Viktoria Park

Usually on saturdays I take it easy. This saturday I took it veeeryyyyyyy easy. Woke up early but remained in bed, finished a book I had since a long time, took a long breakfast, bla bla bla all those things. Mid afternoon, noticing the weather was not that great but still OK, I decided to go to the pool. That's what I do on saturdays. It helps the body to erase all this pain accumulated during the week. As you may know, Berlin is a poor city and can't manage to have all Its pools opened during summer. That means most of the pools in the city (and "mine" particularly) are closed. The city sends the life guards to the lakes or they are simply on holidays. Knowing that (at least !) I decided to go to an open-air one in Kreuzberg, not too far from home. It's opened until 20:00, so everything is going well. Some clouds above my head but nothing serious. When I arrived, I pay the fee and the guy shows me the information on the window that says : they're expecting some storm anytime soon and when It's there, we have to leave the pool. But I didn't have the time to even get undressed because you have to bring your own padlock if you want to use the locker room. You didn't know ? me neither ! I asked the guy and I used the wrong word so he did not understand what I wanted (typically german, I said cupboard instead of locker) and he told me It's been years the same way. Halloooooooooooooooo, don't you notice I'm not from here ? well anyway, after that I just had to go out and lose the ticket. Almost in a bad mood already, the sky was getting darker and darker and I said to myself I need to find a safe place, to wait the storm to pass by. I elected the department store Domäne. I've been there once and I was amazed all the things you can find inside. It's not top quality, It's not design, darling, but It's cheap and if you're looking a store to redecorate your home, you might find little useful things. I call it the turkish Ikea (mainly because It's in Kreuzberg, the second most important turkish city after Istanbul) but while you walk on the ground floor with the swedish manufacturer following an indicated way, there you go floor to floor. I took some little ideas for the future, and the last rain drop fallen, I took the bike back, not really knowing where I was heading to. Believing I was driving home, I took the wrong way and headed to an unknown place to me until now. Reading my city map (always in my bag, not crazy the bee), I discovered I was at Viktoria Park, completely in the south of Kreuzberg. The district of Kreuzberg in Berlin takes its name from the Kreuzberg or Hill of the Cross (66 m/217ft high) which lies to the south of the city near Tempelhof Airport. Around 1300, the hill was still known as the "Tempelhofer Berg," and it was then owned by the Franciscans to whom it had been donated. Later it became known as the "Runde" or "Götzesche Weinberg" as vines were cultivated here until 1740. The area around the hill (16 hectares/40 acres) was laid out by Hermann Mächtig at the end of the 19th C. as the Viktoria- Park. It was extended in 1913-14. It boasts a toboggan-run and an artificial waterfall modeled on the Zackenfall in the Riesengebirge. The vine-growing tradition has now been revived in the park. In 1818-21 a monument designed by K. F. Schinkel was erected on the hill to commemorate the Wars of Liberation of 1813-15. It was crowned by an iron cross, and accordingly the hill was thereafter known as the Kreuzberg. Twelve statues symbolize the principal victories and are depicted in the clothes of outstanding personalities of the time. Don't ask how I arrived there but because after the rain comes the sun, I decided to make a stop. Berlin is full of parks, this is true. But this one is amazing. After the waterfall, on top of the hill, you have one of the most amazing point of view of the city. And the park after the rain is beautiful. I know walking in the rain brings a special feeling but the smell of the wet grass is not bad either. Anyway I stayed quite a while until I found my way back home, just when It started to rain again.