思维车游 (Segway Tour)

Navigate your eyes to the English inline below….

7月13, 14日 星期五，六

决定把今天和昨天的一并记录，因为一部分是单独记录勃兰登堡门的，那个要明天才能完成；一部分是今天参加的思维车游重复了我俩昨天一部分步行的范围。

思维车游

驾驶思维车在柏林的大街小巷转简直太好玩了！ 思维车是一种电力驱动具有自我平衡能力的个人交通工具，很多城市也把驾驶它变成了一项游览观光的项目。早在刚到旧金山的时候我就想尝试一下了，今天我俩决定在柏林试一试。到了预定好的时间去了游团地点，结果就我们两个人，太好了，变成了私团了 😂   付款，签完合同，进行大概半个小时的培训，刚一开始觉得有点儿难掌握，比如迅速停车和左右转的力度，但是这个车设计的很好，完全根据驾驶者的身体或是只有脚的部分的运动来反应，不需要太多的训练，就能很快的如老手一般风驰电掣了。

Friday and Saturday, July 13th & 14th

I decided to write yesterday and today’s blog post together, because we ended up seeing some of the same sights on our Segway tour. So I’m combining what we saw on the Segway tour from today with what we saw while walking around yesterday.

Segway Tour

Riding a Segway on the Berlin’s streets and sidewalks was unbelievably fun! A Segway is a kind of electric vehicle that drives by self-balancing and using your body position to navigate. Many cities are using these vehicles for sightseeing. I had wanted to try it when I had first arrived in San Francisco but today we decided to give it a try in Berlin! We arrived at our scheduled time and found that we were the only two people that had signed up! It was really great that it became a private tour 😅😎. The process was making the payment, signing the contracts and doing about half an hour of training on the Segway. It was a bit difficult to master at first; actions such as rapid stopping and making sharp left and right turns. But the vehicle is designed very well, and responds completely according to the driver’s body and without too much training you can quickly become an expert.

训练完毕，上路！ 一路经过了很多柏林有名的建筑和地段，我俩的导游是一个非常年轻的小伙子，我感觉他只有18，9岁的样子，很腼腆，但说起英语来有些口音，外加有时候很嘈杂，我基本上一路上能听懂他50%的讲解吧  😂😂  不过开着思维车，穿梭在原来的东西柏林之间，欣赏沿途风景和人群，真是很好玩的经历。

Training is complete and we are on the road! Whisking through the old Berlin streets and seeing many famous buildings and lots of Berlin! Our tour guide seems pretty young probably just 18 years old. He’s a little soft spoken but speaks English well, albeit with a German accent. With the noisy streets and the tiny attached speaker, I basically could only understand half of his explanations along the way. 😂😂 But it’s a very fun experience to cruise around the old and new parts of Berlin and we really enjoyed the scenery and crowds along the way.

经过英国大使馆的时候，我们必须要走路过去，这是德国的规定。When passing the British Embassy, we have to walk the Segway, apparently this is a German regulation.

下面是一些沿途风光。Here are some of the scenery we saw along the way without comment:

看到上面的照片就知道谁的车技更好了吧，哈哈， 我不但专心的开车，还专心的拍照片和视频 😂

When you see the video above, you’ll know who is better at driving. Haha, but I am not only trying to drive intently, but also taking photos and videos while driving! Which later the tour guide informed me is actually illegal 🙂

下面是几个我俩去过的重要的景点：

欧洲被害犹太人纪念碑

这里是为了纪念在犹太人大屠杀中所有遇难的犹太人而建立的纪念碑。这里的纪念碑和其它传统意义上的纪念碑非常不同，它一共占地1.9万平方米，由2711块大小高矮不一的长方体混凝土碑石，在一个波澜起伏的地面上，按网格图形排列的碑林，而且每个碑石是没有任何墓志铭的。根据设计者的想法，这种混凝土的设计会有 “一种导致心神不安缠扰不清的气氛，而且整个雕塑打算代表一个原有秩序因人为因素而远离人类。”

Here are a few of the more important attractions we have been to:

European Memorial to the Murdered Jews

This is a monument built to commemorate all the Jews killed in the Holocaust. The monument here is very different from other monuments in the traditional sense. It occupies a total area of 19,000 square meters and consists of 2711 blocks of rectangular concrete with differing heights. On a waving ground, the forest of monuments are arranged in a grid pattern. And every stone is without any epitaph. According to the designer’s idea, the design of this concrete was to, “produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.”

