The Victory Column is a monument created to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War. It's possible to visit this monument and climb the stairs to get to the top of the column where you can find very interesting views of the capital city.

The 3rd of October is a national holiday when Germans celebrate their "Unity Day" (Tag der Deutschen Einheit). This is normally a really good day to walk along the "Straße des 17. Juni", since it's open only to pedestrian traffic. I did that walk last year, visited the column, and shot the picture you can observe above.

Yesterday I started walking from Prenzlauer Berg, all the way to Postdamer Platz. When I was crossing the Museum Island, I noticed the Humboldt-Box and remembered that I had never been there before, so I decided to make a short stop. This temporary construction, created by the Humboldt Foundation, serves as an exhibition space and viewing platform for the Berlin Palace - Humboldt Forum reconstruction project.

If you have been following this photoblog, I think you are not going to be surprised if I mention Berlin is one of my favorite cities in Europe. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit it one more time, and since I stayed with some friends living in the south part of the city I got to see the area around Templehof, including the former airport that is now a huge open green space. In a truly Berlin style, it has an art mini-golf in the middle of the park where we got some water, and this is where I took this picture. During the weekend I was visiting Berlin, there was a referendum to keep the Tempelhof park 100% public, and it passed with around 65% of the votes in favor of the initiative. Therefore, the Berliners will keep enjoying this huge and popular park in the city. Well done!.

Every time I go to Berlin, I'm quickly reminded why this is my favorite European city. As I get close to Alexanderplatz, I feel excited to be visiting the German capital again. The first time I visited the city was 7 years ago, and it’s amazing how much the city has changed in that short time: The Palace of the Republic is gone, the Hauptbahnhof has been completed, and the area around the parliament is getting nicer and nicer. Each time I visit Berlin, I get the opportunity to see something new I haven’t seen before, and this time was no exception: While we were walking near Postdamer Platz, we saw a small flyer talking about a watchtower, and indeed we found, hidden by a tree, one of the last remaining surveillance symbols of the GDR.

The first trip of this year 2010 was to Berlin to visit my aunt and uncle. I'm sorry it was such a short trip because I really liked that city! This time, when I was passing near the Brandenburg Gate, I noticed the path of the former Wall and I followed it all the way to Postdamer Platz where I took this picture. As you can see, it was snowing a lot.

Last Christmas (08) I had the chance to go to Germany and to spend a wonderful Christmas with L. and J. They were wonderful hosts. In this second visit to Berlin I really wanted to visit the Reichstag and I'm glad I did it, but it was not fun to queue outside in the "Berliner Winter". That's a lesson I learned :).

The first time I went to Berlin back in 2006 I noticed there was this ugly building "under construction". I was curious and I took a picture that was buried in my hard drive. Today, when I was cleaning up my computer, I found this photo again and I realized they were not building anything, but it was actually the other way around: they were dismantling the "Palace of the Republic". This building was the seat of the parliament of the German Democratic Republic. A couple of years later, I visited Berlin, and the construction was gone. Berlin will always be one of my favorite cities in Europe.

The first time I visited Berlin in the summer of 2006, I fell in love with that really interesting city. I like history, and you can breathe 20th-century history everywhere in this city. When we were walking around with some of my colleagues, we passed next to this statue of Marx and Engels, and that was a good reminder that once this was East Berlin, the capital of the GDR.