invented completely new things and talk of the ancient giants who had originally been its teachers even the. teacher out of the darkest bleachers into a new. district there's probably no place anywhere and when things weren't any such quick succession of. this week. w. . welcome to this special edition of check in. today the calls clearly look

are checking out hamburg. and braman. germany sixteen federal states these three are city states. today will discover what else makes them so special. our tour begins in berlin germany seat of government. nicole polish has decided to explore the government district. from the central station it's just a short walk to the german capital governmental quarter built in the years following the cold war everything is big and shiny made mostly of concrete and glass. and right in the middle of all this modern architecture is the historic rice sack building one of friends most visited sites this is where the german parliament known as the. it's

a center of power and tourist magnet alike. i've arranged to meet. a berliner with turkish roots she's been representing the social democrats on the board of stocks since two thousand and thirteen so she knows her way around first she shows me the debating chamber the heart of the problem and really german democracy as a whole. we debate vote and pass laws here. and that's where you work yes that's right where is the how does it feel to stand up there at the podium. it's nerve wracking i can imagine especially the first time. with a thought well over time you get used to it the nervousness doesn't fade but that is all right but i've been

a member of parliament for four years and it's truly special to have a chance to speak in this hallowed hall. but i come from an immigrant family and belong to what they call the guest worker generation. on the floor and it's really something significant for me and my parents as well than that i got a good education and today i'm representing people in germany as a member of parliament. to mention in boston felt. good. walking the halls of the been a stock is like taking a journey through time this graffiti was scrawled on the walls by soviet soldiers after they won the battle for the right stock in one thousand nine hundred forty five british architect norman foster integrated them into his plan when the building was reconstructed and he left the bullet holes. now corner in the delicate lobby this painting represents the right stock fire in

nine hundred thirty three the nazis used the event as a pretext to persecute their political opponents and the books of names commemorate the hundred twenty members of parliament who were murdered in the aftermath. the next stop is the prayer room a place of quiet and reflection for the m.p.'s regardless of their faith. because there's a lot more going on up on the roof of the building the glass dome is the biggest attraction for visitors to the right stock. from the top we had all the way to the bottom in the basement we come across five thousand boxes with four thousand nine hundred ninety nine names on them a full gavan of the most there's

a box for every democratically elected representative in the years between one. nineteen in one nine hundred ninety nine. and preston on the phone. on the set is there anything in them no. these boxes are all shaped the saying to stand for the equality of all elected representatives and independently of their function and nothing you feel from so on the years of naziism are symbolized by a black box there's no name on that one can see. the. tunnels least from the right start building to parliamentary office buildings nearby. for some time now we've emerged from this tunnel into another very futuristic looking building. and on up

with a home yes this is the power luba house before. the representatives offices and the committee rooms are here on the right and left when i'm not on biden dot com. so lots of heated debates behind these walls that one right on. my committee the finance committee meets in this room every wednesday from nine fifteen till about noon or one o'clock post i've seen. the polar bear houses on the western bank of the reverse spray just across is the money elizabeth new does house some members of the bonus talk at their offices over there. when the city was divided in this area of the river served as the border between east and west berlin the crosses remember people who lost their lives trying to escape from the east.

i'm standing in front. the chancellor three up there on the seventh floor that's where an alum merkel works unfortunately i can't get in but on her official website you can take a look at her office. wow look at that view you can see that your garden the big inner city park and all the way to the right start. right next to the chancellery and i'm going to hop on the. nicknamed the chancellor train this will get me to the grand boulevard on to the linden in no time and that's good because i have a very important appointment to keep. i'm of course going to take the v.i.p. entrance i mean i have a photo session with the chancellor herself. ok ok it might not

be all that exclusive after all at madame tussaud everyone can take a picture with. our web morocco obama. or other celebrities a bit stiff but pretty close to the originals and you think. now i'm going to treat myself to a little break the two you got missed the perfect place for that it's right in the center of the city just behind the right and the brandenburg gate. and oasis of peace and quiet for berliners and tourists longing to rest their legs. here in the park you can rent a rowboat chill out in a beer garden. or

just sit back and watch the folks go by. dusk it's time to walk back over to the government district here i'm going to check out something i've been looking forward to all day. just behind the right stock a row of steps along the banks of the sprayer river offer a perfect view onto the muggy elisabet ludo's house and summer a big round window becomes a movie screen that presents milestones of german history from the end of the german empire to the fall of the berlin wall in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine this sound and light show is a wonderful way to end my day and berlin's fascinating government district. northwest of berlin is hamburg. located on the elba river the former hence the arctic city is famous for its port nowadays you can spend the night on this former

