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This Year, The Berlin Wall Goes Temporarily Nude

June 18, 2009 at 9:32 AM | 1 Comment

It may seem like a radical move, but large sections of the Berlin Wall were erased this year to ready it for the East Side Gallery makeover and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a reunited Berlin.

The newly-erased wall has now been patched up and painted with a protective undercoat, and presumably there'll be protective overcoats on the finished artworks later. It's all the better to prevent the ravages of time and also save the artwork from the less artistic vandals and graffiti artists.

This week, perhaps the most famous mural has been started over: the Brezhnev-Honecker kiss, with artist Dmitry Vrubel admitting he is "a little bit afraid" that the finished work won't be the same as his original. He also said he'll need at least a month to get it done, so postpone your Berlin wall visits for a bit. It's probably best to wait until the grand reopening in November to be sure you'll see the wall remnants at their finest anyways.

Related Stories:
· Touch-Up Begins on Berlin Wall's Passionate Kiss [The Age]
· How Berlin Will Celebrate the Fall of the Wall's 20th Anniversary [Jaunted]
· Berlin Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: pixseb]

Berlin's Wurst Tourist Traps: Alexanderplatz

May 29, 2009 at 1:02 PM | 0 Comments

Jaunted's assistant editor Cynthia is currently kicking it in Berlin and all this week she'll be telling us what to do and not do in town. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

When we were living in Rome, we used to frequent a miniscule, cave-like jazz club named "Alexanderplatz." Knowing that it was named thus because of the historical cabaret district around the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, we suffered from a romanticized idea of the square.

It's been seventy or so years since the cabarets left, fifty-plus years since the Soviet architectural aesthetic converted it into a massive concrete platz anchored by the Fernsehturm (TV tower) and office blocks, and fifteen years since the giant Kaufhof department store emerged as king of the place. And yet, the tourists flood in for more than just access to the transportation hub; the draw being that finally, one is standing in Alexanderplatz.

Aside from the graffiti-covered Friendship fountain, whose proper name is the Brunnen der Völkerfreundschaft, the biggest attraction is perhaps the straight-up view of the Fernsehturm and the ubiquitousness of cheap wurst vendors in the square—both are pictured above.

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Berlin's Wurst Tourist Traps: The Reichstag

May 28, 2009 at 12:02 PM | 2 Comments

Jaunted's assistant editor Cynthia is currently kicking it in Berlin and all this week she'll be telling us what to do and not do in town. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

What is with the touristic impulse to ascend every tall, open-to-the-public building in a city? Like New York City's Empire State or London's St. Paul's Cathedral, Berlin boasts of some similarly sky-high sights. The city may be pretty flat, but draws like the Fernsehturm (TV tower), Berliner Dom, and of course the Reichstag keeps the busloads lining up for a glimpse of each landmark from the viewing platform of another.

While the Fernsehturm is the tallest option, the line is longer and the history weightier at the Reichstag, the home of German parliament which burned in 1933 and remained in ruins for decades. When architect Lord Norman Foster's new glass dome crowned the recontruction in 1999, the gawking masses descended on it due to its free and open admission policy.

This is both a blessing and a burden for visitors to the building, as nothing is better than free views of the city and an up-close experience of an architectural triumph, but free means queues long enough to bring about sunstroke.

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Berlin's Wurst Tourist Traps: Brandenburg Gate and The Wall

May 27, 2009 at 10:57 AM | 0 Comments

Jaunted's assistant editor Cynthia is currently kicking it in Berlin and all this week she'll be telling us what to do and not do in town. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

Dash across the street, in between the double decker tour buses and the school groups more interested in their souvenir purchases than what they are about to see, and you arrive at the Berlin Wall. Rather, you're standing in front of four sections of it, placed just so in Potsdamer Platz where the tourists can best photograph it surrounded by the glass buildings of a modern European capital.

The Berlin Wall, which once divided this city between the allied section and the Soviet quarter for thirty years, remains a huge tourist draw. In fact, it seems as though everyone and their moms can boast of owning a piece of the thing.

