Badeschiff in a Thunderstorm

One of the 'only in Berlin' things is the 'Badeschiff' - this translates as 'Bathing Ship'. Apparently the Spree River that runs through Berlin is not safely swimmable, and so this ex-cargo ship hull was converted to a swimming pool and floats in the Spree. On the banks are a beach and bar setup.

Normal entry to the Badeschiff is 5 Euros (3 Euros for discount/student entry). However, as it's World Cup time they are showing all matches at the Badeschiff beach and also the adjacent sports hall. On each game day entry is free after 4pm.

So - not one to miss a bargain (and also we've never been before) we have been trying to check it out. Summer has been unkind to us so far this year and so the first 2 weeks of the World Cup weren't ideal bathing weather. We tried in earnest to go on Friday 4 July and arrived then at 4pm. The line was huuuuuuuge. For the first time in weeks the weather was beautiful (A sunny 30 degrees), and add to that that entry was free and Germany was playing that day....FORGET IT! We had to leave as we had another engagement elsewhere.

So we tried again today. A bit of a mistake. It had rained heavily in the morning but had backed off when we left the apartment.  Thunderstorms. We got there bang on 4pm. No one waiting.

 Inside the beach area there was still surprisingly quite a few people (obviously bargain hunters too) but all sheltered under the various awnings and bar area.

 We went toward the pool but were immediately told it was closed because of the weather. GEEZ!! I thought it would have been great to swim in the rain (it was still 30 degrees outside) but no. I don't know the physics of it all, but maybe there's a great risk of lightning strike?

So we just had a look around...

And observed how bad the weather seemed to be getting...

 And decided to leave...

And just as we did so, the thunderstorm hit with full force!
We couldn't move from our position it was so severe...

 It was an incredible amount of rain, by far the heaviest sustained downpour we have experienced during our time living in Berlin. What a great day to choose to go to the Badeschiff!

The rain didn't let up and so we had to ride through it. Honestly, it was fantastic fun!!

At the Oberbaumbrücke you can just see the Badeschiff floating in the spree, and it was incredible how heavy the rain was. Wow.

 As we rode home, everyone else stuck in the downpour was scampering for cover. I overheard 2 American girls as they ran for a tram say how amazing it felt to be in the rain, how free they felt. That seemed to sum it up. I don't know why, but getting absolutely drenched and deciding there's nothing you can do about it IS so liberating.

We got home, soaked to the bone and jumped straight in the shower. Might try again tomorrow - forecast...Thunderstorms!

Bötzow Brauerei Tour - Photo Essay

The Bötzow Brauerei (Boetzow Brewery) in Prenzlauer Berg has been in the local Berlin news recently due to the unveiling of its plans for redevelopment.  Now owned by prosthetics company 'Otto Bock', the plan is to renew the complex into a mixed used development, including retail, arts, a small brewery and a 'future lab' for the Otto Bock group.

We had gone along to an open day to see the plans several weeks ago, which was frustratingly tantalising as there was only limited areas of the buildings accessible at that time.

Later on I looked into the site and found that semi-regular tours are run, which fascinating to me, provides access to the underground storage areas of the former brewery.

A brief history:
Berlin is a flat city built on swampy land, however Prenzlauer Berg is one of the few areas in the city that has some decent elevation. This meant that the area became popular with brewers as they could dig underground and create large climate stabilised storage areas for their beers.

The Bötzow Brauerei, on Prenzlauer Alle, was established in 1864 and had a relatively short operating life, closing due to damage caused by the scuffle of the Second World War.

One of the most fascinating things about this brewery was that in its day it had a beer garden with a capacity for 6,000 people (yes, 6 THOUSAND)! It must have been an amazing place to be. To put that into perspective for those that live in Berlin, the Prater Biergarten (Berlin's oldest beer garden) has a capacity of 'just' 600.

The tour:
Guided tours are offered for free by the current owners of the brewery. Participants are guided by art history Dr Albrecht and over two hours are given information about the site, its history as a brewery, its postwar use as storage and kindergarten spaces and its post-fall of the wall used as underground techno clubs. About 1 hour of the tour is spent above ground and you are only lead briefly through the buildings before receiving a bit of a lecture from Dr Albrecht. The second part of the tour is a fascinating descent several levels underground to the cold cold (freezing!) world of the storage areas. You will want to bring a warmer coat than you think you need!

Remnants of the past are everywhere, horse stables, beautiful & busted architecture, post brewery indications of club and art use (a boat and a tree deep underground?) and some other remnants on the surface of bygone clubs and former uses- as well as the current use as art gallery and restaurant prior to the sites full redevelopment.

Tour Language Note:
For some reason I thought the tour was in English, but it it 100% in German (looking on the website it doesn't say anything about which language the tour would be in, though the site can easily be switched from German to English. They do run special tours, so perhaps it is possible to request a tour in English, as Dr Albrecht did speak at least a bit of English.

More history, development plans and tour booking information at the Bötzow website.

Photography Note:
At the start of the tour we were given an induction by Dr Albrecht of what was going to happen and hard hats for safety. He mentioned something about photography, which I clarified with him later that taking photos was fine though he implied that the photos could not be used for commercial reasons. With these instructions being in German and Denglish, I present the below photographs with no copyright or other infringement intended!

Bötzow Brauerei
Prenzlauer Allee 242 - 247, Prenzlauer Berg (between Saarbrückerstraße & Metzerstraße)
www.boetzowberlin.de/

World Cup 2014 in Berlin

Everyone is football mad in Berlin right now....its the World Cup!! However, it's not actually called the World Cup in Germany, it is 'Weltmeisterschaft'! Abbreviated everywhere as WM.

We are not big football / soccer fans, but we don't mind getting swept up in the WM atmosphere. Living in Berlin the games are being shown at 6pm, 9pm and 12pm - which means for the majority of the population it's feasible to be watching every game. Unlike in Australia where the time difference is a killer.

So we've already enjoyed the fantastic demolishing of reigning WM champions Spain by the Netherlands (5:1), seen England defeated by Italy (2:1) and Australia defeated by Chile (3:1).

With much excitement, the city geared up for Germany's first match, against highly rated Portugal. As for all games, most cafes, restuarants, bars - any kind of shop really, has a makeshift TV set up for the games. With it being the home side the turn out was amazing.

We headed out through our local district (Friedrichshain) to watch the 6pm match. Biergartens were packed, and this pub down the road had a makeshift thing on the go which was already full...

We went to the local 'party street' Simon Dach Straße, and grabbed some Deutschland flags from the Air Berlin promotional girls along the way.

Checking out places along the way...

And took up a position outside of one of our favourite Döner shops to watch the game.

12 minutes in and Germany had a penalty opportunity. Germany's first goal of the WM created quite some excitement, but not as much as I was expecting. Video of 'the moment'

It was still great to hear a whole street erupt with cheering, but perhaps because it was from a penalty it wasn't such an exciting build-up as a 'normal' goal. Someone let off a firework.

By half time it was clear Germany was going to win. The great thing about where we were was that we could  easily get our dinner as we waited for play to resume, Kebabs and Noodles and some beers.

A funny thing was going on with the coverage, some TV's on the street were a second or two ahead of ours...meaning we could tell what was going to happen before it did. The crowd excitement of a play building (Ja, Ja JA) and then the result (TOOOOOOOOOOOR, or the disappointment of a dashed hope - OOOHHH GAASP!) It was quite funny.

So by the end of it, Germany had kicked arse 4:0 and are naturally going to be the Champions by the end of the tournament. :)

It's going to be pretty exciting to be part of more of this atmosphere as Germany progresses to the next stages and the games become more and more crucial.