These pictures are of the Bundestag roof. The Bundestag being the German parliament building.
The building was gutted during the war, and during the cold war was situated in no-mans-land. But as a symbol of a re-unified Germany the interior has been rebuilt by Sir Norman Foster and the parliament has moved back in. A lot of it is accesible to the public and you can look down into the debating chamber from the glass dome on the roof.
The picture below is from a postcard. If you're wondering what the large structure is with all the mirrors - it's to do with heating the interior of the building. The mirrors follow the path of the sun as does the big radiator like structure.
It takes a long time to get to the top of the dome and the first time we went up, it was with a dreadful sinking feeling that I realised I'd left my wallet in the security gate on the ground floor. It seemed to take ages to run round the spiral walkway and wait for the lift to take me to the bottom again. Luckily, a friendly security guard had kept it safe for me, so the sense of relief was enormous as I made the long and less frought journey all the way back up to the top again. |
