Some more photos from my trip with Michelle and Hannah to Bärehquell brewery.
Bärehquell brewery
I visited Bärehquell brewery with my friends Hannah and Michelle. The brewery went out of business in 1994 as it couldn’t compete with the more popular beers from the west after the reunification of Germany. At the time of closure, the brewery had been in business for 112 years.
Thanks to Hannah Jackson for the stairs and papers photos.
Giant Pacman
I went to the Computerspielemuseum (computer game museum) in Berlin. I got to play Pacman with a giant super sized Atari 2600 controller 🙂 Pacman on the Atari 2600 was the first console video game I ever played. In fact, I don’t even think I knew what a video game console was until my mum showed me how it worked :/
They also have an Apple II signed by Steve Wozniak. This was the first desktop computer I ever used, way back in 1988. My school had two of them which we occasionally got to use.
Karl Marx Allee
I went for a wander down Karl Marx Allee in Berlin. Being named after the famous creator of communism, Karl Marx, it wasn’t too surprising to find some interesting cold war era features.
Since competition between companies was mostly pointless in communist countries, there was no need for public advertising in East Germany. But apparently advertising was seen as a sign of a modern competitive city in the 1960’s and so the East German government decided to pay for some advertising and stuck it on top of the building as you can see below. The advertising is for two different car manufacturers, but since the government had a monopoly on car sales, the advertising served no purpose other than for decoration 😛 The sign is now a protected monument in Berlin.
A giant TV tower called the “Fernsehturm Berlin” can be seen from miles away. Despite the relative poverty of East Berlin in comparison to West Berlin, they were still able to erect the tallest structure in the whole of Europe.
Berlin wall
The last time I came to Berlin I only saw a small section of the former wall separating East and West Berlin. I was told by others that I should look for some of the better preserved sections, so I went on a walking tour around the major Berlin wall sites.
There is a line of bricks marking the route of the former Berlin wall.
This is a preserved guard tower. These towers were used to keep an eye on the death-strip, a small section of land kept open on the eastern side of the wall in which people found entering it were shot on sight.
There is a section of the death strip which has been preserved. This photo was taken through a small gap in the concrete, showing what those who attempt to scale it would have seen before being shot to death as soon as they scaled (or attempted to scale) the wall.
Gunter Liftin was the first person to be shot to death attempting to escape from East to West Germany via the wall.
Nooks and crannies at Lier sykehuset
Most of the old medical equipment at Lier sykehuset has been removed, but Alice and I did find a few things which were still there. There were a few devices which seem to have been medical waste disposal units, but the purpose of other things were less obvious. If you know what they’re for, please let me know in the comments 🙂
This strange stretcher like thing was bolted to the wall. My best theory, is that it was used to strap patients to the wall when they didn’t want to leave them sitting down. Clearly others were wondering what it was for too as the text beside it says “Hva er dette?”, “Pliss svar!” and “Godt spørsmål”, which means “What is that?”, “Please answer!” and “Good question” in ENglish.
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