Walls, steel and pipes

Went for an extremely long walk around Berlin today while my other half was giving a presentation at a conference. My aim was to go into the Norman Foster dome of the Reichstag - I've seen amazing photographs taken from it - but when I got there, it turned out you had to book 3 days in advance over the internet. This is, apparently, a response to a perceived Al Qaeda threat. I was very disappointed, as we are only here for one day!

So instead, I saw many other architectural sights - from one preserved section of the Wall (an afterthought by the city after the Wall came down) to the modern steel structures of the newly reconstructed centre of the city. Much of this area was in the 'death zone' between the two walls, where many people died trying to cross from East to West. Nearby is the 'philharmonie' which is (in the words of the guide on a bus tour we took later) "absolut fantastich". It is indeed quite stunning particularly in the golden autumnal light that we had today.

All over the city - wherever there is construction - are huge bright pink pipes going from ground up in the air and overhead. It's very strange. These, it turns out, are to pump water out of the ground during construction - Berlin being built on a swamp and water being only 1.5m down from street level.

This steel structure is part of the Sony Centre.