So Mom got up real early and she seems to be ok despite yesterday's challenge.I'm not surprised she's up this early because last night she was out cold the minute her head hit the pillow.

To continue the story of yesterday.

As we're getting closer to the city this was the first monument that welcomed us.
The Victory Column. In 1939, as part of the preparation of the monumental plans to redesign Berlin into Welthauptstadt Germania, the Nazis relocated the column to its present site at the Großer Stern (Great Star), a large intersection on the city axis that leads from the former Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace) through the Brandenburg Gate to the western parts of the city. At the same time, the column was augmented by another 7.5 metres, giving it its present height of 66.89 metres. The monument survived World War II without much damage. The relocation of the monument probably saved it from destruction

Surrounded by a street circle,with millions of little cars speeding around the column is also accessible to pedestrians through four tunnels. Via a steep spiral staircase of 285 steps, the physically fit may, for a fee, climb almost to the top of the column, to just under the statue and take in the spectacular views over the Tiergarten including the Soviet War Memorial.We didn't bother doing that. Berliners have given the statue the nickname Goldelse, meaning something like "Golden Lizzy".

parts of the city has separate bike path with their own light which feels pretty safe

other parts we had to share with city busses, which was pretty scary at times

Berlin TV Tower is a television tower in central Berlin close to Alexanderplatz in Berlin-Mitte, the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the administration of the German Democratic Republic . It was intended as a symbol of Berlin, which it remains today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. With its height of 368 meters, it is the tallest structure in Germany, and the second tallest structure in the European Union (by a half-metre).

all those pink pipes you see, is for water ? in some areas they are painted blue. Like I said before, there is construction everywhere.

Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities. In 2012, the Humboldt University of Berlin was one of eleven German universities to win in the German Universities Excellence Initiative, a national competition for universities organized by the German Federal Government. The university has educated 29 Nobel Prize winners and is considered one of the most prestigious universities in Europe overall as well as one of the most prestigious universities worldwide for arts and humanities.

Berlin Cathedral is the short name for the Evangelical (i.e. Protestant) Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church. It is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough. The current building was finished in 1905 and is  main work of Historicist architecture of the "Kaiserzeit". The Cathedral has never been a cathedral in the actual sense of that term since it has never been the seat of a bishop. I think they should invest in some power washing equipment to clean all the black soot, and of course, there was scaffolding on this building too.

Graffiti seems to be a big thing here, it's everywhere and posters are plasters on every flat surface.Homeless people sleeping in the streets are also part of the picture.

Domino pizza delivery, wow...............I wonder if it's free if you have to wait 30 min. Mom tried to ask, but I guess her school German speaking wasn't good enough for this person to understand the question.

Mom is checking the map and continuing pedaling determined to see all the tourist sites despite the rain and crazy traffic.

The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. the Wall completely cut off  West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992.[ The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and  the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period

The Gallery on the Berlin wall consists of 105 paintings by artists from all over the world, painted in 1990.
It is possibly the largest and longest-lasting open-air gallery in the world.The paintings at the East Side Gallery document a time of change and express the euphoria and great hopes for a better, more free future for all people of the world.
A 23-meter section was scheduled to be removed on March 1, 2013, to make way for luxury apartments. None of the artists whose work will be destroyed were informed of these plans. The demolition work actually started on March 1, 2013. Authorities were not aware of the start of the demolition. Due to the involvement of protesters, demolition was postponed until at least March 18, 2013.
Two-thirds of the paintings are badly damaged by erosion, graffiti, and vandalism. One-third has been restored by a non-profit organization which started work in 2000. The objective of this organization is the eventual restoration and preservation of all the paintings. Full restoration,

particularly of the central sections, was projected for 2008. Remediation began in May 2009.The restoration process has been marked by major conflict. Eight of the artists of 1990 refused to paint their own images again after they were completely destroyed by the renovation.

A long stretch was behind a fence to stop the graffiti painters.

On opposite side, there were life-size pictures of the destruction from current wars in middle east, and stories from survivors. 

