We learned that the stake building is located just at the edge of the area known as "The Tiergarten," which could be translated as "zoo," but in this case it means the large natural park set up a few hundred years ago by the nobles so they would have a place to hold hunting parties. It covers many square miles, in which the nobles maintained herds of deer and other animals for their hunting pleasures, but woe be to the non-aristocrat caught poaching. It would probably have led to the death sentence. This is in the very heart of Berlin.
As the town grew up, the Tiergarten was off limits for construction of buldings, and it is absolutely amazing that the Church was able to build a stake center right on the edge and on the side of one of the two roads that have been built across it. There are only two roads going north and south through the Tiergarten, and the church is on one of them, called "Klingelhöfer Strasse," which becomes "Jägers Allee" (Hunters' Alley) as it continues north. The only road going east and west through the garten is known as "The Seventeenth of June" on the West-German side. This street was formerly known as "Unter den Linden" (Under the Lime Trees), and it still carries that name on the Communist side, but the name on the west side was changed to recall the shame of the Communist tanks attacking demonstrators who were on foot on June 17, 1953.
Anyhow, at the intersection of these two roads is a huge monument which is called the "Siegessäule" (Victory Tower or Tower of Triumph), celebrating the German victory over Napoleon's army. We could see it from the church, and that prompted our walk up the road and the clicking of our cameras.
The monument is in the center of a Kreisel (or round-about), where the cars just go in a circle and exit where they want. It is huge.
Dad and Elder Howlett examining some sculpture.
Below you see an entrance to a stairway, which takes you underground in order to cross the intersection. It is a huge tunnel going in all directions, so you can reach whichever direction you need. 
Then I saw the radio tower and thought I'd take a picture, when Sis. Howlett said, "Isn't that the Brandenberg Gate?" Well, didn't I feel silly!! I didn't even know what it looked like! So, we decided to walk up to the gate and see what Unter den Linden looked like as we went. It is an absolutely beautiful street, with elegant light posts, flowers, etc., and that was in frosty February.
We passed the famous Russian monument on the left as we walked. It is really beautiful and honors the Russian soldiers who died during the war. It starts with this tank, and you can see new capitol building in the background, dome-shaped and all modern among all the old.
We're getting closer to the gate. Hitler used to march his troops around the open spaces by the gate. These films were used in propaganda films.
The statue above is facing the east, below I am facing the west to see the front of the statue. I'm sorry, but I can't remember who is in the statue. It was stolen by someone once, but apparently it got returned. Someone search their history books for me, okay?
And here is the latest in taxi service! Wish I would have been rich enough. Our walk turned out to be about 5 miles, and we weren't in walking shoes!! Isn't it cute? 
This is where John F. Kennedy spoke to the Berliners when he visited. We learned that he said something kind of funny, though. He wanted to speak German, so he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner," which would have been nice, but it literally means, "I am a Berliner," which is a donut. He needed to just say, "Ich bin Berliner," which just means I'm from Berlin. Funny little nuance gone awry. Oh, well. Join the crowd, JFK!! Anyhow, there's a museum to honor the Kennedy's. 
And I suckered into the "tourist" mode and had my picture taken with the soldiers representing the U.S. and Russia. They weren't real soldiers and only wanted to practice their English and get your Euro, but oh, well....
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