Berlin: Green City

Another cool, rainy day in Berlin yesterday – like so many other places, we hear.

I went looking for a phone card again. I finally found one at Western Union in the main station, came back looking for our group, then found out that this time I’d not gotten lost: I had been given the wrong directions, by someone who shall remain unnamed. :)

So I rested in the hotel room, did some work on the laptop, then called my mother at home as she was packing for her own trip – to Edinburgh, with my brother, for her niece's highland wedding. She was very glad to hear things are going well so far.

I spent the rest of the afternoon – in the rain – walking to the Brandenburg Gates (30 min.) and strolling among the many and varied displays at the Environmental Fair! What luck that it should be on my Sunday off.

Tiergarten during a rain

International Year of the Forest

Berlin is a very green city in a highly eco-conscious country. I would say the ease with which the populace has embraced efficient and widespread recycling is an extension of the civic pride I noted in Germans as long ago as the 1980s. But I am less able to explain the devotion to literal green: huge areas of forest and parkland (the Tiergarten alone must be twice as large as Central Park – and there are many other tree-dense parks throughout). An what about the (gradual) switch from being stereotypically meat-centric to more truly omnivorous? Perhaps this arises from the apparent genetic propensity for philosophical thinking - a constant questioning of even the most dearly held assumptions. I wish other countries were as willing to do the same!
You may have heard that Germany was one of the first countries with a nuclear industry to react to the Fukishima nuclear disaster that followed the March 2011 tsunami. At the Environmental Fair, the decades-old no-nuke movement was very much in evidence, with a subtle nod to Japan. 

The fair also featured info booths on apiculture (beekeeping), crafts of various kinds, and lots of food! I noted with pleasure that the vegan burgers were sold out! Elsewhere, people lined up for organic (“bio”) beef, pork and chicken sausages.

Health, the animals, and the environment: reasons to go veg.

After a quick supper right beside the hotel, Naomi took the group to the Berlin Philharmonic! Eddie and I sat together almost in the middle of the first balcony. The hall was very impressive - built in the 1960s, and very much in the style of the day. The music, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, was fantastic. I actually cannot recall ever hearing it before, so this was quite the introduction. Excellent orchestra, choir and soloists, superb conductor, and very good seats from which to enjoy it all. Another memorable evening on my trip to Berlin.

Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic (on a sunny afternoon)