a berlin blog
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a berlin blog |
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Sunday, May 28, 2006 The Horror Berlin's slick new glass Hauptbahnhof opened this weekend, complete with solar cells embedded in the roof-panes and vast shopping opportunities. Here's how it looked on Sunday. It's the largest station in Europe. Also Berlin's first central station (where Paris-to-Moscow passengers can theoretically step out and wave to people traveling from Copenhagen to Istanbul). That's a little weird, since trains were as important for Berlin's industrial boom as they were for Chicago's. But a customs wall still surrounded the city's core when the first stations went up in the 19th century, and later of course a wall ran down the middle; so smaller stations like the Hamburger Bahnhof, Lehrter Bahnhof, Anhalter Bahnhof, and eventually Zoo Station served passengers riding in various directions. Berlin Hauptbahnhof makes Zoo Station obsolete, at least for long-distance trains.  Crowds infect me with a low-frequency madness, so I'm glad I wasn't at the grand opening on Friday night. Some distant acquaintance of my cousin's friend said the fireworks were better than Sydney's miliennium pyrotechnics; I could give a shit. It seems a teenager went nuts with a knife and slashed twenty-odd people before the cops got to him, and one of the victims was HIV positive. And people are swarming here so they can cluster with even more people at a soccer stadium? And we hope this will be fun?  I think maybe no photo can capture the full horror of the Hauptbahnhof's new food court, but this comes close. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:48 PM
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