Berlin, Germany

Recently I was fortunate to be able to travel to Berlin for a work conference. I have been to Germany once before but Diane and I pretty much stayed in the Heidelberg area with friends. So this was my first time to Berlin. I was there with one of my employees (Rebekah) and we didn't have much free time but we did squeeze in about a days worth of walking around. We had to stay in 2 hotels over the course of the week due to scheduling issues but it actually worked out quite nice because we got to see different areas of Berlin.

First we stayed at a Motel One which was over by a large park, near the Brandenburg gate, and right along the Spree river. It was beautiful to walk along the river and then over to the park to see the sights. Below are some of things we saw on foot in that area. I hope I labeled them correct.

Don't recall which building this was but it sure is pretty

 

Russian soldier memorial for WWII (Tiergarten) erected by Soviet Union
to commemorate 80,000 Soviet Union forces who died in Battle of Berlin. It was
erected in 1945 within few months of city being captured.



Reichstag (parliament building). Originally built in 1894. It was reconstructed
in 1990 (severely damaged in WWII) and became the home of the German
parliament again in1999.

Some wild hops along the Spree River

We took a taxi over the Check Point Charlie area and saw quite a bit but didn't get to go into the major museum. There was still plenty to read outside. I seem to have forgot a lot of history. A devastating time to read about but a must visit.

One of remaining portions of the Berlin wall

Back side of the wall with timeline of events in Poland. Some difficult reading.



Sign at Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

For the majority of our stay we were at the Park Inn at Alexanderplatz near the TV tower. This area had a lot more shops, food and night life. My favorite part was the bratwurst vendors. They just walk around with an umbrella and selling brats from a grill that hangs from their shoulders (can't believe I didn't take a picture). Simple, long brat in a short delicious bun. Only options were mustard or ketchup. A ate many bratwurst and currywurst on this trip and these were actually my favorite. I love street food.

Great little place we had dinner at one night. I had meatballs and fried potatoes.

Church (I think) with TV tower in background.
The TV tower was built in the 1960s and is pretty much a symbol of Berlin.
You can go up it and there is a restaurant that turns every 30 minutes.

Not sure about this one either but I think it was near my 2nd hotel.

I had a great time in Germany. The people were always very friendly and helpful. Most of them speak great English but I enjoyed using the little German I remember. And as a beer lover, I of course appreciated having some German lagers and Hefeweizens. I really hope to get back and see more of Germany in the future!

Crookstem Running Bamboo 'Alata'

Time to get back to some bamboo. The second species I'll talk about is actually the first I planted and I think it is what you see most commonly along the roadside or in peoples yards in the southeast. I have Phyllostachys aureosuicata 'Alata' (crookstem bamboo). I got some from a friend, who transplanted if from NC, and I have purchased some from a local nursery. This is a serious running bamboo and requires a lot of maintained and hands on work to control if you don't keep it in a pot or contained some other way. It is nice because it grows fast, dense, is evergreen, tall, and can handle cold temperatures. It can handle 0°F no problem. It may die back if it goes below that for a while but it will bounce back in the spring. It got down to 8°F here in Atlanta last winter and it didn't seem to bother mine at all.



Crookstem in the back yard before clearing a bit

It's called crookstem because the canes will frequently have a crook or zig zag in them. It seems to happen is a pretty small percentage of mine. I'm not sure if that is normal or not. I should have taken a close up picture of one of those.....maybe next time.


After some clearing work

 The birds love to fly in and out of the bamboo down to the stream and koi pond.



Pile of pulled bamboo

I mentioned this species requires a lot of work and the photos above show an are where I pulled some of the bamboo out, to thin it out a bit, and the resulting pile. I usually do this about twice a year to keep it under control.


Amongst the bamboo canes

This year I cleared a little path so I could walk through the bamboo which is really nice. I was trying to capture that with the above photo. I need to add some cool stepping stones.

My tallest canes at the moment are probably about 12 feet but I've read this species can get as tall as 46 feet under ideal conditions! It is always so exciting each spring to see the how thick the new shoots are which is the first clue as to the height they will grow. I bet some will pass 15 feet this spring. Time will tell.