Berlin

Am sitting in the Sony Centre in Potsdamer Platz as I type this as there's a free wireless network here. It's a little strange sitting in the middle of the piazza typing away on my computer, but I can use my own computer here rather than going to an Internet cafe.

It's my second day in Berlin, but unfortunately the weather is still crap - cold and grey - so I'm trying to work out what I can do that's indoors. It's not raining at the moment, but given the weather yesterday I wouldn't be surprised if it rained today. The thing I hate the most about this kind of weather is that it makes taking photos quite difficult. Not much I can do about it though!

Berlin is a very difficult city to get to grips with. It's very spread out and probably because of the Cold War division doesn't seem to have a coherent centre. It's hard to imagine now that Berlin was once a divided city as there's little physical evidence of the division. There are, however, two places where parts of the Wall still stand, which I'll visit at some point over the next few days. Berlin is also a very modern city in many ways and despite its long history there doesn't seem to be so much evidence of that history, which I suppose is quite natural given that most of the city was completely in ruins at the end of World War II.

Yesterday morning I started my exploration of Berlin at the Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag, symbols of the both the new and the old Berlin. Unfortunately not long after I got there it started raining, so I decided to head to the Jewish Museum (pictured). I want to head back to the Reichstag at some point - when the weather improves! - as it's possible to climb to the top of the dome that was built over the central courtyard and the views over Berlin are supposed to be spectacular.

For some reason I thought the focus of the Jewish Museum would be on what happened to Germany's Jewish population under the Nazis, but it's actually a more comprehensive look at the history of Jews in Germany and basically how Jews in Germany were usually subject to persecution - apart from during the relatively liberal Weimar Republic following World War II. However, as well as telling the story of Jews in Germany the exhibtion is also a celebration of Jewish culture and looks at how much Jews contributed to German society - particularly intellectually and scientifically.

In the afternoon I headed over to Alexanderplatz, which was the centre of East Berlin. The actual square is under renovation (as is a lot of Berlin it would seem) but nearby there's an interesting quarter that has been restored to how it would have looked before World War II. It's very sad that so much of what must have been quite a beautiful city was destroyed. Unfortunately Alexanderplatz and the surrounding area is completely dominated by the very ugly Fernsehturm, a 365m tower built by the East German goverment, which is visible from all over Berlin.

I suppose I should actually do something rather than just sitting here typing away on my computer. I'm actually a little hungry as I haven't had anything for breakfast yet! For dinner I've been heading to Schoneburg for felafel, which are up there with Rowda Ya Habibi's felafel in Newtown. Yum.

Am in Berlin until Sunday - heading to Prague by train on Monday.