A U2 Connection In Berlin and Bears!...

Many years ago, in the early 1990's, I lived with my sister in a two bedroom flat in a Melbourne suburb. She was U2 mad back then (and still is) and when she moved to Brisbane I found I missed U2 booming from the stereo. It was 1994 and I went and bought U2's latest at the time, 'Zooropa' on disc.

I fell in love with 'Stay (Faraway so close)' and adored the film clip.... (stick with me here...) Here's the link to the video.  Filmed on location in Berlin, I never thought I would see the Brandenburg Gate (at the very start of the video), nor the statue Bono falls from (Siegessaule/Victory Column) for myself.  Obviously I was wrong.  Very wrong.

Victory Column is directly ahead, as I look through the Brandenburg Gate

It is an impressive gate, one that led from the old West Berlin, to East Berlin.  The Berlin Wall was built about 20 metres from the gate, towards the Victory Column.  But the gate was around a long time before the Berlin Wall went up.  It was built in 1791, but was used as a major gate (there were 18 along the wall) to cross from east to west, after 1961.  It was here most video footage was taken when the wall was torn down in 1989...

With a bit of courage, we used the underground train system that Berlin uses.  It is one that uses more of an honesty system, rather than other undergrounds we have travelled on in different cities in our time.  We thought we'd do the right thing and buy tickets for ourselves at a vending machine.  It was very pricey (heck!) but we felt better knowing that we weren't cheating the system.

The train line we caught was the U2 line.  Yep, that's what the underground line is called, I kid you not (and no, not after the band.)  They have many train lines and it just happened that we needed the U2 line.

And just where were he headed?  But 'Zoo Station' of course. (You'd have to be a U2 fan to appreciate this. ;-) )

I was thrilled, MrL was not so thrilled with me banging on about U2, but he was thrilled that we navigated our way on the underground to our selected destination.... (and no, we didn't go to the zoo!)  Instead of the zoo, we headed to Kurfurstendamm (try saying that in your best German accent!), which is equivalent to your local High Street.  However, unbeknown to us, we turned right instead of left and walked down the glitzy part of the street, with all your Prada and upmarket shops which we dare not set foot in.  (And besides, they're a dime a dozen in our section of the world.)

However the girls were more than thrilled to find Bears.  Big sculptured Bears, displayed on the street.  I am pretty sure these bears have toured the world and this year they have found place and home in the German capital.  They are scattered everywhere through out the city and the girls, especially Lily, loved to point them all out.  The ones along this road were from all corners of the world.

The Aussie Bear by Ken Done.

Not only did Lily love to point out all the Bears, but at one point she gave every. single. bear. a hug.  You should have seen the smiles and giggles we got.

The girls hugging the UAE Bear. Cute.

More travels in Berlin to come...