New Wonders of the World? I nominate KaDeWe!
Jun 6th, 2007, 03:19 PM
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New Wonders of the World? I nominate KaDeWe!
Just returned from Vienna-Prague-Berlin trip that has left me exhausted and wanting more.
Vienna was incredible. Busier than I thought it would be. Beautiful. Full of kind people. Fantastic architecture. Quaint little hotel in a great location: Hotel Austria. Cannot be beat.
The train ride from Vienna to Prague was wonderful. Interesting people, gorgeous scenery. Pleasant ride! (Be sure to make reservations. I was able to ride 1st class, but it was a very close call.)
Prague. Omigosh. More gorgeous scenery. More incredible architecture. More kind people. I wrote my daughters that when cities stood in God's lines to receive attributes, Prague stood in the Color line twice. Another super hotel, Residence Mala Strana. Great location. Great staff.
The train ride to Berlin was beautiful beyond words. Actually, that brings to mind when I was landing in Vienna, full of jetlag symptoms and feeling sooooo bad, I looked out the window to spy those mountains and shook my head in amazement that Julie Andrews wasn't out there dancing on those peaks. Breathtaking. Actually forgot about the jetlag for a bit.
I'm an emotional person. I make no apologies for that; it serves me well. I tell you this to explain why I began crying as soon as I saw the memorial to the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.(I was a block away.) It is so very powerful. One of the best memorials I have ever seen.
Another great hotel: City Hotel Am Gendarmenmarkt. Great location in a sweeeeeet neighborhood. Great staff. I really lucked out re: all 3 hotels...thanks to recommendations from other Fodorites!!
Brings me back to the title of this report. I have traveled in 13 countries and almost every state in this country so I am not a country bumpkin visiting a big city for the first time. But, can't say that I have ever seen anything like KaWeDe. My jaw dropped when I got off the escalator on the 6th floor and spied allllll the food products, beers, coffees, wines.....OMIGOSH. What a store. Found everything from a 175 Euro scarf to a 1 Euro white ceramic lovebird. (Bought the lovebird; put the scarf back!)
Vienna was incredible. Busier than I thought it would be. Beautiful. Full of kind people. Fantastic architecture. Quaint little hotel in a great location: Hotel Austria. Cannot be beat.
The train ride from Vienna to Prague was wonderful. Interesting people, gorgeous scenery. Pleasant ride! (Be sure to make reservations. I was able to ride 1st class, but it was a very close call.)
Prague. Omigosh. More gorgeous scenery. More incredible architecture. More kind people. I wrote my daughters that when cities stood in God's lines to receive attributes, Prague stood in the Color line twice. Another super hotel, Residence Mala Strana. Great location. Great staff.
The train ride to Berlin was beautiful beyond words. Actually, that brings to mind when I was landing in Vienna, full of jetlag symptoms and feeling sooooo bad, I looked out the window to spy those mountains and shook my head in amazement that Julie Andrews wasn't out there dancing on those peaks. Breathtaking. Actually forgot about the jetlag for a bit.
I'm an emotional person. I make no apologies for that; it serves me well. I tell you this to explain why I began crying as soon as I saw the memorial to the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.(I was a block away.) It is so very powerful. One of the best memorials I have ever seen.
Another great hotel: City Hotel Am Gendarmenmarkt. Great location in a sweeeeeet neighborhood. Great staff. I really lucked out re: all 3 hotels...thanks to recommendations from other Fodorites!!
Brings me back to the title of this report. I have traveled in 13 countries and almost every state in this country so I am not a country bumpkin visiting a big city for the first time. But, can't say that I have ever seen anything like KaWeDe. My jaw dropped when I got off the escalator on the 6th floor and spied allllll the food products, beers, coffees, wines.....OMIGOSH. What a store. Found everything from a 175 Euro scarf to a 1 Euro white ceramic lovebird. (Bought the lovebird; put the scarf back!)
