Few weeks ago, the weather was perfect and I decide to take the S-Bahn to Wannsee. It’s in the south west of Berlin and to be there I had to cross this huge Friedhof Grunewald forest! It is a very nice place also, I went there once by bike and I had the feeling to be in the forest in the south of Belgium where I went when I was a kid.

Actually, Berlin has many lakes, Wannsee is in the south west but there is also Tegelsee in the north west and Mügelsee in the south east where only electric boats are allowed because conventional engine boats pollute the place (The nice power of electricity :- )). So Wannsee is next to Potsdam, someone told me there is a famous bridge where the spies were exchanged between the West and the Soviets. But this bridge is in the zone C of the subway and my ticket was for A and B, so I don’t have any pictures of it. It will be for the next time!

First feeling when I get out of the S-Bahn with this beautiful sun, you want to rent a kayak! This is a very peaceful but there is not so much to do if you don’t like water sport.  I walked during 2 hours and don’t find any beach but there is nice place where you can get some rest on the grass! I think there is smaller sand beach close to the forest. Where I was, the place is more residential and I found many beautiful houses next to the lake but none was “for sale”. Usually, the Berliners love water; lot of them practice a sport with water, they go swimming in every puddle of water I see or they like rowing, kayak, sailing, etc. I went once in Tegelsee and I saw a traffic jam of boats during the week-end!

In September the election will be hold in Berlin and I saw some electoral posters there. When I go back to my place, I had a surprise, a letter inviting me to vote! I didn’t know but European citizen can vote in Germany (but I think only for the regional), that’s great; it makes me feel more European now!

And of course, I took some pictures of the places, just take a look and tell me what you think: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65846682@N06/sets/72157627501792200/

Siemens!

For those who don’t know why I am in Berlin, here is a short explanation; I am working 4 months for Siemens Berlin. Actually, I’m doing a PhD at the Brussels University and my research is paid by Siemens. I’m working in the electrical power system and to be more specific, I am studying earth fault in the distribution network. I can’t say more I should kill you after you read these lines ;-) But I promise, I’m not paid by Siemens to do this blog. Don’t any advisory from my side.

Do you actually know that Siemens employs more than 400.000 people worldwide? And even more impressive, its GDP is more important than the GDP of Lybia! Even oil can’t beat human brains! And everything has started in 1847 from a man who wanted to produce small telegraphs.

I find this company really impressive, I mean, this is so huge, how can you make the good choice and how can you invest some much money in the future? This company has to evolve very fast in this changing world and believe me, it does, and there are always reforms and changing department in here. For example, the name of my department is E D EA PRO D 1 3, it means that I am in the energy sector, distribution network, energy and automation and the next letters PRO D 1 3 I have clearly no idea! When you are a new employer, you can subscribe to an online presentation of the company, I have started this but it takes more than 24 hours to complete it! So I have stopped after 2 hours…

In one part, I have the feeling that Siemens is like a country or at least a government. Peter Löscher, the CEO of Siemens is like a chief of government, he goes negotiate with Angela Merkel in China €billions of contract. He goes to Brussels and meets the EU to discuss politics, I think these EU guys are more interested in what Peter Löscher has to say than our (but are they really our?) poor Belgian politicians. He even sends a letter to Norway for the attack in Oslo exactly as a chief government does! These kinds of giant company have so much power and influence than some government, examples are very easy in Belgium when a company wants to close for any reason, the Belgian politician just prostitutes themselves and give them many subsidies to stay. I find this solution stupid and I really think big companies needs big government. Everything must be balanced.

Concerning Siemens in Berlin, I don’t really know how many people are working but as you already know, there are many buildings from them in the area. I can tell you that they are clearly not afraid of the change and I think this is the same in most part of Germany. This could be reason why Germany is the best economy in Europe and they can proudly say they will be the first developed country to be nuclear free. Listen news ideas, innovate, and take risk! That’s exciting!

You can find some related pictures on http://www.flickr.com/photos/65846682@N06/sets/72157627254709137/ ;-)