ÐÔÊÓ½ç

This view is just as hard to find in ÐÔÊÓ½ç as the following:

If you should not be willing to wait for the last subway at 3 AM on a Tuesday to enjoy an empty coach, we have some other ideas how to catch your breath and find some quiet in the pre-christmas hustle and bustle of the German capital. In Bavaria the time before christmas is also called „Staade Zeit“, which means „silent time“ - our inspiration of the day.

Looking at such … tasteful clothing (the question is just: whose taste?!), one could also simply get enough of some aspects of modern christmas celebration. Empathy for the Grinch, as it were. By the way - and all of you still believing in the bearded one in red, please look away now - author Hartmut Schickert has given evidence that the delivery of all the christmas presents by sleigh is impossible in 1997 already. He points out in his book „Der kleine wissenschaftliche Adventsbegleiter“ (eng.: Scientific Book of Advent) that Santa Claus would have to make 822,5 visits a second in the 31 hours he would have at Christmas to deliver his presents. And that for the app. 122,4 million km of distance to overcome he and his reindeer would have to fly with threethousand times the sound velocity. (from the first edition of publisher Piper Verlag, p.143) You better watch out, you better not cry ...

This is a picture of the seasonal decoration at the small shopping mall at Ku´damm. A comforting view for christmas lovers who just had the shock of their lifes - sorry for that. Everybody else can also find some quiet here, because it´s never too crowded in these halls.

Let´s now cross the street here in the district of Charlottenburg. The seats on the large window sill of are a real hotspot for ÐÔÊÓ½ç´s inhabitants and visitors to calm down right in the heart of the city. The sight of the monkeys´ rock of the is also a pleasure in winter. Some baboons also show their special colours in the snow. Well, everyone can have a at christmas, can´t they?

At the moment there´s another highlight waiting for those who head towards the monkey window. A real fir tree plantation makes you feel even closer to the "urban jungle". And the trees haven´t even been decorated - pure, green and simply beautiful.

As we are just around the corner already, we find the courage to visit the memorial for the victims of the terroristic attack by a truck driver on the christmas market in 2016. The steps of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church are decorated by the names of the victims as well as their pictures and flowers put up by their families and friends. An impressive crack of bronze and gold on the ground shows the crack too many lifes got on that day.

We recover from these touching impressions by looking for some of ÐÔÊÓ½ç´s bird bushes. No, this is not a botanical term. If we knew more about birds and their natural habitat, we could give you a hint where you can find these special spots on the streets, when you walk around a corner and a piece of hedge sounds as if five hundred sparrows were cheeping at the same time. Keep your ears open - it´s worth it. Not very quiet, but quite comforting!

Our last recommendation for today can be found when starting at the trainstation Zoologischer Garten and heading towards the Theater des Westens. At the brick wall of this small street photographies are being displayed, which have been augmented with a holographic effect. This leads to the impression that the portrayed people are moving. Especially impressive is the smoking man, who appears when you walk towards him - no place to be for the nervous at night. What makes it all even more mysterious is the fact that our author was not able to find out something about the background of the open air gallery or the artist. But even if she can´t - maybe you can?

Wow, we´ve been strolling the city long enough now! We long for elephants and ducks now and we don´t even have to give up our search for silence at . At you can experience mindful quietness sometimes, too. Just take a look on the fifth floor the next time you visit us!