According to the official website, Berlin's Festival of Lights will "turn Berlin into a sparkling metropolis with a firework of illuminations and events". Worth a visit then.

It was a bitterly cold night, but armed with double sockage, two jackets, gloves and a beer in hand, I felt more than ready to hit Berlin's illuminated sights.

I am not a major light festival goer but, admittedly, this was not my first. However, whilst my first light festival (visited approx. 15 years ago) was of the slightly tacky, Christmas lights variety (can you guess what it is yet?), Berlin's version proved to be ultimately more high brow. The people who designed this speciality lighting have been labelled "artists" (mind you, most people in this city claim this label too) and, in fact, there was art to be seen in these illuminations.

We started at Alexanderplatz and our first "exhibit" was some weird green laser lights on the side of Galeria Kaufhof shopping centre. They seemed to be depicting a story of some sort, but the Fernsehturm was ultimately more impressive. Looking up, we saw the monumental TV tower sporting a metallic orange light affect - nice, nice.

From Alexanderplatz we walked the well-trodden path up Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate. We passed a church and some pretty lit-up water; Berlin Cathedral looking a bit spooky in its purple tones; and some very pretty orange and purple trees. We pretended to be horrific monsters, making scary faces in the lights under the trees, and then continued the trek to the Brandenburg Gate.

The streets of Berlin were full of fellow light-seers. Irritatingly most of them had thought to bring tripods, but I feel our slightly shaky photos have a certain charm...

About halfway up Unter den Linden the heavens opened. A lightning storm would have been quite fitting. But instead all we got was torrential wetness. Being British, I naturally had an umbrella on me, so we trundled on, as our fellow light-tourists sought cover. We made it to the Brandenburg Gate eventually and saw the centuries-old landmark lit up like a school disco. It was a fitting end to our tour, and made Blackpool Illuminations seem not so bad after all.

All in all, a good light show. It was nice to see the streets full of people, including locals, admiring the gorgeous buildings dotted around this town in all their lit-up glory.

If you happen to be in Berlin before 28th October be sure to go for a night walk - who knows what illuminated gems you might stumble upon...

(more information at http://www.city-stiftung-berlin.eu/index.php)