I'm On The Road... Again!

Another week, another work meeting. Last week I was in Berlin, this week I'm in Lyon. After my stressful trip home last week I'm quite glad that instead of flying I'd decided to travel the entire way from Sheffield to Lyon via train. It's actually very easy -- Sheffield to London St. Pancras, St Pancras to Lille on the Eurostar and then Lille to Lyon.

I was hoping to get a photo of a Eurostar train for this posting but in the end I had to resort to using one from Wikipedia. The train is so long and you access the platform in the middle that all I saw in both directions, before boarding, the train was carriages.

I'm working all day tomorrow at IARC and then I travel home on Thursday afternoon. This leaves me Thursday morning when hopefully I'll get some time to walk around and see some of Lyon. Anyone reading this been to Lyon? If so any suggestions on what I should try and see?

Banking Reform

Next to the U-Bahn station at Spichernstraße in Berlin there is a large investment bank. Outside the bank there is a sculpture. Given the way that banks have behaved in recent years I'm thinking that the statue is more than a little insulting to the average man on the street that used to trust the bank with their money.

Of course I could be wrong and the man being kicked off the ladder could be the banker but somehow I think it much more likely that the banker is doing the kicking.

I think that it's actually a really good sculpture I just think it should have been positioned somewhere else. If it truly reflects the mindset of the banking community then we definitely need to push for worldwide banking reform!

The Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag, and Checkpoint Charlie

Our short walk around Berlin moved from the Holocaust Museum to the Reichstag via the Brandenburg Gate. Unfortunately they were setting up for a political rally at the Brandenburg Gate and so it was difficult to really appreciate it, and certainly difficult to photograph.

In contrast the Reichstag was easy to photograph from the large square in front of it. We had intended to queue to enter the dome but even at almost 9 at night the queue was long and we decided to spend the time seeing other parts of Berlin instead.

From the Reichstag we walked past the British Embassy (which was well barricaded off and surrounded by lots of armed police) to Checkpoint Charlie. We finished the evening with beer and food (deer goulash) at Cafe Stresemann just a few yards from the checkpoint. A fantastic and educational evening!

I'm not even supposed to be here today!

"I'm not even supposed to be here today!" was my response to a question I got on the way home on Friday. I'd just boarded the plane and was asked what I'd been doing in Munich.

As you know I've been working in Berlin all week but found myself boarding a plane in Munich. What should have been a long but straightforward return journey to Manchester via Brussels became just a little more stressful and tiring.

We arrived at Berlin Tegel airport with plenty of time to spare, checked in and then waited for our plane to board. When boarding time arrived and the flight wasn't listed on the display at the gate we knew something was wrong. Apparently there was a strike at Brussels airport and while our plane had left Brussels on time no one knew what time it would be able to leave Berlin and head back. It quickly became clear that we weren't going to make our connecting flight.

Fortunately, the Lufthansa staff were great. We had decided that the only thing to do was wait and see what happened and then a staff member came across and told us that we had been transferred on to their Munich flight which was just about to depart so that they could make sure we got back to Manchester albeit a few hours later than planned.

In the end we arrived back in Manchester only an hour and a half later than expected so it could have been a whole lot worse.

Quietly Contemplating History

Berlin contains what has to be the biggest memorial I have ever seen. The Holocaust Memorial covers 19,000 square metres of prime Berlin real-estate and consists of 2711 differently sized concrete blocks and apparently doesn't actually represent anything in particular. I'm guessing if the memorial has any meaning it is that the huge scale of the memorial reflects the scale of the atrocities it remembers. At night wondering among the blocks is quite eerie but it was a good place to stand for a few minutes quietly contemplating history.

East Meets West

Last night a small group of us went on a walk around the centre of Berlin to see some of the more famous sites. It was a really clever idea as one of the complaints with work meetings is that we never really get the chance to see the places we visit as we are working all day long. We started at Potsdamer Platz which is an important public square and traffic intersection.

It's amazing to think that just 20 years ago I would likely have been shot at had I tried to get anywhere near the spot from which I took this photo last night -- standing with my left foot in East Berlin and my right foot in West Berlin.

Until November 9th 1989 the Berlin Wall was the main physical symbol of the Iron Curtain. In Potsdamer Platz (where I took the photo) it wouldn't be until the following weekend that the wall was breached and people could cross the wall at what had originally been a major road junction in Berlin.

As we walked around the centre of Berlin we kept crossing the line of the wall (a double strip of cobble stones to make it obvious where it used to be). Because of the way it moves around it isn't always clear if you are in the old East or West Berlin. We laughed about that at one point and that brought home just how much Europe, and Berlin in particular, started to change for the better 20 years ago.

Is It Safe To Sit Down?

I'm in Berlin this week with work. Hopefully I'll get to see a few of the sights while I'm here but so far the most startling thing I've seen is the warning on the toilet in my hotel room.

I'm not sure how close I want to get to that toilet!