An Ambler's Journal: January 2011

I've always known there was such things as snow--it's the very reason I never believed Santa Clause visited EVERY SINGLE kid in the world. He more or less stayed in the upper temperate region what with the reindeers and all. Figured he'd need flying carabaos go cross country over at the equator--mud, you know. What I didn't know was that there were different kinds of snow (snow you can make a life sized snowman with in 5 minutes and snow can make a life sized snowman with in 2 days, for example). Nils also said snow is not snow if it doesn't stay on the ground. Poor little things travelling from so far up thinking they were snow and finding out 5 seconds upon landing they're really just rain.

This kind of snow reminds of dandruff--the pathogenic kind. It's fat, side, fluffy, pretty, and can severely limit your vision. Stand under it for 3 minutes and you'll know what it's like to be a snowman. Or woman. Or both. It's not like rain (duh), but I had thought these things ROLL OFF people. They don't. They stay where they land and if you don't dust yourself, you'll be carrying several pounds of snow before you know it.

Let me start with there were 7 of these pictures but I couldn't seem to make them arrange themselves the way I want them to. So. Here's this one. It's snowing. This kind of snow is tiny, heavy, and it doesn't swirl. They more or less crash to the ground and even manage to bounce off at times.

Patchy snow is what I call this one. I've not seen how this kind of snow looks on the way down. They're there in the morning.

Close up of the patchy snow.

I woke up one morning and found this show on the ground. Pebbly. Hmmm. Is this what they call hale?

This is ice.

It means "Nikolai Quarter" and we were there today.

This is the St. Nikolai church. The roof, if you can call something so pointy that, can be seen from a far. I saw it once from a train and it vaguely reminded me of Madonna's metal bras. Anyway, there is a museum inside where they provide you with an audio guide. It's quite informative. It explained why there were so many skull sculptures inside the churches--they were designs on epitaphs that signify and transience of life. Apparently, Catholic Churches served as burial grounds for the rich--until Martin Luther came along.

This is the Roterathaus. It's misty today, hence the mist. It's a government building.

The Berlin Dome. I've not been inside. It's a church, I think. It's got a cross on top. Dead giveaway, right?

It looks really pretty, but where we were standing, we could see another dome covered with more gold-glittering-looking-like-in-the-sun some distance away. Competition. Go figure.

It's something something fountain. Founder's fountain. Something like that. Leia was stalking one of the women working at the museum. Couldn't really pay attention to the audio guide.

A close up of the thing inside the Founder's Fountain Something. It's a bear hugging a shield. A coat of arms, i think. It was misty and the sun was in my eyes.

Something on the thing the bear was sitting on.

View from below.

Berlin seal. Huge, no?

So I took several photos.

It's something on the wall of the church. It was metal. Figured it's something important.

This is one of the metal sculptures outside of the church.

This is a street at the back of the church. It's lined with posh shops.

And this... it's a building. And I don't know if he's posing for the cam or what.

That's quite a strange building, don't you agree? It's at the street across the Museum Island.

A closer look of the said strange building.

Aha! And what is this...?

Hemp! Hemp! Hemp!

I heard they sell cannabis tea inside. No thc though.

These lions are popular. Been sitting there quite long.

They look well behaved enough.

This is a river running through the museum island.

And that's a government building right there. On the opposite direction is the DDR museum. It's lots of fun in there.

Nils was wondering why I was taking photos of this thing.

I figured it's quite important. For one thing, it looks old, it's made of metal, and it has graffiti.

Just so the way is clear.

This is... I think on the the park at Alexanderplatz.

This park here looks harmless enough but the birds here don't think twice about pooping on people. Don't ask how I know.

The TV tower. Behind the tree. Yes. Great photo. Thank you very much.

The TV tower behind the tree. Trees. Lamp. Electric wire. Etc.

I know. Chain shooting.

The Rathaus. The clock there is, I think, pretty popular.

And here will rise a castle!

Right beside the place where Marx and Engels hang out.

There they are, you see?

Museum island. I think this is the river Spree. I could be wrong.

This is another museum. It was quite big and... and well it wouldn't fit in the screen.

This is the entrance of the said mu...wait. I think this maybe the Parliament building. Then again...I really don't know.

This is... a... Museum. They feature things from the ROMAN empire, if I got that right.

And this is... a museum, again.

Still. Museum.

Museum. People walking to the Museum. People taking pictures of the museum.

This is a fountain, or was fountain--it's out of commission on Winters.

Aha! I think this is the bottom part of the dome of Berlin. Yeah, the thing I was calling a museum earlier was the side of this thing.

You see the abnormally large cooking pot?

Nils said it could be a kind if sun dial.

There are statues on top of that roof. Can't see clearly.

More of the roof.

There! See that statue? It's huge and really impressive.

So I photographed it.

Again.

And again.

This is a famous street. I thought it meant under the Lemon trees. It means under something, but not Lemons.

This is another museum, a smaller one, and it's currently featuring artwork by Kaethe Kolwich. Or something. Possible I got the spelling wrong. Farther to the right is a book Floehmarkt..

That's the Neptune Fountain.

And there's Neptune with his Trident. On four sides are 4 Sirens...I think. What else could they be? They are not mermaids. They don't have fish tails. They couldn't be his wives. That guy had officially only one wife. Tethys. Couldn't be Ino, either. Then who would the other 2 be?