fishing boat. were. after a restful sleep in the floating hotel. is ready for his tour of hamburg. welcome to my hamburg summer tour always pretty close to the water from the concert hall through the entertainment district to the beach in the going to. but first a tour off a former fishing boat built in one thousand nine hundred forty seven. shows me his ship. this is the belly of the ship here's where they kept the fish cool on ice. would fetch us the only leave the harbor sometimes or is it permanently mortier. oh no it's fully functional we could set out right now for spain for instance or wherever you want it is ok maybe another time today i want to check out

hamburg. it took a long time and became more expensive than expected but it seems to have paid off the feel of money concert hall has won many fans since its opening in two thousand and seventeen that makes it quite difficult to get concert tickets but a visit to the observation deck the plaza is free a great new balcony three hundred sixty degrees of pure hamburg. from where i'm from also from russia or why are you up here at the uk full of money . because it's a landmark in hamburg and it's

a place you have to visit if you have the money and come here is all this is a good as i heard it's very difficult to get tickets that means you just get in line and hope for the best and it wasn't it was exactly at six pm well go to the box office and hope we get tickets so you know any tricks to get tickets just luck that's all that's all i'll give it a try i seem to be lucky. to see their good luck. son paul you still one of the most famous districts of hamburg famous and notorious here you will find pubs and grand theatres a red light district and culture and all of it not far from the. sun pole even has a small museum where you can find out what has shaped the district. because some polie was originally a border region between the danish city off and the hands in the city of hamburg residents here knew how to use this kind of free space dance halls and cheap

entertainment have been a part of scientology since the seventy's. century. image of prostitution and crime evolved over the years i think if you really took the view out that police had stated such poly is in my constant flux i'd say the red light district image which now plays a role in many tourists perceptions as well as in marketing strategy. is very much influenced by the one nine hundred seventy s. and the one nine hundred eighty s. and i think i got to go on and lots of cliches emerge then. go and change hairdos and such. and survive and nobody can so with these cliches they try to attract tourists by saying we have a red light district we have gangsters that might be interesting to some people. think i think show we at the sonics poly museum don't think of ourselves and that

we try to present everything in the development of the district and enable visitors to understand how certain myths were formed wish them to meet and some are just myths and some are cliches. you can also take a dip in hamburg's river after years of pollution the water quality of the open today is clean enough to swim in bathing in the elbow has a long tradition is specially during the nineteenth century. join a list an author has already written two books about it like many locals she's a fan of the river. the victim what moves you to sweep in the elba every day. fasted internist every day was like a no it's a great pleasure it's just wonderful for my now the elderlies at my doorstep i can go in where i want to i can do what i want to ever almost everything. and it's

a century's experience the water in the flowing and streaming rising and falling water i enjoyed immensely. would be always whether you're in the open there are certainly other people to do you think this is a new trend. the custom of swimming in the elder rich. decades since german reunification many sewage treatment plants have been built in eastern germany and the wood has become much cleaner on fields almost for twenty or thirty years it was really dirty. i think the idea of having nature at your doorstep on the outskirts of a city with a population of millions and being able to use it should be revived. and then more and more people will see how lovely it is the american should dish trends and the beaches in hamburg have lots of visitors and at weekends in the summer and during school holidays there are many tourists and most know that the water epson flows and avoid lying too close to the edge when the water is rising as

it makes. of us our. of course i have to try this now my first swim in the album just do you think on such a beautiful summer day. there are hardly a better place to end the day on the album than this place the strong palate bar. it's famous in hamburg. a wonderful view.

