Berlin - Wannsee - Playground of Berlin's Elite

The Wannsee is both a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf and a linked pair of lakes adjoining the locality. Both lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee (Greater Wannsee) and the Kleiner Wannsee (Little Wannsee), are located on the river Havel and are separated only by the Wannsee bridge. The larger of the two lakes covers an area of 2.7km² and has a maximum depth of 9m.

Wannsee lake is well-known as the number-one bathing and recreation spot for western Berlin. The Strandbad Wannsee, an open-air lido with one of the longest inland beaches in Europe was built in 1920-1930 after a concept by architect Richard Ermisch. Situated on the eastern shore of the lake it is officially part of the Nikolassee locality.

At the western rim of the Wannsee locality the Glienicke Bridge connects it with the City of Potsdam. The locality also includes the neighborhoods of Kohlhasenbrück, named after the 1811 novella Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist and Steinstucken, which in the Cold War days became famous as a tiny exclave of West Berlin within the GDR.

When I visited the lake was awash with yachts and speed boats making the most of the baking hot sunshine :) The circular orange boats in one of my photos are used for BBQ parties. The grill is in the centre of the boats and the guests sit around the edge under the overhead umbrella - very cool!

Alexanderplatz - Berlin - At sunset

St Hedwigs Kirche - Berlin - Without the snow! :)

Friedrich Nietzsche Statue - Naumberg

Naumberg

Jena - My Hotel & View from Window

Jena Town Square

Jena

I've just returned from a week at Jena University where I was studying German. I have my German Open University aural exam in under a month so I was trying to gen up ready for the scary test. Of course I stopped off in Berlin on the way back for a spot of shopping so there's some photos of Berlin too, without the snow this time!

Leaving Dinner with the Infamous Annesto Hussein

Phellos

Kekova Sea Kayak - Under attack from the rear

Kekova Sea Kayak - Swim & Ice Cream Stop

Kekova Sea Kayak - A Little Rest

Kekova Sea Kayak - The Dream Team - Hannah and Katharine

Kekova Sea Kayak - Getting Ready

Walking in the Clouds

Meal at a Villager's Home

The Group

Arykanda

Turkey - End of Day 1 Walk - A Swim in Limanagzi Bay

Turkey - Kas Bay

Berlin - St Hedwig's Kirche

I went to an organ recital here and the acoustics were amazing. However, for grandure you can't beat the Konzerthaus where I went to a classical concert on my second evening (Ravel and Handel) - fantastic!! Unfortunately the only photo I have of there is on my mobile :(

Berlin - Potsdamer Platz (Had the Will Smith 'Seven Pounds' movie premier here)

Berlin - Reichstag

Berlin - Brandenburg Tor

Berlin - Tiergarten

Berlin - Arriving to Lots of Snow

Cologne Xmas Markets - St Nicholas

Cologne Xmas Markets - Fresh Hot Smoked Salmon

Cologne Xmas Markets - By Night and By Day

Merry Christmas Everyone :)

What a Great Week!

This week has been quite a busy but enjoyable week.

It started off with my new car, and this time its really is a new car, being delivered. I got myself a brand new silver Vauxhall Corsa and it was delievered with oonly 23 miles on the clock. It felt really weird driving something that new but its great to have wheels again. I'm looking for a name so any suggestions welcomed. I'll try and add a picture later!

On Saturday night I went to the HTB Christmas Carol service with my friend. It was a very moving service and we topped off the evening with a drink in a local hotel which was nice as we hadn't caught up in a while so there was lots fo chatter.

The place where I work has alot of employees and the company makes sure we all get a free Christmas 3 course meal on site. The meal was lovely and we had a DJ and prizes and loads of fun. This year it was the Finance team's turn to host which was quite appropriate as the theme was A Christmas Carol aka. Scrooge :) This meant that the Finance team has to wait tables and deliver everyone's dinner to them whilst wearing fancy dress. Tuesday was my lunch sitting where I received my Xmas dinner but Wednesday saw the tables turned with me waitressing in full victorian costume - quite a sight and also exhausting!! However, all the diners seem to be having fun and getting into the Christmas spirit so it was all worth while.

