Back again in Berlin

May 16, 2024 | Berlin | Picture | Europe

A few days ago, I once again had the pleasure of visiting Berlin, a city that holds a special place in my heart, as I've mentioned a couple of times on this blog. This particular trip was made even more memorable by reuniting with some former Spanish colleagues from my Google days in Dublin. Together, we spent a few days exploring this very interesting German capital, solidifying why Berlin remains one of my favorite European cities. Though I'm happy with my current life, a part of me will always miss this fascinating place.

One of the highlights of my trip, besides having great conversations and reminiscing about old anecdotes, was finally doing a couple of activities I'd always wanted to experience but never had the chance to before. First on the list was climbing the stairs to the top of the Berliner Dom. This morning's cardio workout rewarded us with some beautiful panoramic views of the city, which you can see in this picture: the TV tower and the Berliner Rathaus in the background, bathed in the sunny sky we were lucky to have.

Again this city full of living history with endless exploration possibilities and such a diverse culture, will always hold a special place in my heart. Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin!

Back in Berlin

Jun 1, 2022 | Picture | Berlin | Europe

A few days ago I had the opportunity to visit Berlin again and I spent some very pleasant days in the company of my dear friend C. In those days I remembered why the German capital is one of my favorite cities in Europe, and although I am satisfied with my life at the moment, I will always miss that very interesting place!

One of the things I was always curious about before leaving Berlin was what had happenned with the famous Humboldt Forum. I remember the first time I visited that space in 2015: At that time it was atemporary construction, created by the Humboldt foundation, that served as an exhibition space and viewing platform for the Berlin Palace - Humboldt Forum reconstruction project.

Well 7 years later, this project is finished and the palace is back to his former glory (at least the exterior facade) and it has some interesting expositions inside. Above you can find a picture on how it looks like nowadays. bis (hoffentlich) bald, Berlin

Happy New Year 2021,

Jan 03, 2021 | Nye | Picture | Berlin

I wish you all a very happy year 2021. I hope that this year comes with good health, with vaccinations that will end the pandemia and with a return to that normality where it is possible to travel again.

Nice sky in German Reunification Day

Oct 03, 2017 | Picture | Berlin | Reunification

Today the weather in Berlin was completely bouncing between sunny and rainy, but this created a quite stunning sky that you can observe in this picture.

Beautiful Sky in the Schönefeld Airport

Jun 20, 2017 | Picture | Berlin | Sky

Did ever tell you the Sky in Berlin can be amazing? Look at here yet another example. When I was about to board a plane a couple of days ago I observed this nice clouds decorating a nice warm summer night.

Nice sky patterns in Berlin

Jun 15, 2017 | Picture | Berlin | Germany

A couple of days I was walking back to my place in Berlin, look up and saw those nice patterns in the sky that you can observe in the picture above. A couple of times I mentioned in this blog how the Sky in Berlin is one of the highlights of this city.

Nice spring sky in Berlin

Apr 05, 2017 | Picture | Berlin | Europe

In Berlin you get very frequently the chance to see nice sky worth to take a picture as it was the case today at the office.

Water around Berlin

Mar 22, 2017 | Picture | Berlin | Europe

This morning when I was landing in Berlin I was staring at the window and I realised sometimes I forget how many lakes and water sources there are around Berlin. I shot this picture to remind myself about it.

Berlin Festival of Lights

Oct 18, 2016 | Berlin | Picture

Last weekend a colleague of my girlfriend was in town and I was happy to walk with her around the city. During the evening I remembered it was the last day of the Berlin Festival of Lights. During this event the main landmarks of the city are used as canvas for very interesting light displays. Some of the most beautiful ones were at the Humboldt university where I shot the pictures above.

Yet Another Beautiful Berlin Sky

Oct 11, 2016 | Berlin | Picture | Sky

The sky in Berlin is not only amazing in Spring but it can be in Autumn as well. Yesterday a former colleague was visiting the office and when we went up to the terrace I had the chance to see this amazing sky.

Conrad Schumann Statue

Aug 20, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

If you have never seen a picture with a soldier like the one in the statue above then you don't know who is the soldier depicted in this piece, then you don't know who is Comrad Schumann. This soldier from the East is one of the first and most famous defectors to West Germany when the border was being built and it was just a line of barbed wire. This is statue is located in a building near Bernauer Straße

Humboldt Forum Progress

Aug 19, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

A couple of days ago I was walking by the Berliner Dom and I realised I haven't seen the progress of the Humboldt Forum construction in a while. The project is scheduled to finish in 2019 and as I you cans see in this picture it's definitively moving along.

Reconciliation Sculpture

Aug 10, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

I have walked by the Chapel of Reconciliation in Bernauer St. many times, but yesterday I noticed for the first time the sculpture you see above. It's called Reconciliation and it was created originally by Josefina de Vasconcellos, an english artist of Brazilian ancestry and placed at the University of Bradford. According to wikipedia there are copies of this original work in the ruins of the Coventry Cathedral, the Hiroshima Peace Park and this one here in the Berlin Wall Memorial.

A year ago in Berlin

Aug 9, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

Time really flies by! One year ago I took this picture in Berlin.

