When we got off the plane, we picked up our car and headed for West Berlin. There is a major thoroughfare that goes much of the way through the town which we jumped on.
The first eye catcher was that giant billboard that crossed the road. It was so unique, we had to take a picture. It is women tugging on opposite ends of that long red piece of material. Not sure what they are selling, so it was cool, but not very effective.
The next picture shows us getting out of our "too big" van that we later replaced. Behind us is the Victory Column, also nicknamed "The Chick on the Stick." It was erected to celebrate the victory in the Franco-Prussian war back in the 1800's. It is huge and surrounded on the opposite side of the street by other military looking statues.
When looking for parking we almost got that van stuck under a low roof in a parking lot. It scraped badly (according to the sound) but happily didn't look bad. Scary.
The last is The Reichstag, where the German parliament meets. The building was built in 1890's but the interior was completely redone in the 1990's retaining only the exterior walls. A wonderful concept saving the stately magnificence of the exterior while adding all of the comforts in the modern interior. You can go in the building and climb the dome, which of course we did. The dome is glass. The sun light reflects off the upside down pyramid of mirrors in the center of the dome and lights the parliament floor below. There is a giant sun shield that follows the sun around the inside of the dome so that no one below is blinded.
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