tower

The size and beauty of Berlin is easily appreciated from the platform of the broadcast tower. The tower looks like a huge metal golfball impaled on a pin, there is a lift inside which will take you the two hundred metres up to the top inside seconds. It is then possible to view the city as in a diorama behind the large inclined windows. Looking straight down the busses and trams, trains and people all look like models in a toy landscape.

The tower is crowded every day.

In the Alexanderplatz at the foot of the tower a drunk woman is sitting on a bench screaming raucously. She is shouting obscenities. Her age is hard to determine, she is not young but she might be younger than she looks.

It is possible to hire bicycles everywhere in Berlin and to leave them lying about almost anywhere. It is part of the rental services obligations to collect them again.

Sleep in the middle of Berllin was easy last night, and the first wakening was only at four because of forgetting to turn off the alarm set on the mobile 'phone. It is strange how peaceful it can be in the centre of a big city.

There is very little motor traffic, it seems almost out of fashion. There is less traffic than in Landshut.

It is very tiring, seeing sights, and there are so many sights to see.