Interior of Kaiser Wilhelm 1 memorial church ( built 1961) with its Karl Shuke organ ( 5100 pipes- completed 1963)
Starting our stay overlooking the City's zoo, we enjoyed the colours of Autumn in a city full of trees .
Geographically the largest city in Europe, it has only 3m residents , and this is reflected in a sense of space and green .
With the zoo on our doorstep and a gloriously sunny Saturday , we took the opportunity to walk in this leafy place and see the animals and birds . Unsurprisingly, the monkeys seemed the most popular with visitors . I was taken with other outdoor beasts.
The condor was pretty magnificent and proudly displayed - I'm not sure that we were the desired audience !
The giraffes were splendidly blending with the scenery . Oh and the rhino ......something that takes us back millennia .
The Holocaust memorial moved, and the museum below , educated . Queues of people patiently waited their turn for the museum , and we joined them , intent on being reminded of the terrible persecution and annihilation of peoples for being different . This powerful map locates all sites of persecution and extermination in Europe. Only the UK and Spain are untouched.
This powerful testimony by Hungarian poet Miklos Radnoti (1909-44) was one of many in the museum, Radnoti did indeed die as he foretold. We visited the memorials to gay and Roma people too .
The appreciation and value put on the democracy enjoyed by all Germans today , was evident , not least in the dedicated public buildings, exhibitions and published literature . The Deutcher Dom in the Gendarmenmarkt provides an exhibition "Milestones,setbacks,sidetracks - Parliamentary democracy in Germany"
Stairwell in the Deutcher Dom
Domes are something that Berlin can boast a lot of . This is the Cathedral by the River Spree . A trip in the river was a great way of seeing many of the significant buildings in the centre - democratic and cultural - and enjoying the Autumn scenery .
Berlin does things on a grand scale and the Brandenburg gate at night epitomises this .