Brandenburger Tor aka: Brandenburger Gate

is that there are huge stone panels between the columns. The photos that you usually see are taken straight on, so when I walked up to it, I got a shock seeing them.

The architecture was modelled on the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. It is very imposing.

The first and only time Ive been to Berlin the Brandenburger Tor was being renovated. So one day I will have to go back there to see it for real..

Rode on bicycle through the central passage. This had been reserved for the exclusive use of the Royal family many years ago.

I went to visit Berlin in the summer of 1997. When I got off the train, I noticed a very heavy police presence (large armored vehicles, lots of police in body armor with automatic weapons). I had no idea why, but I knew something must be up.

As I wandered around, I noticed that there were lots of people wearing the colors (hats, scarves, etc) of soccer teams, so I just assumed that the police were ready in case the fans got rowdy. As I wandered over toward the Brandenburg Gate, I noticed that the police presence was increasing, and I even noticed that some of them were stopping people and searching their bags. I could speak some German, but not well, so I tried to remain inconspicuous.

Then I found a large crowd of protesters. I was curious and tried to make out what was going on, but I couldn’t. I noticed the the police presence at this protest was increasing so I decided to move on. At this time, there were still rebuilding around where the Berlin Wall had been, so it took a little wandering to make my way over to the Brandenburg Gate.

When I got there, I found another crowd of protesters and lots more police. I had no idea what was going on, but I waited to see what was up. Then the Nazis showed up.

A small crowd of people came marching up to the Brandenburg Gate carrying Nazi flags, and the crowds of protesters all made sense. The crowd of Nazis were small (20-50), and the crowd of protesters were very large (a couple hundred at least), and the police were there in force to keep thing under control.

I stayed for a little while, but soon became uneasy because the protesters were none to happy that the Nazis were there. My better judgment overcame my curiosity, and I moved on away from the crowds.

I doubt that I was in any danger, but it was scary and exciting at the time, and my mom nearly had a heart attach when I told her the story. Berlin made for some very good stories.

There was construction on the road leading to this, and on the gate itself, there was scaffolding. It didn’t make for the best pictures, but It is bigger than I thought.