A 11 FLIGHT HELMET

Rick Steves' Snapshot Berlin

You can count on Rick Steves to tell you what you really need to know when traveling in Berlin.

In this 132-page compact guide, Rick Steves covers the best of Berlin, including tips on arrival, orientation, and transportation. Visit the Jewish Museum, the Reichstag Parliament Building, the New Synagogue, or the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church?you'll get tips on all the best tours and least-crowded visiting hours. Rick offers his firsthand advice on the best sights, eating, sleeping, and nightlife, and the maps and self-guided tours will ensure you make the most of your experience. More than just reviews and directions, a Rick Steves Snapshot guide is a tour guide in your pocket.

Rick Steves’ Snapshot guides consist of excerpted chapters from Rick Steves’ European country guidebooks. Snapshot guides are a great choice for travelers visiting a specific city or region, rather than multiple European destinations. These slim guides offer all of Rick’s up-to-date advice on what sights are worth your time and money. They include good-value hotel and restaurant recommendations, with no introductory information (such as overall trip planning, when to go, and travel practicalities).

The Schreierstoren (English incorrectly translated as: Weeper's Tower) A tower in the city centre of Amsterdam. It was built as a defense tower in 15th century. It is currently a cafe. The old name was 'Schreyhoeckstoren' meaning in old Dutch the sharp angle of the tower with the ones connected citywalls. Later they started calling it in short the Schreierstoren. The myth that it was the place where the wifes of sailors were weeping when there man departed on there ships is a romantic falsification.

The Sint Nicolaaskerk (Church of St. Nicholas) is a Roman Catholic church in the centre of Amsterdam.

Officially the church was called St. Nicholas inside the Walls, i.e. the oldest part of the Amsterdam defence works. The architect, Bleijs (1842-1912) designed the church basing himself on a combination of several revival styles of which neo-Baroque and neo-Renaissance are the most prominent models.

The facade is crowned by two towers with a rose window in between. The centre of this window is formed by a bas relief depicting Christ and the four Evangelists, made in the Van den Bossche and Crevels workshop in 1886. A sculpture of the patron saint of both the church and the city of Amsterdam was placed in a niche in the upper section of the gable top. The well-known sculptor Bart van Hove (1850-1914) made the sculpture in 1886. The crossing is articulated by a large octagonal tower with a baroque dome and lantern and crowned by a cross.

The basis of the groundplan is the scheme of the classic three-aisled cross-basilica, i.e. a nave, two aisles and a single transept. The choir is located in the usual place, at the end of the nave. In the corners formed by the transept and the nave, two chapels are located, traditionally devoted to Mary and Joseph respectively.

Inside the newly renovated church, a 19th century Sauer Organ can be found, on which concerts are given and mass is accompanied..

The church is still a very active parish, which serves the city centre. It boasts 3 choirs, 2 of which sing choral evensongs every saturday at 5pm.

The time that Amsterdam still had real grinding trams. Two former old axle trams eventually were converted into 4 axle grinding "machines".
They could operate however solo.

Amsterdam, Reguliersbreestraat - January 16, 1995

Like Blondie, Berlin is a female-fronted new wave band with a lead singer (Terri Nunn) who can really belt, although Nunn is more in-your-face than Debbie Harry. Their music is submerged new wave synth-pop that is varied most successfully by Nunn's agile vocal arrangements. In "No More Words," she first yells and then drops to a scathing whisper, only to attack again; it's scary enough to make any man cower. "Take My Breath Away" is a beautiful from-the-gut ballad, so large and deep in scope that it commands your full attention. In "The Metro" she puts you on a train, sullen and melancholy, going nowhere. --Beth Bessmer