Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. To celebrate, Berlin is hosting an open-air concert and party tonight.

Over 1,000 colourful 8ft dominoes, along the former route of the wall between Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, will be knocked over to mark this important anniversary, and to raise awareness of walls around the world that continue to exist.

The last domino will trigger a firework frenzy over the Brandenburg Gate.

Dignitaries expected to attend Berlin's "Festival of Freedom" include U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Brandenburg Gate by wit.

It might be 20 years since the Berlin wall came down, but if you check into The Ostel, Berlin's new GDR-designed hostel, you'd be forgiven for thinking time had stood still.

Full of details to delight even the most ostalgic (nostalgic for life in the former East "Ost" Germany) of visitors, The Ostel cashes in on the trend for recreating aspects of daily life and culture of the former GDR.

Housed in an original Plattenbau, a typical East German building constructed of large, prefabricated concrete slabs, The Ostel offers dorm rooms, private rooms and a GDR Holiday Apartment that can sleep up to six. Rooms cost from €9 per person per night.

We can see The Ostel's Communist kitsch vibe and its proximity's to some of the best of Berlin's nightlife making it a firm favourite in the Berlin stag / hen repertoire.

If stepping back in time is your thing make sure you take a tour of Berlin in an old Trabbi - another East Berlin icon - to add to the GDR experience. Visit www.trabi-safari.de for more information.

The Ostel
Wriezener Karree 5, 10243, Berlin, Germany; Tel: +49 30 25 76 86 60; Fax: +49 30 25 76 88 07; Email: contact@ostel.eu; Web: www.ostel.eu.

Photo Credits: The Ostel ©OSTEL GbR; Trabant by Genial23.

Berlin's Tempelhof airport, once the world's largest, closes tomorrow following 81 years of service that witnessed the Soviet blockade, the Cold War and the falling of the Berlin wall.

British architect Norman Foster calls Tempelhof "the mother of all airports". Tempelhof, built by the Nazis as a gateway to the capital of the Third Reich, opened in 1926. It still ranks as the largest building in western Europe.

The airfield played a pivotal role during the Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 11 May 1949) when it served as the Western Allies' gateway to Berlin as they airlifted in food and fuel to supply the city.

According to Bloomberg.com, a 1940s Douglas DC-3 and a Deutsche Lufthansa AG Junkers Ju- 52 of a similar age will be the last aircraft to take off from the airport shortly before midnight.

Photos:

flughafen tempelhof by fliegender via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Berlin Airlift by velodenz via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Quote of the ITB Berlin convention has to go to Bill Walshe, CEO, Jurys Doyle Hotel Group.

Whilst speaking about International Hotel Chain Success he said:

"I would like to go back in time to five minutes before the person who invented hotel loyalty schemes came up with the idea and beat them around the head with a spade."

Does anyone have a time machine he can borrow?