As you might have gathered, I got a bit carried away with Groupon a while ago with meals,
haircuts,
miniature trains, and more meals. Today, one of my regular Groupon partners in crime and I redeemed our vouchers for a ride in the 'Die Welt' hot air balloon. That's if ride is the right word. As it's tethered to the ground, we went up 150m and stayed there at a slightly unnerving angle for 15 minutes and then came back down. You can find it round the corner from Potsdamer Platz situated near both the Topography of Terror and Checkpoint Charlie.
It was great. We had to cling on to the railing for a very wobbly, swaying take off which tempered the persistent camera clicking noise that usually accompanies Sarah and I whenever we meet up. Sadly, it wasn't the clearest, sunniest of days, but I would highly recommend it, and as I am about to overload the page with photos I'll leave it at that. Should you fancy going you'll find details on
their webpage but you might want to hold out for a Groupon deal to save on the 19 euro ticket price.
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| The Die Welt hot air balloon. |
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| The Fernsehturm |
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| Some (heavily Photoshopped) Trabi's |
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| The Trabi Safari |
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| Pretty coloured buildings |
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| The Jewish Memorial |
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| Leipziger Strasse (I have a bit of a thing for ugly high rises) |
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| Gendarmenmarkt with the Berliner Dom behind. |
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| The Jewish Memorial, Frank Gehry's DZ Bank with the Brandenburg Gate peeking out behind, the beginning of the Tiergarten, and the Reichstag. |
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| Leipziger Platz (foreground where the death strip was) and the modern architecture of Potsdamer Platz & the Sony Center, with Tiergarten behind. |
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| Looking to the west - the tallest building on the right is the new Waldorf Astoria and faintly you can see the Funkturm further right, and in the background, Teufelsberg. |
My other Groupon adventures:
Unsicht-bar - eating in the dark restaurant
Panoramapunkt - sightseeing from the top of Kollhof Tower.
Loxx Miniatur Welten - Mini Berlin with trains in the Alex shopping centre
Like I just stepped out of a salon - getting a Groupon haircut - eek
It took me a little while, but I am impressed with your Gendarmenmarkt photo -- you manage to just miss my office building -- it's just to the left of your photo...
ReplyDeleteIt looks like an interesting ride -- I've been discouraged by the 19€ price, but maybe I'll do it anyway...
Thanks, with the Groupon deal I think we got it half price - I doubt we would have done it at 19 euros each. I do think it would be nice to go up in the evening. I'm sure we saw that it's open until 10pm.
DeleteThe slightly unnerving angle definitely had my nerves shot for a bit but we survived, the balloon stayed tethered and we both got some good shots. Mission passed me thinks!
ReplyDeleteAnd it's onwards and upwards to the next Groupon challenge! I just heard this morning that at the Dunkel restaurant they gave a vegetarian a chicken starter which she ate cause she couldn't see it. Oh dear. It's going to be a good one!!
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