Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
The Stadion am Böllenfalltor – its name referring to a city gate and cottonwoods standing there in earlier days – is a soccer stadium in Darmstadt, Germany. It currently holds up to 17.000 supporters and is home to the SV Darmstadt 98, wearing blue and white and calling themselves “The lilies” – because the lily is part of the city arms of Darmstadt.
Things aren’t that obvious in Halle (Saale), Germany. You won’t expect to find a lovely old city center behind those GDR-style Plattenbauten close to the railway station. You might not think that there is a chocolate factory and museum. But one thing you can’t ignore if you arrive: a big advertisement in form of a globe between the railway tracks reminds you that there is a zoological garden.
The Festwiese is a festival ground in Leipzig, Germany. It is located close to the soccer arena (Zentralstadion) in the West of the city. It is 41.000 m² large and offers enough space for up to 75.000 people. It is used for big outdoor concerts and U2, Michael Jackson and The Rolling Stones already played here. If you are lucky you can get there by streetcar – elsewise it is a 35 minutes walk from the main railway station.
The culinary highlight of the German capital is of course – Currywurst. And there is no place like Konnopke to taste it. The traditional diner is situated at Schönhauser Allee directly underneath the elevated railway. Take a ride to Eberswalder Straße and order a “Menü weiß“: sausage, curry sauce, fries and mayonnaise. It all started in 1930 with selling sausages from mobile cookers; a well-established enterprise.
Did you ever want to skate on an airfield? Use a runway for a long relaxing walk? Or are you in need for a barbecuing area? The area of the old Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany has been converted into a very large park. Lots of people go there to do sports, there is a spot for urban gardening and of course the impressive building of the old airport.
Continue reading “Tempelhofer Freiheit”
Maybe the best pizza in Berlin, Germany. The friendly Italian guys challenge your language skills in this small eatery in Neukölln (though they even serve you if your Italiano isn’t the best). And they make a very tasty pizza with sometimes quite exotic toppings. Get a slice or two and use the nearby Tempelhofer Feld to burn the calories afterwards!
The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and has been destroyed nearly everywhere. You can see some remains including the border zones at the Berlin Wall Memorial at the Bernauer Straße. Or if you like street art – you can visit the famous East Side Gallery between Oberbaumbrücke und Ostbahnhof. This part of the wall is 1,3 km long and has been decorated by 118 artists from 21 countries.
Between Reichstag and Potsdamer Platz – close to the American embassy in Berlin, Germany – you can find a highly controversial discussed memorial. 2711 steles made of concrete placed on an area of 19.000 m² serve as a monument for the victims of the Holocaust. They have different heights, some are slightly bent, they are protected with graffiti resistant coating and there is an information center underneath.
The olympic stadium of Berlin, Germany is a multi-sports arena in the west of the city, belonging to the area of Charlottenburg-Willmersdorf. It is home to the soccer club Hertha BSC Berlin, hosts the annual final of the DFB soccer cup and was the place of the final of the Soccer World Championship in 2006. Nearly 75.000 spectators can watch matches here at the same time.
Continue reading “Olympiastadion Berlin”
Bars and restaurants come and go, but the Z.a.K. (located close to the market place in Göttingen, Germany) is an institution. It opened in 1993, has a warm and welcoming atmosphere because of the wooden interior and the dishes are named after classic movies – I guess the names are still the same as 20 years ago. You can also sit outside and watch what is going on on the Wochenmarkt.