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

Ostsee camping trip

A group of friends and I went up north to the beach resort near Ostsee. Its on the Baltic sea so not a super warm Mediterranean type place but still good. Its a little colder (still tolerable) but the beach is huge and very shallow. Its a long curving coast with a few little towns along the way. The full coast spans the German-Polish border and is quite built up in areas. We stayed away from that and followed Linsey's directions to a wild area with long grass and forest behind us on the beach to setup camp.

We took two cars and drove up from Berlin. Along the way were hundreds of wind turbine farms and a few solar farms.

We arrived late in the afternoon and setup camp before it got too dark.

After scrounging for fallen branches, we got the fire started. Some more impressed with the sky than the fire construction:)

Not bad for a bunch of city slickers.

Liam had the bright idea to put tea candles in sand pits and cups to light the camp area.

Idyllic little vacation hamlet nearby. VERY clean place. Every stick and twig was manicured into place on the roofs.

Survivors of the night and the attack of the 50 foot mosquitoes.

  The far western end of the peninsula used to be some sort of military base with an air strip, u-boat base and perhaps a launch site for buzz bombs. Now its fenced off and a nature preserve, much better idea.

  Over all a great night and a relaxing time star gazing and fire watching. After the morning dip and breaky we packed up and walked about 2 kilometres down the beach to the small town and had lunch at a rather posh Italian place. Linsey and I tried our luck ordering iced coffee... seems to be a foreign concept here. We got a cup of espresso and a glass with ice cubes. Not what we had in mind mate.

Until next time.
AJ

Prinzessinnen garten in Kreuzberg

In the neighbourhood of Kreuzberg there's a corner plot of land that was left untouched for many decades. Its right on the corner of a major roundabout and Ubahn station (Moritzplatz) and on the main drag of great cafe's and bars. You'd think because of this that it would have been snapped up by developers and built on years ago, sadly that is a possible fate in the near future... But for the past few years its been the site of a community garden called Prinzessinnen Garten a great example of urban community gardens. They have developed a brilliant system using beer crates as planter boxes which provides enough soil for the plant but is also portable. Lets also not forget the history of this city and the fact that no one really knows what's in the soil in any location so planting in the ground is risky unless you can afford to have it tested and potentially cleaned.

 
 As it was an empty lot, a good number of sapling trees have grown up and provide a great shady spot in summer. There is a small stage, cafe and restaurant amongst the trees. The food is made from seasonal ingredients that have traveled about 20 metres :). So its fresh, good and virtually carbon free.

Vertical thinking for limited space:)

  In December, with the growing season over, it becomes a Christmas Market and circus for the alternative (less commercial) side of consumerism. -Andy

Winter turns to Spring

Winters grip is relaxing, springs embrace is here finally. I was warned that the winters here can be very cold, last year it was below 0 for months apparently. So I expected the worst but this year Berlin was spared the really cold days for all but about 2 weeks. Quite frankly I'm a little disappointed...

However when it does get cold it gets COLD.

Beauty and the beast.

Kollwitzplatz

Walking on a frozen lake.

The ice forms in layers and as the water level drops over a few weeks, interesting things happen.

The end is in sight, spring has sprung.

Andy

Abandoned Beelitz Hospital

  Beelitz Heilstätten hospital was built between 1898 and 1902 so it has some of that old world attention to detail and craftsmanship in the architecture. The buildings are in bad shape but there's still beauty to see. It's had a long history with the likes of Hitler and Eric Honecker staying as patients but its been rather quiet for the last few years. After WWII, the Russians took it over and it became the largest Soviet Military hospital outside of the USSR.

  So now this vast collection of buildings is silent and eerie. It's been the location for US films like "The Pianist" and "Valkyrie". When we were there we bumped into a film crew shooting a new video for Rammstein. The shots being filmed were in a very large room full of beds with lamps next to each. I think the video may have a WWI style about it. So if you're a fan, look for it soon assuming the guy we spoke with was legit.

  Most of the buildings are sealed up but it is possible to get inside if you're lucky to find an open window. There are surgical lights and beds somewhere in one of the buildings but I haven't found that yet.

This building was fire bombed in WWII so that forest roof has had about 70 years to grow.

What it lacks in privacy it makes up for in the view.

The furnace house from down in the coal pit.

The boilers haven't seen much heat recently.

So how many years ago did those bricks crack in half and just how rusted is that beam...

Some hints of the past or the last urban explorer.

Clearly some floors are failing...

Ghostly inhabitant.

  An amazing and beautiful place well worth a visit. There are plans to renovate this place and one building has been done. I hope they leave it alone as a memorial to the past. More photo's on the Flickr page here:
www.flickr.com/photos/nouveauvoyages/sets/72157624957459080/
More info on the history here (in German):
www.beelitzer-heilstaetten.de/

Cheers
Andy