hamburg without the over that's impossible the river is hamburg lifeline so on the one hand it's the useful traffic route and on the other it's the noise of tranquility so no wonder the el that fascinates so many people including myself. our final destination today is brave and which is also the smallest of germany's sixteen states. britain is famous the world over thanks to a grimm's fairy tale which features a donkey a dog a cat and a rooster. they call clearly decided to spend the day in the northern german hanseatic city. those are the tell musicians of bremen beloved characters from the grimm fairy tale of the same name stopping by on to the city to see them has become

a must and touching the forelegs is supposed to be good luck i want to find out about the fairy tale let's see if some locals can help me. ken do you know the story of the bremen town musicians. are you proud of forgotten bremen with me and you could become a town musician. they were animals that were treated badly so they left home from souls i'm forced. they settled down in a house where they were robbers and frighten the robbers away. they stayed in this robber stand in the woods us that's because they found a life without hardship when in liberty and. it flows. so the freeman town musicians never made it into braman at least not in the fairy tale but there's statue has stood in front of the city hall since nineteen fifty

three. that's right when it's full of stories like that today i'm going to discover that. my search begins at the market square. this is where i stumble upon my next story this statue is called the rowlands and legend has it that as long as he's here the city will remain free and independent. the statue is a unesco world heritage site just like this story and city hall across the street. that is why i'm going to take a glimpse inside this remarkable building. i don't. think are you my guide and we have a day. it's. just in here now in the upper hall one of the most beautiful ceremonial venues in

germany and the town hall itself is the oldest in europe that still in its original state why why wasn't this room built what's it use a war would have been the most unfunny. of the old town hall is actually a medieval trading center with a wine cellar below it and a covered marketplace and a pair in assembly room the room also served as a court the mayor used to be the chief justice. is on the spot i don't mind these model ships although the ceiling especially impressive they're four hundred to five hundred years old on and there are models like those built by the huns yogic league before the ships were built for real. five what stands out. avanti arctic leak was a confederation of towns that promised each other for protection and aid in trade and it was quite a large area it stretched as far as no growth in russia or norway down to belgium

and bremen was a member of the league. and now important was it for him and to be as the attic city. we still call ourselves the huns you had a city of bremen although the leak ended three hundred years ago whatever but the term sounds good many associate it with honesty straightforwardness and reliability and that's why we still use it and that's why i tell. my story searching quest here in braman takes me to the cathedral square they say this is where i'll find the so-called speeding stone and it conspicuous cobblestone with a very interesting history. this right here is the site of remember and it's for the crimes of geisha got free back in the nineteenth century she poisoned fifteen people and this is the spot where she was beheaded in eighteen thirty one and still today the local spit on this very stone in order to express their disgust with the killings of three. the spitting stone lies at the foot of the ancient cathedral

it's almost one thousand years old. and apparently it's home to a little church mouse made of stone. either i'm bad looking or it's very good at hiding. pastoring ingrid vigil will surely be able to help me she can wait while they're here for a second. she leads me to the vestry. so here we have the church mouse it's tiny just like a real mouse some so what's the deal with a mouse and tickets which are various store. the most common one is that in the past the artisans who worked on the churches were supposed to look at them very closely when they travelled through the country and if they could say where this church mouse was here in the cathedral the master builder knew that they'd looked

at it properly. as a lesson so it was to trick the workers stay an artist. i've arrived at such a structure in the middle ages it was an important connection route between the market square and the river vai's up the street got its name from the coopers but in german who used to live here. the street as a whole is listed the red brick architecture is typical for braman and toss it is perfectly preserved. in this courtyard to find the fountain of the seven lazy brothers and of course there's a story behind that too. the families and brothers were the sons of a local farmer who weren't exactly known for their hard work they couldn't find a job here in bremen so they went out into the world there they acquired extensive

knowledge and experience upon their return they built drainage ditches for their father's fields the locals dismissed their ideas and accused them of simply being too lazy to work the muddy grounds today of course we know that they weren't lazy at all they weren't just a little ahead of the times. but yes just a is a street that stimulates the senses your taste buds your eyes and your ears. at the top of every hour thirty porcelain bells played your dish nal and modern tunes and up in the tower you'll also find a visual display to go with the songs. no jury. me would be complete without some local fare on the menu today a typical northern dish that of course comes with quite a history. the rathskeller as head chef heikal clear nuff ski

presents it to me. what on earth is this going to taste i love skulls that much i know ok ok just on the ingredients i want to be. flowery potatoes and salted beef brisket and pickles. and what's the story behind it is a pretty traditional dish around here right now that. is involved in the past when sailors were at sea for a long time that was just by the meat had to be preserved that's why their salt to be visible. to the mice and because most of them were probably toothless due to face bites scurvy or whatever or that everything was mashed up just so they didn't have to chew it ok that i enjoy thanks shakes i get weighed.

by all that was surprisingly delicious a perfect finish for my tour around britain and i've learned later and tasted a lot and i feel like that's a great note to end this show and so thank you guys for watching and soon accept.

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