Jun 6th, 2007, 03:28 PM
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Sally, glad you enjoyed your trip. I went to Berlin the first time in 2005, and just like you, I felt like there were still lots to be explored. Loved the city! I am heading back in September, and this time, will also try to hit Prague and Vienna.
Jun 6th, 2007, 03:47 PM
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Terrific report from the heart, <b>sallyjane3</b>. Those are 3 amazing cities: the colors of Prague are dazzling. Especially when you stroll down a side street and hear beautiful live music pouring out from the windows.
The Berlin Holocaust memorial tore at my soul.
The Berlin Holocaust memorial tore at my soul.
Jun 6th, 2007, 04:01 PM
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Welcome home, sallyjane3!! Thanks for posting. That's a great combination of cities.
I've been to all 3 cities, and love them all. Vienna 3 times, Prague twice and Berlin just this spring, but am planning a return trip in Sept. also (like h2babe). I think that I will add Krakow and Vienna on at the end of our 8 days in Berlin.
We had some wonderful food at KaDeWe, and brought back some German Easter treats from the 6th floor. We were going to bring back more from the store, but wanted to go back when we weren't jet lagged, and unfortunately never made it back there. 6.5 days in Berlin and we weren't nearly done.
How long was your trip? What else struck you in the different cities?
I've been to all 3 cities, and love them all. Vienna 3 times, Prague twice and Berlin just this spring, but am planning a return trip in Sept. also (like h2babe). I think that I will add Krakow and Vienna on at the end of our 8 days in Berlin.
We had some wonderful food at KaDeWe, and brought back some German Easter treats from the 6th floor. We were going to bring back more from the store, but wanted to go back when we weren't jet lagged, and unfortunately never made it back there. 6.5 days in Berlin and we weren't nearly done.
How long was your trip? What else struck you in the different cities?
Jun 6th, 2007, 04:26 PM
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Noe, I'd love to visit Krakow, too, but dont know if we'll be able to make it this year, so please post a report upon your return. Since we only have 2.5 wks, we're only planning Berlin and Hamburg (because we have friends there), Prague, and Vienna.
Jun 7th, 2007, 03:26 AM
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My trip was 15 days, just right I thought. What struck me about each city were its people. I am more of a walk-the-neighborhoods-and-talk-to-the-locals traveler than I am a museum go-er. I was treated with such kindness.
Berlin is not as geared toward tourists as the other two cities but still its residents are hospitable.
Berlin is deeply immersed in building. Even some postcards showed their old old buildings surrounded by construction cranes. There seems to be a sense of Let's Put This Stuff Behind Us and Move On, whereas Vienna and Prague celebrate their past. Easily understandable, I say.
In Prague, I was enchanted by the many small gardens all over Mala Strana. Inviting islands of green and peace.Vienna, my personal favorite, was is such a dichotomy of the slow-moving peaceful past and today's hustle and bustle. Something for every mood.
Berlin is not as geared toward tourists as the other two cities but still its residents are hospitable.
Berlin is deeply immersed in building. Even some postcards showed their old old buildings surrounded by construction cranes. There seems to be a sense of Let's Put This Stuff Behind Us and Move On, whereas Vienna and Prague celebrate their past. Easily understandable, I say.
In Prague, I was enchanted by the many small gardens all over Mala Strana. Inviting islands of green and peace.Vienna, my personal favorite, was is such a dichotomy of the slow-moving peaceful past and today's hustle and bustle. Something for every mood.
Jun 7th, 2007, 06:59 AM
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Your post brought back memories of KaDeWe for me! My DH and I were in Berlin last September and went up to the food floor for lunch. I swear we wandered around for half an hour trying to decide what to eat! I was in complete awe and could have spent the whole afternoon in the store (but my DH hates shopping!).
Glad you had a wonderful time!
Glad you had a wonderful time!
