Berlin City Center on a sunny day!

Berlin, May 2026

I usually associate Berlin with dull weather - much more than London. So I was lucky to get an absolutely wonderday day during my layover in Berlin. We now stay in a hotel near the airport, so we must catch the train to the city center. It doesn't take too long but it is not as convenient as in the past.

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Reichstag Building

First landmark I wanted to see was the Reichstag Building. Hitler ordered someone to put fire on the building so he could make up a scapegoat and finally grab power in Germany. The building was also battered in the subsequent World War II. The original dome designed by Paul Wallot could not sustain such agressions and it later replaced by a large glass structure designed by Sir Norman Foster, in 1999.

The Reichstag Building has a great historic significance, since it was there that the Soviets raised a communist flag during the Battle of Berlin, leading to the end of the war in Europe.

You can visit/climb the dome for free but we weren't much in a mood of spending such a gorgeous day in a long queue. 

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Brandenburg Gate

It is not a new landmark in this blog, but you can't miss it every time you visit Berlin...

Moving next, we went to see the residential area built over the Führerbunker but I didn't feel motivated to keep any photo of it, not even of the information board that you can find there. And while walking across the Regierungsviertel district we saw this...

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Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint 'C' is also a very touristic spot in Berlin.

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East Side Gallery

Though I have already visited all these places in past, when bringing a new friend in layovers, you have to see them again. And every time is different and new. If not, simply because of the unusual weather!

To cover such a distance to the East Side Gallery we used the metro, getting off at the Warschauer Straße station. Then we had lunch and an aperol spritz at the L'Osteria, close to the Uber Arena.

The spot on the river bank down below is called Holzmarkt (Holzmarkt 25) where I found many locals and students enjoying the good weather while having their drinks.

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Fernsehturm

The most prominent spot in Berlin, built by the Eastern Bloc is the Television Tower (Fernsehturm) with a height of 368 meters.

While walking towards the square where the tower sits I spotted the ruins of the Franciscan monastery church (Franziskaner-Klosterkirche)...

... and some more views of the tower.

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Rotes Rathaus

The Berlin City Hall sitting on the same square...

... more views of the Fernsehturm...

and finally... the...

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Berliner Dom

Close the cathedral is the Altes Museum with its neoclassical architecture, featuring Ionic columns in its front facade. The damage caused by war shelling are clearly visible.

We didn't get inside though...

Berlin Brandenburg, Viewing Terrace

Berlin Airport, September 2026

I had already visited Berlin this year and so I was not much into taking a train alone to go there again. Instead I chose spending part of my day watching the airport's movements as our hotel is right beside the main terminal.

You have to pay €3 ticket for a 3-hour timeslot in the viewing terrace. Absolutely no human interaction in this process and also you are not screened for security matters.

I was up there slightly less than two hours and I was shocked to learn that Brandenburg airport is such a regional airport! You mostly see A320fam movements and, to a lesser extent, some Boeing 737s.

According to Flight Radar, only two widebodies were scheduled to arrive that day: a Qatar 787 and (if I'm not mistaken) a Turkish Airlines' A330.

I was also surprised to see one Icelandair's Airbus A321LR!

One A319 (LZ-LBB) of Bulgaria Air, with the unusual setup of four windows over the wings...

... and MEA, the resilient airline of Middle East (Lebanon)...

It was the first time I spotted the airline down below... A German charter airline - apparently they have been around since 2017!

I caught the Icelandair during pushback...

... and before leaving I took a couple of photos of this sculpture on the terrace.

Then I had lunch at the airport's KFC and went to check on Terminal 2, which to my disappointment is just a small low-cost terminal (Wizzair + Ryanair) and nothing interesting to see. I went back to my room and spent the rest of the afternoon reading a book and getting a much needed rest after a really busy month of August.

Acropolis of Athens, 40 years later

Athens, August 2026

First time I visited Athens and the Acropolis was in 1986, forty years ago! The airline I work for (re)started flights to Athens last month of July and I got one very short layover this August. And I was so lucky with my crew that wanted to visit the Acropolis even under a hot blazing sun.

And here I am, the little me, forty years ago, at the Acropolis, in a completely different season.

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Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The entrance ticket costs €30/adult. If you pay around the same amount (or more) to climb the 1 WTC in New York, why wouldn't you spend that money on a cluster of monuments with more than 2000 years of history? Our first sighting while climbing the Acropolis hill was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

... in 1986...

And a first look at the Parthenon...

... in 1986...

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Propylaea

The Propylaea is the building complex that served as a gateway to the Acropolis.

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Erechtheion

The Erechtheion temple primarily dedicated to the goddess Athena is something that does not go unnoticed with its beautiful Caryatids.

... in 1986...

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Parthenon

But the main temple, the most known, is of course the Parthenon.

Some nice details of sculptures and the frieze...

... in 1986...

The unforgiving sun was unfortunately too hard to handle for some of my colleagues and we weren't able to explore as much I as I wanted to.

Down below, some sculptures in the Propylaea can be seen and also one last view of the Parthenon before leaving towards the Athens Marina to have lunch at Nisos restaurant.

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Hotel rooftop

We ended our journey at the hotel's rooftop from where you have a nice view of the Acropolis and an infinity pool. The location of it couldn't be better.

I really hope to revisit Athens next year. During IATA winter, the flights will be operated with the Embraer 190 fleet.