WHERE AM I? --Travel Game

drom, Yes, it's a German-speaking country. What city and where in the city? It's close by a famous structure, but I bet most people miss this building, because they're looking at the famous structure - if you're a tourist.

<snip>

Is it the Berlin Reichstag - pre-cupola?

Cause thats the other thing the photo immediately reminded me of: the Reichstag the way it looked before Berlin got all splendid and the building got a fancy new roof. But I didnt think it could be - it looked too wide, too big, and in my memory the Reichstag was more "square". But looking at pictures of it now on Webshots, I think it could well be it, after all. And looking at pictures of the Prague Museum, its very obvious that it doesnt look anything like that - guess that was just my memory playing tricks on me ...

nimh, Yes, Berlin. I wasn't aware that it had a dome, but we did go into a rather small museum on the left side of the building. nimh, What is the "main" attraction in the vicinity?

BTW, "The Last Samurai" is an epic movie with a great cast and story-line. Go see it if you haven't already.

Brandenburger Tor.

c.i., when did you go there? The Reichstag was drastically renovated & expanded when it was taken back in use, upon the German government's move back to Berlin from Bonn ... Famous architect redid it. Put a glass dome on top from which you have an astounding view over the city. Its the Reichstag thats the bigger tourist attraction now, not the Brandenburger Tor!

But if you were there before all that happened, you'll have seen the Reichstag like I did, first - a sleepy, neglected and somewhat sombre building just off the side from everything, with a grass field out in front where kids played soccer and Turkish families picknicked and BBQ'd, despite the newly installed signs that this was strictly forbidden.

Last time I was at the Reicstag, that grass field was one big building pit ... like pretty much the whole square mile around it, for that matter.

nimh, Did my Eastern Europe tour in August or Septmeber of 1994. We stayed overnight in East Berlin. Saw all the tourist attractions like Check Point Charley and Hitler's bunker. One of the most interesting places was a museum that shows how the East Germans escaped to the West by hiding in the seat of cars, and double baggage on the baggage rack in trains. I remember a famous violinist playing music on t.v., I think it was Sostikovich(sp). We had dinner at a restaurant on the west side, and they had a musical variety show. I remember visiting the department store, Kodawe, on the west side, and went to the top floor to see their ice wine, but they were all locked behind bars. That was ten years ago, but some of it seems recent, because I can still picture what they look like in my mind's eye. I loved East Berlin, because they were reconstructing all the buildings that were destroyed during the war in the style they stood from before the war. I would like to go back some day, but there are so many places I would love to revisit.

osso, Fantastic picture. The Berlin wall used to be just about twenty yards behind that building, and the Brandenburg Gate just to the right side. There's also a large park in front of the building.

margo, I'll meet you at Orvieto: that way we "have" to go.

Yah, me too, perhaps.

OK I guess its my turn again ...

What about this?

Yes, 1994. A LOT has changed in Berlin since then .... You'd find it hard to recognize a whole bit of the city.

I was there for the first time in '93, and I remember Potsdamer Platz being a grass field, with tents on it of some medieval circus troup, and underneath the underground station had just reopened and featured the original signs from before it got closed, back when the Wall was built. Now innovative skyscrapers and imposing glass buildings with fountains grace what has become one of the busiest intersections in town.

The Reichstag and surroundings we already talked about. Just behind the Reichstag, in the piece of park / random wasteland alongside the river, there used to be the most striking monuments to the Wall: a sequence of Wall panels had each been painted half black with for each of the years the Wall had been there, the number of dead. Is gone now. I wasnt joking about a square mile of building pits - I read somewhere that they calculated it, and it really was something like that.

The fringes of the inner city have changed too. In 93 we 'discovered' the Hackesche Hofe - a series of sombre, 30s-looking courtyards, with a cute cafe somewhere and in the last courtyard a little recently-revived Jewish theatre. Now the Hackesche Hofe are a glitzy, ueber-hip place with high fashion stores, restaurants and latte-places. Well, et cetera.

Nimh, Italy or France?

Neither Italy nor France!

where
Eastern Europe?

Yes, Eastern Europe (again

Poland?

Not France or Italy
Yes, Eastern Europe
Not in Poland ...

nimh, The first thought that came to mind when I saw your picture was "Masada."