Berlin Festival of Lights 2008

[praiodan]

I've been out yesterday evening to catch some pictures of the "Festival of Lights", an event held every year in Berlin for 2 weeks. Several landmarks an other buildings are illuminated in special ways. I took about 80 pictures, yet the cam proved to be pretty crappy, many pictures are just... well... nothing I guess. But I wanted to share some pictures, that show a least a bit  :crazy2:

Let's just start with the Brandenburger Tor. It had a colourful illumination, which changed every few seconds. Just some impressions of what it was like:



Both west side of the gate


East side of the gate. The caption says "be positive. be souvereign. be berlin", which is ne new slogan of Berlin. 


Illuminated trees at Unter den Linden, heading east.


The Gendarmenmarkt


French Cathedrale at Gendarmenmarkt.


German Cathedrale at Gendarmenmarkt.


Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt.

The Fernsehturm at Alexanderplatz was awesome - not only the colours changed, but the spots moved up and down the tower all the time, or it was illuminated by kind of flashing lights.




Other side of Alexanderplatz: The Galleria Kaufhof and the Alexanderplatz Station




Then I did a little stop at the main station:


This has actually nothing to do with the FoL, but nevertheless I thought this reflection looks very cool (inside the station).


Went to Ernst-Reuter-Platz then, where a hotel was illuminated. The colour changed every few seconds: blue-red-green






I then headed towards Kurfürstendamm, but on my way I found the Berlin stock exchange:


And just on the other side of the street, the beautiful Hotel Astoria:


Continued my way to Kurfürstendamm then and my first catch was the Neue Kranzlereck there. It also ahd chaning colours:






Few meters away: the Karstadt at Kurfürstendamm:




There's a bunch of more pics to come on Saturday, I'll catch some more on Friday evening.

Now, who's still thinking that Paris is the City of Lights? 

[Dark_horse_spirit]

Thanks for sharing those pictures. What does this festival celebrate, a good harvest?

DHS

[praiodan]

What does this festival celebrate, a good harvest?

Nope. Actually it's not a real festival, rather in the figurative sense the lights are actually celebrating  The true purpose of this is to have something special going on in the city which can be merchandised 

[Andreas]

Well, merchandising or not, it surely looks great. I just wonder why Belin needs an English slogan, rather than a simple German "Sei positiv, sei souverän, sei Berlin." - do they really need to change everything into English, just to show that they are a "world city"? 

[sebes]

Lars thank you so much for showing these excellent pictures. Next time I'll be sure to be there too

Your pictures are of very high quality as well man

Sei Froh - Sei Frei - Sei Berlin

[praiodan]

@ Andreas
So true. It's in fact gruesome that kind of everything has to be English nowadays in the land of poets and philosphers 

@ sebes
Good to see you enjoying them. If you should be around next year... tell me 

Ok, as promised, some more:

The Dom-Aquaree, which was the official "headquarters" of the FoL:


Turning around, the white illuminated towers of the Nikolaikirche where visible:


This time I even have pics of the Dom for you... though they are only slightly better... but at least there's something to recognize  




The world's biggest light clock at Marx-Engels-Forum


Again the Nikolaikirche's towers, at close range this time


Afterwards I made a detour to the Tiergarten..


And went a little more south to the scandinavian embassies. In fact I think, this is one of the best shots I took.


Heading west... the Europacenter


Gedächtniskirche:






After that I had my last aim left: Schloss Charlottenburg. It also had a changeing colour sheme and the center part was illuminated with cool looking handprints.






That was the Berlin Festival of Lights 2008... 

[Vario80]

Now that was really a festival of lights.
Great pictures, i haven't been to Berlin yet but someday i will definately make up a trip up there.

[Glenni]

I was in berlin in 2006, it was only for three hours, so i only got to walk arround in the central area a bit, saw the trainstation though... what an awesome modern building!

[praiodan]

I was in berlin in 2006, it was only for three hours, so i only got to walk arround in the central area a bit, saw the trainstation though... what an awesome modern building!

I remember that chat we had about this, years ago