May 1st 2015

A tad late but I did take some photo's of the May 1st events this year. Kreuzberg was packed with parties, clubs, cafes, street concerts and food all making for an amazing atmosphere. See previous posts for more details,  2011 here, 2012 here and 2014 here.

A few people showed up.

BBQ (though some bars look like this on any given night thanks the smokes)

Anyone who was anyone was there.

A few more people showed up.

Sneaking a snog.

Hallo :)

 These four girls were part of a large group that photo bombed my camera and then ran off into the crowd. Very... photogenic.

Frank and Ollie both turned up in the same outfit, Ollie was not impressed.

Ciao for now
Andy

Neukolln public gardens around the Körner

  A few months ago a friend mentioned that there was a nice clean park in Neukolln. Most parks in the former east are a bit wild and well used so the site of green grass without numerous beer bottle caps meant I would need to find this. I never got around to checking it out till early October.

  Now, there is a palace in Charlottenburg with a large wild garden called Schloss Charlottenburg. It used to be well kept and done up in the traditional style of each royal family's era. Once small section is currently done up in a very geometric style of royal gardens.

  In my opinion, this park in Neukolln is far more impressive than the Charlottenburg Palace park. Built between 1912 and 1914, Körner Park is a sunken garden with a water fall, fountain and at the far end, an Orangery containing an art gallery with cafe. All this in a lower income neighbourhood more know for kebabs and underground bars and clubs. Somehow funding for this park is quite obviously in place, whereas the typical park here is a far cry from this level of maintenance.

Feels a bit like a Parisian park.

A park with enough elevation to have a waterfall, a rare sight indeed.

Gallery and cafe

Apparently the former owner of a gravel pit on the site handed it over to the local city government to be converted into a park (provided it bear his name). Thus the reason for the sunken nature of this park. It was very run down after WWII but in the 1970's was restored and in 1983 the Orangery was reopened. As of 2004, its a listed heritage site.

  On a warm day its got a crowd but not nothing like as busy as Mauer or Gorlitzer parks. A good spot to relax, people watch, sketch, read and plan a lazy day over a coffee.

Cheers
Andy

May 1st 2014

The 1st of May has come about again, right on schedule. I'm posting photos this time around for some of the new things I found. For those curious about the big party, check out the previous posts here and here.

general ambiance

 Crossing the street on a red signal, Das ist Verboten!

Ready for a climb but anxious.

  This was an amazing setup, a climbing event for kids. A trio of (I assume pro) climbers setup a climbing rope and harnesses on a tree at Marianenplatz. The idea was for kids to strap on the gear and then be challenged to stack beer crates while climbing the stack. Brillant idea and loads of safe fun. Not a chance it would fly anywhere in North America I suspect.

This girl did quite well.

The girl doing the climbing was really....really good, great balance.

However this girl was the champ, they ran out of crates to hand up.

Out of crates, she just leaned back to great applause.

  Great fun to watch each tower crumble and all smiles as each kid was lowered to the grass.

AJ

The big Berlin bike bonanza

Once again the bike protest day hit Berlin this past June 1st. Sternfahrt. Its registered as a protest against car drivers who park in the bike lane as this is the only way the event can go forward with the police blessing. The Police close streets along the various routes and have a police car at the front to clear the way. See the map here

  I met up with a group of friends to do the run this year, about 10 of us amongst a total of 200,000. We started from Elmi and Peters place in Friedrichshain and biked north to a starting point along the route that actually starts at the German/Polish border! No we didn't go that far. We waited for about 15 minutes and then the leaders came by...

Polizei leading the protest.

Part of our crew, I think they spotted the camera.

The next check point where more join the tour.

Stretching the definition of "bike" for this event.

Hang on, look at those tires and peddles, this guy is serious about bicycling. He even had a support bike with a trailer in tow.

Entering Kreuzberg, Elmi, Liam and a rare sighting of the orange clad Scottish lass Linsey. Soon to be an orange blur heading up the road.

Entering the centre of Kreuzberg, long delay here for some reason.

Berlin's version of the ipod, bring the techno beats anywhere you need to go, easy peasy:)

Next year she could break the bank with a mobile Lemonaid stand from there.

The amazing section where we go onto the closed autobahn and enter into a long curving tunnel just south of Tempelhof airport.

Amazing to be in there with the sound of shouts and wind but no engines.

Yes that guy is on a scooter!

The home stretch, the entrance to Tiergarten park.

The Victory column is in sight. Elmi and Peter (aka Mr. Chips) lead the way.

This entire ring road in the centre of the park, normally full of cars was now open to just bikes.

After a lap of the column it was time to head for the finish area.

  Just a few hundred metres down the road was the Brandenburg gate and the finish area full of food stalls, presentations, music and toilets for the desperate.
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I think you'll agree, we took the long route from A to B, about 46 km.

The route (roughly)

   Earlier in the day we agreed to meet up at an outdoor pub/restaurant in Tiergarten Park so we headed off for a well deserved beer (I own ya one Liam). Feeling a bit hungry we then biked down to the Thai Park for a late lunch at about 4pm. Pad Thai, spring rolls, spicy crispy chicken, sweets, too much to take it all in, must go back for more.

  Good weather and a good ride. The only mistake was forgetting the sunscreen...

Till next year, Bis dann...
AJ