Our trip
to Berlin was primarily for the Ladies German Tennis Open.
Originally I had hoped to see Justine Henin, but she pulled
out before the tournament due to a virus. Then during the
week Kim Clijsters retired from a wrist injury.
So there
was only a few top names to look forward to. We had tickets
to the semi-finals, and finals.
German Open ticket
We arrived
in Berlin early Saturday morning, found our hotel then went
straight out to the tennis. After a bit of a walk through
the forest we found someone who knew the right way and pointed
us in the direction of the stadium.
There was
lots going on around the corporate area, including a great
8 year old showing off her considerable skills. We had lunch
and wine and then watched a few players warming up.
The first
semi was Amelie Mauresmo (world number 3) against Jennifer
Capriati (world number 8). I was looking forward to this
as these are two top ten players
of a similar style, unfortunately Capriati doesn't always
have her head in the right place and the game was over very
quickly, 6-2, 6-0, with Jennifer basically giving up.
The second
semi was an unknown Karolina Sprem against Venus Williams.
Most people were expecting a repeat of the first semi, but
surprising everyone including herself, Karolina got out to
a 3-0 lead before Venus even blinked. She seemed to have
no answer as Sprem hit winner after winner down the line. The
first set was won by Sprem 6-2. Venus found her stride and
won the second set 6-3. With a decider Venus took a medical
break for her thigh, and came back more focused. Sprem fought
hard and after a very long rally at 4 all Venus rolled an
ankle. Sprem had nothing left to close out the game so Venus
bad ankle and all managed to take the set 6-4. Still a very
exciting game.
We had
an uneventful evening eating close by our hotel on the Kurfurstendamm
- a famous Berlin shopping street.
We woke
to a rainy Sunday and took an early morning walk up the Kurfurstendamm.
At the far end of the street is a steeple of a church, which
was bombed in the war. It has been left as a memorial. The
jagged edge really brought it home to me that this is recent
history.
Memorial
Church
Everything
else we see around Europe is usually interesting in that
it's old, but this was a terrible reminder
of something new.
A rain
shower drove us in to the Europa Centre.
Europa
Centre
This
is a shopping mall but with some very interesting monuments
inside. A clock
using water pressure had us mesmerized for 5 minutes or
so. And a fountain using water force to created the fountain
effect was quite cool.
Water
fountain in Europa Centre
When arrived
at the tennis not expecting anything to be happening due
to the rain to find Amelie Mauresmo accepting a trophy.
Initially we were a bit confused thinking they couldn't have
played so quickly and had we got the time wrong. Then we
spotted Venus in makeup and non-tennis clothes with a pair
of crutches. So no final for us. Anastasia Myskina (world
number 5) was still there so her and Mauresmo played a short
exhibition
match for us. As it wasn't a competition game they played
some good nerveless tennis. Then it really starting to pour.
We didn't stick around for the doubles.
That meant
we had time to do a circuit of the hop on hop off bus tour.
How interesting Berlin is. AS I mentioned earlier - I think
it come from the fact that the history is so recent.
Seeing
the 'Wall' was sobering.
Crossing
through the East and West was sometimes noticeable. Some
of the highlights were Checkpoint
Charlie (the US check point for people crossing over)
the Brandenburger Gate, the TV tower in Alexanderplatz, the
new Potsdamer Platz. As you'd imagine there is still a
lot
of construction
work going on and many new buildings.
The Kurfurstendamm
was modeled on the Champ Elysee in Paris and all buildings
were 4 stories high by law. I can't remember the exact details
but over 90% of the buildings were lost in the war. It's
a sobering statistic.
The rain
hadn't abated by the end of our bus trip so we had an early
dinner. Gavin had an idea of finding an english movie. We
walked up and down the Kurfurstendamm, but couldn't find
anything. When we got back to London we found out that that
night Brad Pitt was in Berlin at the world premier of Troy
in the Potdamer Platz only about 4 blocks from where we were.
I couldn't believe I'd been that close to seeing him, and
more so the coincidence of us looking for a movie. Oh well.
So that
was Berlin, not sure if we'll go back again since we had
our bonus bus tour but it certainly was a city that made
you think.