The Oberbaum Bridge is a double-deck bridge crossing Berlin's River Spree, considered one of the city's landmarks. It links 2former boroughs that were divided by the Berlin Wall and has become an important symbol of Berlin’s unity.The lower deck of the bridge carries a roadway, and the upper deck of the bridge carries trains.
Since 1999, the traditional rivalry between the two boroughs is played out in the annual "water battle", where residents from both areas, organized in groups pelt each other with rotten vegetables, jello, eggs, flour and water and try to symbolically "reconquer" by driving their participants from the bridge.

Checkpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.
After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the building at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction with actors in uniform.

Not sure I wanted to pose here, but oh well............being a tourist, and Mom made me do it

Look at this group of kinder garden kids getting around the busy city, many of them do not look very happy. I bet they are daydreaming about a greener pasture ;-)

The best way to see the city is by bike, so there's a lot of rental places like this, just pop in your credit card and off you go. We of course, have our own

what a crazy looking hot dog stand ? this must get heavy towards the end of the day ?

typical tourist souvenir crap, Mom didn't buy one thing except food and a water all day...........unbelievabe I thought.

Pigeons must be at least bilingual, the sounded exactly the same as in New York 

The Neptune Fountain in Berlin was built in 1891 and very impressive. The Roman god Neptune is in the center. The four women around him represent the four main rivers of Prussia at the time the fountain was constructed: the Elbe (with the allegorical figure holding fruits and ears of corn), Rhine (fishnet and grapes), Vistula (wooden blocks, symbols of forestry), and Oder (goats and animal skins). The fountain was removed from its original location at the Schlossplatz in 1951 when the former City Palace there was demolished. Eventually, after being restored, the fountain was moved in 1969 to its present location between the St Mary's Church and the Rotes Rathaus.

The story of the Buddy Bears started with an artistic event in Berlin in 2001. Inspired by the idea of bringing art to the streets of a metropolis like a cow parade in Zurich and New York, the initiators of the Buddy Bears, Klaus und Eva Herlitz, decided to start a street art project in Berlin. 

It was quickly agreed that a bear would be the ideal sculpture for the backdrops of the German metropolis. The bear - Berlin’s heraldic animal with a high level of public appeal – was envisaged to capture the hearts of Berliners and their guests in various different designs.

Funniest bar bike I ever saw ? a bunch of guys had to keep on pedaling to have the beer contiuing to flow............haha

 Marx and Engel

there are so many statues and memorials so, at the end of the day, Mom was tired to write down what they all are and represent, the top picture is of Bismarck but the bottom one ????

The Soviet War Memorial  is one of several war memorials here. It's erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its  80,000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945.This memorial was erected within a few months of the capture of the city. Early photographs show the memorial standing in a wilderness of ruins, the Tiergarten having been destroyed by incendiary bombs and then stripped of timber for firewood during the last months of the war. Today, it is surrounded by the extensive woodlands of the reconstituted Tiergarten. Although the memorial stood in the British sector of Berlin, its construction was supported by all the Allied powers. Built in a style similar to other Soviet World War II monuments once found all over the former Eastern bloc, the memorial takes the form of a curved stoa topped by a large statue of a Soviet soldier. It is set in landscaped gardens and flanked by two Red Army ML-20 152mm gun-howitzer artillery pieces and two T-34 tanks. A large Cyrillic inscription is written underneath the soldier statue, which is translated as "Eternal glory to heroes who fell in battle with the German fascist invaders for the freedom and independence of the Soviet Union". The Soviets built the statue with the soldier's arm in a position to symbolize the Red Army's putting down of the Nazi German state............

Mom was doing great following the map on our way back to Lucy, but the problem was that our map didn't show the entire route. So at the end she just improvised, and that didn't turn out so well.

But when lost you get to see places that weren't intended, like this shanty town which probably had the best location in the entire city.

All in all, it was an exciting day, but Mom feels like she inhaled 3 packs of cigarettes from car fumes and    so many German smokers. She said we will not visit this city anytime again soon. We are both ready for some nice countryside, enough of big city stuff for a while.  

It's now 8 am and I'm ready for my breakfast and walk. Then it's time to load up the bike, pack up and continue south. It's sunny and not too hot, so it'll be a great day.

all is well