On stations underground and overground 1

The most important thing you need in Berlin is a map showing you the  connections between the various under and above ground train lines. With this small double spread sheet, one can make one’s own way across any part of Berlin with ease. Well, from student dorf its always bus 118. It’s a friend, a guide, a welcome Vahan that will take us out of the southwest sector where we live to, Mitte (centre / downtown) or to the other distant corners of the city. Catch the bus to Krumme-lanke ( named after a close by lake I have not yet seen) and take the U#3 route out you are in soon in a world that is punctuated by station names as are full stops in a running paragraph.
“ eienstien bitte”( Halt for a minute? ) says the mechanical male voice in the train at the station. And as the train is about to leave, “ turwitsoplaz bitte” or something that means- train leaving or stand away from the door! Interestingly the Bus has a female voice calling out every stop. I love the way she calls out “lindenhaller alle” or “am rohr garten.”
Most of U3 runs above ground in the first few stops. The first interesting train stop I describe is ONKEL TOM’S HUTTE. You guessed it, it is Uncle Tom’s hut! Most of hut station has interesting that shop-windows line both the train platforms. This is one of the stations where there is no wall opposite to the track as the train gently goes a few feet below road level (more in a train gutter than underground route). There is a Chinese take away, a cosmetic store, the ever welcome Aldi’s supermarket and a camera shop. Also a travel agent and many other small businesses like a florist and a electric lights showroom. It’s like the wild west main street we see in movies- with a few shops and one main road. The added attraction is a sparkasee atm from which we can draw money (when we have it in the account).
Moving along U3 towards the university stops we see green grassy slopes on both sides and interesting graffiti on retaining walls which I can never photograph. As every glass window of the Ubahn, for decorative pride, has the famous stencil outline of the Brandenburger gate painted in white many times on it. Like a silly wall paper or a tee shirt pattern. Some gates stencils are upside down, looking like strange dead insects with the legs thrown up or with the columns pointing to the sides like many EEE or Mirrors of E or standing normal like the sticky elephants we drew with many legs). So in any photo, there will be graffiti on graffiti of the photograph which is too much even for a philosopher. Wall as text. Text on wall as a text. Window as text for text on wall. Brandenburger stencil as text on window as text for text on wall. My photo of “Window as text for text on wall along with Brandenburger stencil as text on window as text for text on wall” as text…. You get the drift?
At Dalem Dorf and Thielplatz, most people who get on and off are students and so expect a crowd. The university is sprawled out between the two stops you can climb out at Dalem and find yourselves walking through campus and suddenly Theil platz is closer. Interesting to note that all these stations get deeper, so by now it’s one floor below the road. The U-bahn starts to go underground. And every station has a glass lift that you enter through the one door and exit through the opposite. No maneuvers of reversing your pram or shopping trolley. Oh! this trolley must be written about. Many elderly people (and also other shoppers) carry a trolley with long stiff bag and trundle along their shopping like prams or airport cabin baggage. Very useful I thought!
Back to the station. The intersections begin after that you have to change lines to other Ubahns or to S Bahns and to get to the Charlottenburg area you climb out at fer-berliner platz. Most stations are uniquely designed. In the earlier tour, the lady had told us that they were colour coded but even otherwise they look nice and the pillars and the walls are different with photographs or some artwork or as usual, advertisements.


Charlottenburg has a schloss ( german word for castle/ fort/palace) but more interestingly it has some good shops for cheap clothes and Asian markets selling good Chinese and thai stuff. Check out German Woolworth’s and the local C & A and H & M if you are only if you are desperately looking for cheap winter wraps. Otherwise just wait till you get home to Chickpet or Sarojini market Delhi. We reached the schloss on a late Sunday evening and it was gloomy and locked. Just as we turned away disappointed, M shouted “ look at the lights, they are turning them on.” And soon enough we saw the timed lights switch on and slowly, sequentially light up the Schloss from the bottom to the angel on top and then go off slowly one by one. Very nice but what was the point? Anyway we photographed it along with the dozen other people who were busy with tripods and perfect pictures of the light ( gimme Mysore palace lights or the musical fountain anyday). I give this schloss an A for effort, B for the hype and C for architecture!

The zoological garten station where I have been to twice now is painted with animal silhouettes and these are in the pictures. The wall writing must be inspired by the station walls opposite to the platform which are seen as some public notice boards that go beyond just advertising. They are canvases and museum display areas. There seems to be a Berlin-like culture of writing on the walls but it may be true of any other of the towns of Germany. As you wait for the train, you can let your eyes scan the walls opposite and see stuff instead of peering in to the tunnels to look for the train lights









You walk out of the zoo-station at night and see the famous church with the bell tower that was damaged in the war.The Protestant Kaiser William Memorial Church (in German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche) in the centre of the Breitscheidplatz. The original church on the site was built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained and its ground floor has been made into a memorial hall. It’s reconstructed with blue stained glass and looks beautiful. Its said to be  made of a concrete honeycomb containing 21,292 stained glass inlays. The glass, designed by Gabriel Loire, was inspired by the colours of the glass in Chartres Cathedral.

The central paved courtyard is beautiful and has the cleanest WC, I have ever seen. Steel and glamour with the treads on the steps- so you cannot slip. For 50 cents that I paid to use it, I got to see a sensor flush in operation! Also prominent is the Benz logo on a tall building and lights arcing out around in like search lights. They seem to say “who dares challenge the merc, we will searchlight you out!” the church, the merc and the blue glass wall were more interesting light display than the C. Schloss.

Another station i describe for this posting is the westhafen . The walls of this were inscribed with scrabble boards or the word seeker kind of letters. Artist project. Certainly a kind of neat graffiti. And there was an interesting inscription on the wall that I photographed. I will let the pictures speak. Notice the eyes, the birds and the human figures. The outside corridors had names of movies maybe but there was French line and it said “tout les monde"or something. This was a post-modern station so the exit opened bang on top of a flyover road  that ran over both the Ubahn and the Sbahn stations, all layered like many meanings on an old word. There was no signboard or any welcome or whatsoever, just the pavement, empty foot path and the road!

Hope this will keep my readers happy for sometime, so next blog we travel the sbahn to the peacock Island, the pfauninsel!