Souvenirs to go

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time at Berlin's main train station, the Hauptbahnhof. I've reported about it on Euroblog many times. After all these years, I still love the big thing, even though moving around it continues to feel like you are trying to do maintenance work on the outside of the ISS.

At the moment the station's shop owners are complaining about council plans to close their establishments on Sundays. The regulations are meant to bring the vendors into line with shop owners across the rest of the city. Here's hoping that all the shops are allowed to stay open and Berlin's main station is allowed to trade in accordance WITH NORMAL BUSINESS STANDARDS AS SEEN ACROSS THE REST OF THE INDUSTRIALISED WORLD!!!

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. There's a new addition on level 82 of the station. It's a vending machine for Berlin souvenir items. It's from East Berlin's most famous designer store situated on it's nastiest street, Berlinomat. The idea of this machine is that tourists in a rush leaving the city, can pick up a last minute "soov" with their loose change. Thing is, the pricing for some of the items is pretty steep.

Still, it's a winner, I reckon. AND the machine is even prepared to work on a Sunday! What a trooper.

Treehouse at the Wall

I stumbled across a unique house in Kreuzberg today. It's a treehouse built on public land with a unique story. Read about it here.

Victoria on high

The Victory Column has always been my number one address for tourists when they first arrive in Brrrlin. Going up the Siegessäule is cheap, it's good exercise and it gives you a more central view of the city than the TV Tower. So what's the origin of the thing?

Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2nd September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). These later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 meters high and weighing 35 tonnes, designed by Friedrich Drake. Yes, you could have read all that at Wikipedia - but would it have been as much fun?

Situated at the centre of the city's major park, Tiergarten, you need a fully-accredited German driver's licence to get close to the thing these days by car. The roundabout below it is known as "the big star". It's Berlin's version of the Arc de Triomphe and is only to be attempted by drivers at the top of their game. The surrounding park also means that every exit off the roundabout looks exactly the same.

For your info...

...the shoe of the future looks like this.

It comes with AM/FM radio, an ice cooler for storing drinks, and a zip wallet for holding loose change. Euroblog was put on to the new shoe by a "trendspotter". These people habitate the suburb of Mitte and can be recognised by their outlandish combinations of extremely baggy and extremely tight clothing.

We are informed that, ideally, this type of footwear is to be worn in combination with a silver one-piece jumpsuit with a v-neck stripe and a mirrored helmet. The shoe should be available worldwide from August 2012. Here at the Euroblog offices we have 20,000 pairs to give away. Just send us a stamped, self-addressed envelope for your free pair (size 13 only available).