Thursday was the Strategy team's Christmas party and it was alot less posh than the in-house Christmas dinner. We started the day with lunch at a restuarant in the new Westfield shopping centre but quickly found ourselves in Soho looking for inspiration. So, at 5pm we checked into K-box in Leicester Square, which looks scarily like a brothel but which is actually a building full of karaoke rooms! We rented a room and spent the next 2 hours belting out (there wasn't alot of singing skill in our team) old tunes as though our lives depended on it. To give you a taster for our taste in music we sang tunes ranging from Edelweiss and Echo Beach to Heathcliff, JayZ and of course Robbie William's 'Angels' which our team's Head sang on his own - quite some scene! Anyway, I think it was definitely one of those team bonding sessions that will go down in history - he he he.

Finally, I finished the week with a trip to Kingston to do my entire Xmas shopping in a day. As you can imagine it was very busy but also very profitable as many of the shops had offers on to push through final transactions before Christmas Day. As a reward for my successful shop I went to the cinema last night and watched A Bunch of Amateurs. It'll never be a box office hit but this quintessentially English movie suited me just fine and crowned off my week perfectly.

Hopefully your lead up to Xmas is running smoothly. I'm working in our firm's local supermarket branch for the next 2 days on the 'Turkey Run' so spare a thought for my throbbing feet. My trip to Cologne last week was excellent and I higly recommend 1st class on Eurostar as we treated ourselves and it was fantastic. I'm off to Berlin in January and somehow I think Ryanair is going to pail in comparison for the same £ fare but hey hoh you can't always win.

Chat soon, K

News

Turned 30 yay! Had a nice party with my friends and family at the local pub.

My weight loss is going well - I got to a stone lower in weight by my birthday which was the best present ever!

Went to a fab dinner last week at the d-group titled the Economic Review where 30 of us, chaired by David Smith, Economics editor for The Times was chair. It was a great evening, lots of fun as we had quite a heated debate and finished late as always as we got carried away!! Its the d-group Xmas drinks this week so hopefuly I'll make a few new contacts.

Getting on well with my OU studies. Leonardo da Vinci essay due this week. German assignment was submitted last week - it was very weird recording myself speaking German but I managed. Off to Cologne this weekend to the Xmas markets to practice and booked a trip to Berlin in January so hopefully my pronunciation should improve soon :)

I'm declaring the start of Christmas today as its the first day of Advent so the Christmas tree is going up :)

Hope you're all well. God Bless, K

This touched me yesterday....so I had to share it

Let God heal your wounds!

20 Nov 2008

'"...I will...heal your wounds..."' Jeremiah 30:17

Addressing the student body at Virginia Tech after a shooting rampage that left thirty two of them dead and dozens more wounded, Philip Yancey said: 'Peter said to Jesus..."Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." You've heard, "Things will get better, you'll get past this." Those who offer such comfort mean well, and what you feel now you won't always feel. Yet you're a different person because of that day. When three of my friends died I came across these lines: "Grief melts away like snow in May", as if there were no such thing as cold. I clung to that, even as grief smothered me like an avalanche. It did melt away, but like snow it came back in fierce, unexpected ways, triggered by a sound, a smell, a fragment of memory.' Yancey continued, 'Pain is a sign of life and love. I'm wearing a neck brace because I broke my neck in an accident. Initially medical workers refused to give me medication because they needed my response. The doctor kept asking, "Does this hurt? Can you feel that?" The answer he desperately wanted was, "Yes, it hurts, I can feel it", proof that my spinal cord hadn't been severed. Pain offers proof of life, of connection. In deep wounds two kinds of tissue must heal: connective tissue, plus the outer protective tissue. If the outer protective tissue heals too quickly the inner connective tissue won't heal properly, leading to complications later.' Don't attempt healing alone; real healing takes time; it takes place where God's presence, God's peace, and God's people are. Are you hurting today? Turn to God. His promise to you is 'I will...heal your wounds.'