The Brandenburg Gate, October 2002

The Brandenburg Gate was just fixed up and repainted. It looks really great, and certainly better than the scaffolding that's been on it for the last couple of years.

Pariser Plaz, at the West end of Unter den Linden, is now a mostly pedestrian space. I think the city will keep the Gate itself closed to all vehicle traffic.

The chariot on top of the Gate faces East. We think that at one point it faced the other way, and has been changed, or corrected, depending on your point of view. But which way's better? Victory riding out of the East or into the East?

That's a tiny Andrew at the bottom center to the left of the collumn. The Brandenburg Gate is really quite huge.

Berlin's symbol is the bear, so there have been these big painted bears all over the city for about a year. Now they're auctioning them off.