Nice picture in the Lustgarten

Jul 26, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

I have been living in Berlin for more than a year now and last weekend on a sleepless night I setup the site pics.inberl.in to check the different pictures I have been taking in the city. When I was browsing through my collection I found this cool photo I took in my first weeks in Berlin at the Lustgarten. I'm proud of the composition.

Strausberger Platz

Jul 7, 2016 | Berlin | Picture | Sky

View of the TV Tower from the Strausberger Platz. Nice colors in the sky."

Sunday at the Tempelhofer Feld

Jun 28, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

Last weekend I watched the Ireland / France game in the Tempelhofer Feld (pitty we were so close to beat les bleus!). When I was leaving the place I shot this picture with an interesting composition

Another beautiful berlin sky

Jun 16, 2016 | Berlin | Picture | Sky

As I was mentioning a couple of days ago, the sky in Berlin during springtime is quite amazing!

Berliner Himmel

Jun 10, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

The Berlin sky is so photogenic during springtime!

Berliner Dom

May 16, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

Berlin Salary Report

May 12, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Economy

Yesterday at Jobspotting, the company where I work, we published the very interesting Berlin Salary Report with data and analysis related to the wages in the German capital city. One of the most interesting charts of the report is the treemap above that summarises the salary median based on the years of experience and the area of work.

As you can see on the graph the people working in Management and Software Development, have the highest salaries in the scale, and this is related with the years of experience. Interesting. #BerlinStartupSalaries

Another brick of the former wall

May 10, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture | Wall

Walking from the Nordbanhoff through Gartenstraße, you arrive to the roundabout in Liesenstraße where there is a hidden but nice remain of the former wall.

Nice Berliner Skies

May 7, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

The weather is improving in Berlin and the skies are very nice again. This picture was taken in the colorful street of Oderbergerstraße

Nice light in Flughafen Berlin-Schönefeld

May 3, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

Last friday when I went to the airport to catch a flight I was able to capture this nice shot of the Berlin airport with the spring sunlight.

Berlin Wall in Niederkirchnerstraße

Apr 23, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

One of the last vestiges of the Berlin Wall in the Topography of terror in Niederkirchnerstraße

Sunset in Bornholmer Straße

Apr 19, 2016 | Picture | Berlin | Sunset

Beautiful Sunset in Bornholmer Straße. I love the colors in the Sky. Last year I remember we had many of those spring days with amazing photogenic colors such as this one I was able to see today.

The spring is back in Berlin

Apr 4, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

Picture taken in the Görlitzer Park last weekend. It as a sunny and warm Saturday so the people poured to the Cafes and Parks in Berlin!

Oberbaumbrücke On A Cloudy Day

Mar 12, 2016 | Berlin | Europe | Picture

Today we were walking along the east side gallery and when we pass by the Oberbaumbrücke, I got this picture of this landmark bridge on a cloudy day.

European Tourists In Berlin 2016

Mar 11, 2016 | Berlin | Europe | Map

Some weeks ago I wrote about the percentage of foreigners living in Berlin. The office for Statistics for Brandenburg Berlin offers an interesting dataset related to tourism and the foreigners visiting the city. The last data available is from January 2016 and it shows how the highest number of European tourists come from the UK:

Foreign EU Citizens In Berlin By District

Feb 4, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Map | Table

I wanted to wrap up this series of post I have been writing about the people living in Berlin, using data provided by the Statistical Office of Berlin-Brandenburg, with a final post about EU foreign citizens living in the city.

A couple of days ago I was discussing how Poland, Italy and Bulgaria where the EU countries with the highest number of expats living in the Berlin, but the data also contains a very interesting breakdown per district (berzik).

I put the totals in a density map:

I also used the specific countries data to create a matrix heatmap using an the tutorial on how to create a heatmap with jQuery and Tables. See the resulting table below:

There a couple of interesting conclussions from the data: Polish are definitively the highest minority from the EU countries and this can be observed in every district. Mitte is definitively the most popular district for most of the EU citizens and finally Marzahn-Hellersdorf is the least popular overall.

Berlin Picture In Autumn And Winter

Feb 3, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Picture

Almost the same picture taken near to Rosentharlerplatz in two different seasons in Berlin.

Foreign Europeans In Berlin

Feb 1, 2016 | Europe | Berlin | Map | Chart

Following my post yesterday I kept digging in the data published by the Statistical Office of Berlin-Brandenburg. I wanted to discover where most of the "Foreign" Europeans living in Berlin come from. Since the European Union agreement allows the free movement of people across the state members I was expecting that the number 1 slot was going to be taken by a country within the EU borders. Actually it's Turkey the place with most immigrants living in Berlin with almost 100k people:

Now the second and third positions are from countries from the European Union: Poland and Italy. This is followed by one of the newcomers in the union: Bulgaria.

South Americans In Berlin

Jan 31, 2016 | South america | Berlin | Map | Chart

The Statistical Office of Berlin-Brandenburg publish some very interesting reports including: Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner im Land Berlin (Residents in the State of Berlin, 31 December 2014). One of the remarkable sections of this document, is about the country of origin, of the foreign residents living in Berlin. It offers a break down per continents, regions and countries, so I was curious about the top countries in South America:

I'm not surprised to discover Brazil (3948 people) is the top #1 on the list but I wasn't expecting that Colombia (1527) was going to be second one in that region. Interesting.