let us begin, as eric and i did, in köln (cologne). this is the cathedral there, sort of. an interesting angle on it at least. that's all we saw there, and only because it's across the street from the train station.
onward, to berlin. i took disappointingly few pictures there, but we saw a lot, did a lot of city wandering, went out at night, ate delicious thai food, things of that nature. pretty much every landmark has been destroyed and rebuilt. this cathedral is no exception, at least judging from the different color patches on the columns (can't see it here, alas). the best part about this cathedral, though, is that the garden in front of it is called the lustgarten. yes! haha yay. that made my day (though alas, "lust" auf deustch just means pleasure).
now we've seen old berlin architecture, here's new berlin architecture. this is the inside roof thing of a sort of covered plaza in the center of town, the big new shiny area where they built everything after the wall came down.
it says, in case you can't see, "white trash fast food." in chinese-style lettering. yum. sadly, it was closed when we tried to eat there. a nice touch is the poster in front of it for the erotic convention. thanks berlin.
still in berlin, alongside the river and across from "museum island." we actually didn't visit any of the museums on the island, as the more interesting ones were on the other side of town.