As we promised, we made the excruciating journey to Jerusalem to bring you some real-time photos of the lovely “United Buddy Bears” project, which came here in the beginning of August. We came back home exhausted and probably a bit dehydrated (it’s much dryer there, so we tend to drink less. Big mistake), but with lots of beautiful pictures (Click on the picture to enlarge).
Berlin is a relatively young city in European terms, only around 750 years old. And since then, it is associated with the symbol of the bear.
Apparently, no one really knows where it came from. It first appeared in 1280, on a seal document (which depicted two upright bears with Brandenburg eagle in the center). Earlier, around 1150, there was some guy named Albert the Bear who inherited Berlin from its last Wendish king, as says the article about “the history of Berlin” in Wiki. Maybe he’s the source, who knows. Anyway, the Bear still stands proud as the city symbol and mascot, and appears on its flag.
In our first visit to Berlin, as we walked through the city, we occasionally came across a large fiberglass bear standing near an occasional embassy. Here’s one:
We knew the official symbol of the city is a Bear, so we didn’t put much thought into it. And then, one day, we came across this: Read the rest of this entry »
