Day 12: Berlin
Welcome
Yesterday we drove northeast up Autobahn 9 to Berlin. We played an extremely hot show in a tiny venue called Internet Explorer and caught up with a couple of our favourite NZ friends who are currently residing in Berlin.
For breakfast I ate two sandwiches, both with salami, cheese, and tomato.
I went for a run around Nuremberg in the morning and visited the Kongresshalle, an incomplete stadium that was under construction from 1935 to 1945. It was to be used as a Congress Centre for the National Socialist Party and would have held 50,000 people. It currently stands 40m high but was planned to be 70m, and have a self-supporting roof. At 250m in diameter it is twice the size of the Roman Colosseum, which it took it's architectural inspiration from.
The Frauentortum, one of the four main towers of the Nuremberg fortifications.
Tristan scored a point before we left Nuremberg for buying Jon a camera.
I bought Tristan an even foamier coffee than his Macchiato from a couple of days ago.
We had a leisurely four hour drive made all the more enjoyable by the meticulously maintained highways. On arriving in Berlin we went straight to the venue and loaded all of our gear up six flights of stairs. Tristan and I earned a point for carrying Jon's very heavy amp up. Before the show we caught up with our friends Scott Kendall and Robert Bruce. Sadly I forgot to take a photo of us all but here is what it could have looked like.
Internet Explorer was small and jam-packed with people and unfortunately they had to keep the windows shut for noise control, which made this show a contender for hottest show of the year. We all ended up soaked to our skins with sweat but had a great time playing to the enthusiastic crowd.
After we packed out of the venue and checked into the hotel I went out with Robert Bruce who showed me around the neighbourhood. The highlight was having a drink at the corner bar Kaktus Reloaded.
Beth of the day goes to Jonathan. He filled Tristan's water bottle before the drive and remembered Liz's bag after she left it inside. He also spotted for me while I was backing the van out of a tricky driveway, and did the same for Tristan at the end of the night. And he moved a fence out of the way so I could make a tight turn. Stunning work Jono, saving our collective bacon again.