Berlin

A conference took us to Berlin last week and we were greeted with an unusual late in the season cold snap. Arriving early on Saturday morning the weather was overcast. We decided to orientate ourselves with the city by jumping on the hop on - hop off bus and doing a tour of the city and then because the ticket was valid the next day, stop off at some of the stops that appealed to us. We passed many large parks and they looked bleak as the winter weather had taken its toll with the grass being brown from earlier snow falls. Later in the afternoon it started to snow and preceded to snow for the next 3 days. Although the temperatures plunged to around -9º C, Berlin looked fantastic in the snow.

Berlin's history has left the city with an eclectic array of architecture and buildings from beautiful old buildings built in the late 1800's to the cold concrete housing blocks built in East Germany after the war. The city is filled with memorials to its past and provides the visitor to the city an extensive insight into cities divided by a wall.
Berlin is a very flat city making walking easy and also having a extensive public transport system that made it a breeze was to visit the many areas. It was frustrating to find that most of Berlin closes on a Sunday so dining options are limited and certain areas seemed like ghost towns apart from a few tourists walking about. I managed to walk into one Supermarket that was open on a Sunday to find queues at least 20 deep at all the registers with people purchasing groceries.
After living in Singapore where graffiti is virtually non existent we certainly noticed endless graffiti on buildings and monuments that certainly spoiled them.
Later in the week as the sun shone and the snow began to melt it certainly was harder to walk around as the snow has turned to ice and became very slippery as well as ice falling from buildings onto the footpaths sometimes hitting pedestrians.

Checkpoint Charlie

Sign at Checkpoint Charlie

Tiergarten Park

In case you fall through the ice!

Siegessäule  ( Triumphal Column )

Mosaics on the Siegessäule

View form the top of  the Siegessäule 

Konzerthaus (Concert Hall )

One of the many rivers that weave throughout the city

Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag ( Parliament House )

Holocaust Memorial

Neue Wache ( War Memorial )

Sign in the Neue Wache 

Berliner Dom

Inside the Berliner Dom

Street exhibition of Artists, Writers and Musicians persecuted in the War

Marienkirche ( St Marys Church) and the TV Tower

Neptune Fountain

Schloss Charlottenburg

A section of the Berlin Wall

Sculpture "Berlin" - representing the broken link of East and West Germany

Schloss Bellevue 

Sapporo, Japan

Work commitments took us to Sapporo in Japan. Sapporo is located on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and is the fourth-largest city in Japan. Arriving at the airport we were greeted by large amounts of snow. Sapporo city is a gateway to many people taking skiing holidays in Japan as some of the best snowfields are about 40 minutes from Sapporo. Sapporo is a young city and is laid out in a grid pattern making it easy to navigate and has a underground railway network to take you to all areas of the city. Sapporo is well known for its annual snow festival in which huge sculptures are carved out of the snow. Singapore had a team this year which came 5th in the competition. We were unfortunate to miss the festival by a week. 
Temperatures during the day were around  -3 to -7 degrees Celsius and clear blue skies. As there was fresh snow falls it was easy to walk around and it was harder in areas where snow had been cleared and the snow turned to ice which made it quite slippery.
 Sapporo was gearing up for the Japanese Doll Festival or "Hinamatsuri", which is celebrated on the 3 of March. Tiered platforms are set up in homes and hotels covered with a red carpet and are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress. It is a day to pray for a young girls health and happiness. Many of the department stores had complete sets for sale and they started around $2000.

Sapporo from the JR Tower

Sapporo from the JR Tower

Nakajima Park 

Sapporo Clock tower

Former Hokkaido Government Office Building

Plenty of snow in the city centre

Snowfall in the afternoon

Sapporo Beer Garden & Museum

Wooden beer barrels outside the Beer Museum

Vending machine of gravel for pedestrians to spread on slippery surfaces

Shin Hongo sculpture at Sapporo station

Nakajima Park

Protection for the street trees from the snow

Temple in Sapporo

Sapporo Beer Garden & Museum at night

Otaru canal about 1/2 hour from Sapporo

Otaru canal (snowing at the time we went )

Many of the footpaths were like this




Hinamatsuri display for sale