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Berlin's Wurst Tourist Traps: Checkpoint Charlie

May 26, 2009 at 11:02 AM | 1 Comment

Jaunted's assistant editor Cynthia is currently kicking it in Berlin and all this week she'll be telling us what to do and not do in town. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

Taking a picture in front of a section of der Mauer (the wall) is a touristic rite of passage for visitors to Berlin, usually accompanied by a stop to the former location of the US Army's Checkpoint Charlie. We however chose to bike instead of walk around Berlin during the city's perfect early summer weather, and therefore literally breezed by most of the jammed tourist traps that dominate the areas where the Berlin Wall once stood.

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Air Berlin's Very Own 'Deltalina'

May 22, 2009 at 9:31 AM | 0 Comments

True to our promise, we've gone and jetted off to Berlin for a week with thoughts of currywurst and cycling over cobblestones dancing in our head.

We safely arrived early this morning to Berlin's Tegel airport via Delta's non-stop flight 78 from New York-JFK, an experience we'd rather not repeat due to a decrepit terminal, mass confusion at the gate, and the horribly cramped seats of an older plane. And remember that jazz about Delta being tops in terms of tarmac waits? They aren't kidding; we had read through our guidebook before even hitting the skies.

Beyond the terminal's hot pretzel stand and the vending machine stocked with Ritter Sport chocolate and Haribo Gummi-Bären, we spotted this carry-on luggage measuring rack and its image of a perky Air Berlin representative.

Is this frisky-looking lass the German version of Deltalina? Sadly we didn't book the Air Berlin direct from JFK, but next time we just might have to if she promises to help us latch the overhead bins.

Related Stories:
· Delta Takes the Cake for Ridiculous Tarmac Waits [Jaunted]
· Berlin Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

How Berlin Will Celebrate the 'Fall of the Wall's' 20th Anniversary

April 28, 2009 at 1:01 PM | 0 Comments

This November will mark 20 years since the Berlin Wall came tumblin' down, and Berlin has figured out plenty of ways to celebrate, making 2009 the ideal year to visit this buzzing city.

For one, they're scrubbing what's left of the wall clean at the East Side Gallery - the largest remaining portion of the wall - and have invited all the artists who famously painted murals on the section to come back and repaint it. The wall will be cleaned and resurfaced first so that the new paintings should be more resistant to car fumes and vandals. Visitors can watch the artists in action and a grand reopening is planned for November.

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Germany Gets Their Nanotechnology on Track...Train Tracks

April 16, 2009 at 10:41 AM | 0 Comments

For some reason, the combination of trains and science just seems right to us, unless it happens to be Amtrak and then we're looking at the science of bunsen burners and mercury thermometers. This summer, however, Germany is out to show the world a thing or two about their scientific advances in the realms of nanotechnology, life sciences and sustainable energy research with a touring train expedition called the "SciencExpress."

Departing from Berlin's Hauptbahnhof on April 24 and heading straight to Frankfurt before chugging along to complete its seven month journey of over 60 German cities, the SciencExpress is 12 cars long, or over 900 feet, of engineering excellence paired with an interior featuring "...fascinating hands-on-experiments and exhibits from numerous German universities, research institutes and corporations." The train, a "Sonderzug," or special-use train, is the star of the current German Science Year’s public outreach program, with the goal of imagining what our lives will be like in 2020.

Sadly, passengers aren't permitted to hop this baby for a tour of the country, but can visit the parked train in stations around good old Deutschland for free. We'd like to think of it as a mobile and way more advanced Cosi, for those familiar with the typically Midwestern science museum. For those of you intent on doing European tours this summer, check out the train's full station schedule, and save some Euros while still learning a thing or two.

