Berlin

Berlin
Originally uploaded by matthew_reames.

For part two of my summer holiday, I flew from Brussels to Berlin. I have been to Berlin before but I wanted to fly into Tempelhof Airport before it closes for good. Tempelhof is the world's oldest commercial airport and the base for the Berlin Airlift that supplied the citizens of West Berlin for nearly a year. At the height of the airlift, one plane landed every minute bringing needed food and supplies.



And let me tell you, in many ways it's a shame they're closing it. It's in the middle of the city (no terribly long train rides in to town), it's small (it's strange how the time wasted in an airport increases exponentially wth the size of the airport) and it is, quite simply, a very nice thing to behold. (I know, it's so airport-geeky.)



Okay, so I managed to pry myself away from the airport.



Eventually.



I did some touristy things - The Berlin Story museum (complete with guided tour of "an actual nuclear fallout shelter" on the bottom level of a parking garage), the DDR Experience (with "actual everyday East German artifacts"), and the Berliner Dom (with "climb to the top of the church and look out at the city").



I also (finally) saw the new Harry Potter movie (in English) at the Sony Center (that's where the picture was taken).



More about Tempelhof Airport: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempelhof_International_Airport