我觉得这是一个很有心意的设计，这些大大小小的无名碑的设计正好代表了那些成千上万的无辜的而且没有留下姓名的被残害的犹太人，灰色调让人感觉没有欲望，没有奢念，使人深思，空白的设计让每个人都会有自己不同的理解。可以也许有时候设计会和现实违背，走在碑石之间的时候，看到有很多人都在碑石之间玩捉迷藏，或是坐在站在碑石上面拍照片。

I think this is a very thoughtful design. The design of these large and small blocks represents the thousands of innocent and unnamed Jews who have been left behind. The gray tone makes people feel that there is no desire. There are no descriptions but it makes people think deeply, and the blank design lets everyone have their own different understanding. Maybe sometimes the design evokes things that seem contrary to the meaning of the monument. When walking between the stones, I saw many people playing hide and seek between the stones, or sitting on the stones and taking photos. PJG was one of them 😂😂.

查理检查哨

位于柏林市中心的腓特烈大街上，是冷战时期通过柏林墙东德和西德之间进出的一个检查点。柏林当时一共有三个这样的检查点。查理检查站通常为盟军人员和外交官使用，是从美国控制的西柏林进入由苏联控制的东柏林的检查哨。

Checkpoint Charlie

Located on Friedrichstrasse in the heart of Berlin, it was a checkpoint between the East and West German sides during the Cold War. There were three such checkpoints in Berlin at the time. Checkpoint Charlie was usually used by the allied personnel and diplomats crossing from the US-controlled West Berlin to the Soviet-controlled East Berlin side.

现在这里已经成为游客的拍照纪念处，只要你愿意花两欧元，就可以和岗哨前的“美国大兵”合影留念 😂😂

Now it has become a photo commemoration place for tourists. If you are willing to spend two euros, you can take a photo with a, “American soldier” in front of the guard post. 😂😂

电视塔

柏林电视塔是德国最高建筑物，也是欧洲第四高的建筑物，建于1965年至1969年。说起电视塔，作为一个中国人，我觉得见怪不怪，没什么值得看的，因为中国几乎每个大城市都有一个电视塔。但是在那上面应该可以很好的欣赏一下柏林城的面貌，所以我俩决定上去看看。 我俩的柏林欢迎卡有25%的折扣，买了票后，因为控制人流，大概等了一个小时才上去。塔内的电梯很快，1秒上升6米，到达观光台只需40秒的时间。上去之后，空间似乎不是很大，而且靠近玻璃的地方有围栏和展示台，所以并不能很近距离的靠近可以观光的玻璃，有点儿小失望。 不过能俯瞰柏林全貌也还算值得。

TV tower

The Berlin TV Tower, built between 1965 and 1969, is the tallest building in Germany and the fourth tallest building in Europe. As a Chinese person I don’t feel it is that unique to have a TV tower because almost every major city in China has one. But of course you can get the best view of the city so we decided to go up. Also, our Berlin Welcome Card gave us a 25% discount 😂😂 After buying our tickets, it took about an hour to get to the top because of the flow of people. The elevator in the tower is very fast, rising 6 meters a second, and it took only 40 seconds to reach the sightseeing level. After going up, the overall space doesn’t seem to be very big, and there are bars and display stands near the glass which prevented us getting very close for a view;  so we felt a little disappointed. However, in the end it is worthwhile to be able to overlook the whole of Berlin.

民宿旁集市

傍晚回到民宿，发现楼下的整个一条街被集市占领了，这里据说每周二和周五都会有集市，我俩也忘记了疲惫的身躯，在集市里逛了一圈，买了一些草莓和PJG喜欢吃的腌橄榄和臭芝士，哈哈。话说草莓还真便宜，2欧元给了四大盒子，和美国相比，一个盒子就大概会是5.99美元。

A Market next to our AirBnb

When we returned to the apartment in the evening we found that the entire street next to our apartment was occupied by a huge market! A sign shows that there will be a market every Tuesday and Friday. We forgot how tired we were and strolled around the market for awhile and bought a few things. We got some strawberries and PJG likes to eat salted garlic olives and stinky cheese, haha. But the strawberries were incredibly cheap; for two euros we got four big boxes. Compared with the US, one box costs about six dollars.

终于记录完了，有些想说的都缩减没写了，现在已经过了半夜了，某个人在我旁边已经大声的打呼噜了，晚安吧。

Finally, this long blog post is over. But believe it or not, I actually cut short some of what I wanted to say because it’s already passed midnight, and someone is snoring loudly beside me. So good night.