On a Wim

One of my favorite directors is Wim Wenders and one of my favorite movies is Wings of Desire.  It's as much about Berlin as it's about two angels Damiel and Cassiel.  It has Peter Falk in it, which should be enough for everyone to run out and watch it.  Damiel falls in love and longs to be human.  Oddly enough, that name is in the graffiti on the gate to our apartment.  There are a couple of key scenes that I thought were worth a visit.

The Victory Column, otherwise known as the chick on a stick, is on the cover of the American poster.  There are over 200 stairs to get to the top.  I know because the sign said so...and John counted every one of them.  Daniel also counted them, but he gets kind of stuck once he gets past 10.  It was "16...19...16...19..."   The view of the city is pretty amazing up there, but can be kind of awkward if you look up.

Sony Center

It's pretty high, so don't look down...oh, and don't look up

The library scene is another.  It's beautifully shot in the beautiful reading room of the State Library.  How hard can it be to swing by a library and snap a couple of pictures?  It all seemed so easy until we drove by and the entire front of the building was under construction and blocked off.  As usual, parking was also a mess.  Finally, we found a spot, and I ran in to try to take a quick look.  I made my way through all of the construction to the front door where it said all my belongings needed to be locked up and I need to buy a library pass to get access to the reading room.  There were a lot of signs in small type and only in German and a large, intimidating door behind which sat an angry looking library worker.  This suddenly didn't seem so easy.

As close as I could get

So you'll just have to watch for yourself to see how cool it could have been...

I also found Wim's address, although that would have been a little creepy and weird to go by his house.  Plus, the parking is probably really bad.