Jun 7th, 2007, 07:06 AM
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I am looking forward to my trip to Berlin. Interesting that even in this day of commercialization, there is still an opportunity to have our jaws drop. Imagine, then, how people coming over to the West from East Berlin felt when they first arrived there. My understanding is that KaDeWe was a deliberate attempt to showcase the difference between the capitalist and socialist society, and it was one of the first sites people coming from the East would see....
Jun 7th, 2007, 01:28 PM
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Thanks, everyone, for your comments. It WAS a great trip.
nini, Hotel Austria is on what they call a cul-de-sac. It's more like a sweet little alley; i.e., there would be no turning a car around. It'd have to back out. Anyway, that means it's off the street a ways. It was deliciously quiet.But, convenient to cafes, shopping, and the subway. It's only a couple of blocks from St. Stephens'.
BTW, the breakfast (included) was great.
nini, Hotel Austria is on what they call a cul-de-sac. It's more like a sweet little alley; i.e., there would be no turning a car around. It'd have to back out. Anyway, that means it's off the street a ways. It was deliciously quiet.But, convenient to cafes, shopping, and the subway. It's only a couple of blocks from St. Stephens'.
BTW, the breakfast (included) was great.
Jun 7th, 2007, 01:33 PM
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I love KaDeWe (means Kaufhof Des Westens, or store of the West, btw) or something similar.
I make a point of getting a meal there each visit, either to eat in when I want to sit, or takeout to enjoy later.
I make a point of getting a meal there each visit, either to eat in when I want to sit, or takeout to enjoy later.
Aug 22nd, 2012, 07:26 AM
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I'm in Berlin right now and want to meet two friends(also tourists) at kadewe tomorrow for lunch. Can you suggest a good place in their food hall to meet? I am considering one of the champagne bars if they have food also? Thanks.
Aug 22nd, 2012, 10:24 PM
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"My understanding is that KaDeWe was a deliberate attempt to showcase the difference between the capitalist and socialist society"
Quite incorrect, though it's easy to see how the myth got about.
Kaufhaus des Westens (NOT "Kaufhof", which is the brandname of a then-rival department store chain) was founded in 1907 - with that name. It was rebuilt after we destroyed it - and the rebuilding was completed before the Berlin Wall was built.
By the late 1980s, it wasn't notably more opulent than the dominant city centre department stores in any other West German major city: during postwar reconstruction, urban planning put a high priority on big city centre dept stores, and the general mediocrity of mainstream German food retailing meant all big dept stores developed gobsmacking food offers.
Scarcely anyone in Western Germany was remotely interested in making trite propaganda points about the East: intra-German relationships were far too complex, and the East was perfectly good at demonstrating the damage Marxism inflicted without any need for the Wessies to draw attention to it.
If the rebuilt KaDeWe was more over the top than strict hard nosed commercialism required (and I'm not sure it was), it was more to do with the rivalry between the three West German department store chains: Hertie (which then owned KaDeWe), Kaufhof and Karstadt than with a points-scoring exercise between East and West that only East Germany and the USA ever joined. West Germany was too preoccupied with making BMWs, subsidising the East and stopping France from destroying the Common Market through its subsidy addiction.
Financial smart-assery and current austerity has wrought similar damage on Germany's department stores as it has on those in America or Britain. But the main Karstadt in Dusseldorf or similar towns is still, especially in food and eating places, something of a wonder to behold. And one or two new Karstadts in the former East- such as in Dresden - HAVE been overdesigned for slightly symbolic reasons. Though, as during postwar Western reconstruction, the symbol is more to do with demonstrating normality ("Dresden deserves to have a Karstadt as posh as Frankfurt") than with asserting the self-evident about the East's inability to organise an economy.
Quite incorrect, though it's easy to see how the myth got about.
Kaufhaus des Westens (NOT "Kaufhof", which is the brandname of a then-rival department store chain) was founded in 1907 - with that name. It was rebuilt after we destroyed it - and the rebuilding was completed before the Berlin Wall was built.
