marx Planc taught), the Opera house, the city library (where Einstein worked) and many others.

Check Point Charlie: At around 4pm, we went to this place. It was and American check point from where people could cross the east west border. There is a museum here that depicts the post World War II history of Berlin.. basically the Cold War. It was this place where the American and the Soviet tanks used to stand facing each other. [The museum took a lot of time :( ]

Potsdamer Platz: Our client had advised us to visit this place in evening. When we went there, we knew why.. This place is the symbol of modern Berlin. It has numerous modern architecture wonders. A very tall and completely transparent building of Die Bahn (German Railways). When totally lit and viewed from distance, gave an impression similar to Dagdusheth decoration at night. Then there was Sony Center (Sony Corporations Europe center). This place is absolutely ammmazzingg. It hosts numerous restaurants and shops and cinema halls (include an IMAX dome). But it created an unbelivable sight combining glass, light, water, color and ppl :). We had our dinner at Potsdamer platz.

Brandenberg Gate: After our dinner, we went to this impeccable monument that epitomizes Berlin. It stands at one end of Unter den Linden. We specially planned to visit this at night when it bathes in incandescent light.

Reichstag: The German Parliament, situated very close to the Brandenberg Gate. Its again a very noteworthy architecture. It has a great history of its own (like it was ablaze in 1933. The Nazis immediately took advantage of the situation in order to advance their cause at the expense of civil rights). There is a new glass dome atop the parliament. People are allowed an entry into the parliament. We were on top of the German Parliament at midnight.

Kaiser William Church: The next day morning (in cloudy weather), we saw an old church located near our hostel. This church was half destroyed in World War II and has been conserved in the same state till date. It gives an idea about the kind of destruction the city underwent in the war (every other appartment was totally destroyed).

Tiergarten: We went to the Tiergarten. It is the biggest garden (call forest) of the city and occupies virtually most of the city. While roaming in the garden, we wondered what 'Tier' meant.. :) (I thought it meant 'Tiger').. Today i found out that it meant 'beast'..

The Siegessäule: Located at the center of Tiergarten. It is a tower with golden statue of Victory on the top, and is one of the most imposing landmarks in the city, and reflects the city's history in remarkable fashion. This monument was moved from the Parliament to its current location in 1938. You can go to the top, right beneath the statue. The view of the city from here is excellent. This was a real nice experience.

Charlottenburg Palace: Lastly, we visited this palace. Wasnt as wonderful as we had expected.. but the garden around it was real beautiful (1/3rd of Berlin is gardens). Had luch in an Italian restaurant. (saw fotos of Tom Cruise and many many celebreties visiting the restaurant). Finally took the bus to the station and at 5pm, took the return ICE (first class). There was a personal video for every seat :) apart from the 6 audio channels..

Finally.. the city is really beautiful.. this trip was the best till now. Nebody who loves history would enjoy it. Nebody who doesnt would love it..

Have a nice day
Abhijeet

PS: Note that the photos in this mail are from net and not by our camera.. would soon upload our photos.

Stuttgart

Hi All
Last weekend was one of the finest in last few days, barring the fact that the Sunday was a little too hectic.
Saturday: The best part of Saturday was that I got up as late as 10am. Though 10am may not be very late by the standards of many, for me it was quite a sleep after a long time. I made breakfast (kanda pohe and tea). I have got Sachin's laptop for some time.. so then I put on my fav music and started playing FIFA (RTWC). :) And it was amazing feeling to do so.. it felt really good to be doing things that you love so much.. wondered how long it lasted.. in evening went to Saturn. At night, made egg fried rice :).. wherein the rice was cooked without the cooker (in microwave).. was not really cooked all that well.. but with egg, everything tastes well..

On Sunday, Harshad and I went to Stuttgart. We were suppose to take the train at 6:07am. Harshad arrived at 6:35.. :(
so we took 7:07am train. The main plan was to visit the Mercedes Benz Museum ( http://www.mercedes-benz.com/com/d/home/heritage/museum/index.html ). We reached the museum at 11:30. There we saw the first automobile in this world. There were cars galore.. cars from 1900 to 2004.. some very royal cars.. the entire history of Mercedes Benz was unfolded. Amongst the notable few were

1. 1931 Mercedes-Benz 770 "Grand Mercedes" Cabriolet F - Used by German Emperor Wilhelm II
2. 1965 Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulet - Used as Pope Paul VI
3. 1989 Mercedes-Benz C 9 Gruppe C - an amazing race car

But.. the one that stood out (for me) was the F1 car used by Kimi Reikkonen last year:) I got to actually see, touch an F1 car... it was awesome.. (though not a Ferrari).. It was a car that had challenged Schumacher for the championship.. I have taken a snap of me sitting in an F1 car.. :) Sounds unbelievable for me..

Some facts: It was earlier called Daimler Benz.. later renamed after Daimlers daughter - Mercedes. They have made, apart from cars, aircrafts and boats as well. Most of the German aircrafts in World War II were powered by Daimler engines.

Another thing I learnt there is that never go to a museum with a person who has bought a 10x optical zoom, 128MB space digital camera a week back. Harshad took avg 5 snaps per car. 128MB looked meagre.. It was the fact that the museum closes at 5pm that we had to leave. Otherwise Harshad would have found the entire day a little too less to satisfy his photographic curiosities.
The luch I had was pathetic.. the only veg thing that was available was some tomato sandwich type.. so i thought lets take a fruitcake.. the taste of it didnt do any justice to the effort that must have gone in the making of that cake (by the looks of it)
We didnt know what else was there to be seen in Stuttgart.. So we asked a person in the train and he suggested us a place called Schlossplatz, (http://www.stuttgart.de/sde/menu/frame/top_11089_11101.htm) which was in the centre of the city.. it was a very beautiful place with gardens, lots of beautiful fountains, lake, great old buildings and beautiful hill on the horizon. Crowded by lots of beautiful ppl as well.. Had a real nice time..

The return journey was pretty late. Reached Frankurt at midnight.

Today there is hardly any work. Its the first day of acceptance testing.. so enjoying :)

-Abhijeet

Madidas

Most of you must be aware of the story of a guy who was told that whatever land he could cover on his feet by the sunset, will all be his.. On Saturday we had gone to Erlangen. Its a place where ADIDAS has its factory outlet. It was said that this was the birthplace of Adidas (info not reliable). It is a place where adidas sells most of its products at discounted rates. On top of that, since Infy has a big account in Adidas, we have a discount of 30% over the rates. (we need to produce I-card of one of the members of the Adidas team).

So we travelled to Erlangen, some 3 and a half hour by train from Frankfurt to shop. Dunno why, but Sachin had warned me that its a huge place and you may get confused (how soon has he started knowing me). So when we reached there, the outlet was as expected - huge. Inside was full of things.. so many of them that after first 10 min i had to regroup myself and had to think of things that i wanted to buy and stay focussed on them.
So I bought a pair of shoes, a bagpack and some other things. They were giving free gifts on your amount exceeding some value..
above 75€ - an Adidas cap
above 100€ - a football (small one)
above 150€ - pair of towels :)

I got a football.. At the end of it, i felt i should have bought something more.. problem that i faced is that everything that was displayed had a size. and that size was specified in 10 different ways.. so it was a real tough decision to buy anything for someone without trying out.. anyways.. it was a good experience.. my new shoes are really nice :). and i plan to visit that place again in near future.. If the trend continues, all the Infoscions may soon become brand ambassadors for adidas.. ( a few ones out here have already started )..

ciao..
its football time :)
-zing