Related Stories:
· Expedition Zukunft [Official Site]
· Science Gets On Tracks [DesignSpotter]
· Train Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Image: Expedition Zukunft]

Polar Bears Attack Woman Seeking Knut in Berlin Zoo

April 13, 2009 at 8:41 AM | 1 Comment

While we often joke here at Jaunted headquarters about appeasing the animal overlords that will one day rule the earth, there is nothing funny about a woman who hopped a fence on Friday at the polar bear habitat at the Berlin Zoo and was promptly mauled by three bears who share the space with former child star, Knut.

The unidentified woman took great effort to get into the habitat, scaling a fence, a line of hedges and a wall before diving into the bears' pool. She appeared to be laughing and happy as she splashed in the water toward one of the big bears, [Daily Mail of London] said.

The woman survived, suffering bite marks on her legs, arms and buttocks. She is currently being hospitalized and there is no word if the woman, believed to be mentally ill, will face any criminal charges. Knut, in case you are wondering, did not participate in the attack on the woman.

Related Stories:
· Polar Bear Nightmare [NY Post]
· Zookeepers rescue woman from polar bear mauling [Times UK]
· Berlin Zoo [Official Site]

[Photo via NY Post]

'Legit' Street Artist Barry McGee on Display in Berlin

April 3, 2009 at 11:38 AM | 0 Comments

Artist Barry McGee’s name may not be familiar but his drip designs and iconic male figures with sagging eyes are universally recognizable. McGee, a native Californian, began as a street artist known by the tag name Twist in the 1980s. But by the 90s, he had branched out and began creating paintings, drawings, and mixed-media installations that include empty liquor bottles, tagged signs, scrap wood, and metal.

Since then, McGee has become the most respected street artist turned legit artist (sorry, Shep) in the country and has had his work displayed in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Armand Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

Despite his success, McGee is still known to tag a few buildings now and then because he feels Graffiti keeps him in touch with a larger, more diverse audience.

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Adidas' Urban Art Guide for iPhone Loves Berlin's Gritty Alleys

April 1, 2009 at 3:01 PM | 0 Comments

Free stuff for travel; we love and have to have it. So it's no wonder that we've fallen head over heels for Adidas' Urban Art Guide to Berlin application for the iPhone. Since Germany seems to be the capital of highway overpass masterpieces and reworked billboards, it's no wonder that Adidas has chosen Berlin for this app which circumvents the usual museums and galleries to highlight street works.

Downloadable for free from iTunes, the Urban Art Guide allows you to traverse a Google map of Berlin, pegged with locations and photos of some of the city's most notable random works, complete with artist, title and date information. Take it a step further by following mini tour programs, such as one which walks you to nine sites around Mitte and stops at El Bocho's "Kamera," a surveillance camera image something like an ode to the British street artist Banksy.

Freshly released on March 20th, we recommend downloading the Guide asap and hightailing it to Berlin before some of the spots are hit with further layers of graffiti or get ripped out and auctioned as cultural ephemera.

Related Stories:
· Adidas Urban Art Guide [Official Site]
· adidas Urban Art Guide for iPhone [HighSnobiety]
· iPhone Travel Apps Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: HighSnobiety]

Clive Owen's Not-So-Secret Mission

February 6, 2009 at 9:44 AM | 0 Comments

Owen... Clive Owen. The "Children of Men" star poses at the Berlin Film Festival. Owen was there for the premiere of his new thriller "The International," costarring Naomi Watts, about a global bank which is sucking up all the stimulus money. Just kidding! It is about an evil bank though (from "Run Lola Run" director Tom Tykwer.

While the Berlinale, held through Feb. 15, runs counter to the American screening-and-award season, the fest can still turn up some gems. Highlights of this year's Berlinale include the Nick Hornby-scripted coming-of-age tale "An Education," which garnered raves at Sundance, plus Best Foreign Film nominee "The Baader Meinhof Complex" and the new British terrorist drama "London River." Tickets to most films, which are held at 35 venues all around the city, are €8,50 ($10.90) plus a €1,50 booking fee online (boo!). And yes, there is child care.

Related Stories:
· Programme [Berlinale.DE]
· Reckless Bank is Villain at Berlin Film Festival [Reuters]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: JustJared]