By the late 1980s, it wasn't notably more opulent than the dominant city centre department stores in any other West German major city: during postwar reconstruction, urban planning put a high priority on big city centre dept stores, and the general mediocrity of mainstream German food retailing meant all big dept stores developed gobsmacking food offers.
Scarcely anyone in Western Germany was remotely interested in making trite propaganda points about the East: intra-German relationships were far too complex, and the East was perfectly good at demonstrating the damage Marxism inflicted without any need for the Wessies to draw attention to it.
If the rebuilt KaDeWe was more over the top than strict hard nosed commercialism required (and I'm not sure it was), it was more to do with the rivalry between the three West German department store chains: Hertie (which then owned KaDeWe), Kaufhof and Karstadt than with a points-scoring exercise between East and West that only East Germany and the USA ever joined. West Germany was too preoccupied with making BMWs, subsidising the East and stopping France from destroying the Common Market through its subsidy addiction.
Financial smart-assery and current austerity has wrought similar damage on Germany's department stores as it has on those in America or Britain. But the main Karstadt in Dusseldorf or similar towns is still, especially in food and eating places, something of a wonder to behold. And one or two new Karstadts in the former East- such as in Dresden - HAVE been overdesigned for slightly symbolic reasons. Though, as during postwar Western reconstruction, the symbol is more to do with demonstrating normality ("Dresden deserves to have a Karstadt as posh as Frankfurt") than with asserting the self-evident about the East's inability to organise an economy.
Aug 22nd, 2012, 11:16 PM
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I don't know why and how flanner knows this, but it's all correct.
The "Westen" or West was always labelled as such, not just during the Cold War.
And the West had always been more fashionable than the East, starting in the very late 19th century when the city started to grow. Or better said, the cities, as Berlin was more a municipality like Los Angeles with different independent cities and towns until 1920.
As the industrial revolution and factories started in the Eastern part of town - then more wastelands and not already built up like Charlottenburg city in the West. And as the predominant and pretty constant direction of the wind was and is west to east, the bourgoisie naturally choose the West to built their big town houses and made that part fashionable.
During the Cold War it was more the sheer size of KaDeWe which impressed West Germans than the stuff they had in the shelves.
The foodhall floor had a certain reputation also pre-1989, but more for specific features like the fresh fish department. The store had/has its own contracts with the fish merchants in exotic places and got several fish by direct air freight. So most fish from the Indian ocean got there within 24hrs of catch.
Otherwise, West Germans never quite got the nickname of West Berlin as the "Showcase of the West", i.e. of the free world. As the city looked pretty grey and dull during those times.
The "Westen" or West was always labelled as such, not just during the Cold War.
And the West had always been more fashionable than the East, starting in the very late 19th century when the city started to grow. Or better said, the cities, as Berlin was more a municipality like Los Angeles with different independent cities and towns until 1920.
As the industrial revolution and factories started in the Eastern part of town - then more wastelands and not already built up like Charlottenburg city in the West. And as the predominant and pretty constant direction of the wind was and is west to east, the bourgoisie naturally choose the West to built their big town houses and made that part fashionable.
During the Cold War it was more the sheer size of KaDeWe which impressed West Germans than the stuff they had in the shelves.
The foodhall floor had a certain reputation also pre-1989, but more for specific features like the fresh fish department. The store had/has its own contracts with the fish merchants in exotic places and got several fish by direct air freight. So most fish from the Indian ocean got there within 24hrs of catch.
Otherwise, West Germans never quite got the nickname of West Berlin as the "Showcase of the West", i.e. of the free world. As the city looked pretty grey and dull during those times.
Aug 23rd, 2012, 12:26 AM
#17
I went to the KaDeWe for the first time in 2002, and purchased a cloth shopping bag from the store that has served as my lunch tote ever since. In the elevators at work others who have been there comment on what an amazing store it is.
Aug 23rd, 2012, 09:30 PM
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Thanks all and we had a nice german lunch at the store yesterday. The food hall was not as impressive as others I've seen, especially those in Tokyo but definitely had a huge selenction of hams and sausages!
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