Berlin (or Tip-Toe Through The Lindens)
 

I’ve just got back from a week in Berlin - part of which was spent at a conference, and part of which was leisure time to explore Germany’s capital under my own steam.

Berlin most certainly is not Disneyfied chocolate box cobbled and cuckoo clocked Europe, but if you have an interest in 20th century history (and how could you not, when it shapes our every waking moment), art and design, plus a smattering of very good baking, read on, as their might be something here that will appeal to you.

I am starting with photos to whet your appetite – you’ll have to keep following if you want an explanation of some of the more obscure subjects.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/494523...57664612975436

Sunday.

I don’t like flying and miraculously managed to persuade work to pay for a train ticket instead of a flight. I’m only 20 minutes or so from London, so although slower than a plane, the trip was nonetheless relatively straightforward - Eurostar to Brussels Midi, then Thalys/ICE trains on to Berlin via Cologne. Absolutely nothing remarkable about the journey – all on time, lubricated by coffee and pain au chocolat at regular intervals. The Thalys train had free wifi (vive la France!) and old fashioned attendants in peaked caps who stood by the doors at every major stop, ostensibly to welcome passengers aboard and check tickets, in reality to puff and gasp on Gitanes.

I arrived at Berlin Hauptbanhof around 8pm – a monumental structure where international, S-bahn and U-bahn trains come and go on multiple different levels like a scene from Metropolis. Grabbing a taxi from the Europlaza exit I was at my first hotel – Maritim ProArte Mitte – just 5 minutes later.

The Maritim ProArte doesn’t look all that swish on Booking.com, but it turned out to be a very decent base. Sure the décor is getting a little tired (threadbare carpets in some rooms), but I really liked the 70s Italian styling, with an eclectic portfolio of original art throughout the building. The housekeeping was good, rooms were a decent size, bathrooms had both bath and shower in them, large wardrobes with tons of hangers, a number of free items allowed from the minibar every day, friendly staff, a couple of decent onsite bars and cafes, civilised midday checkout, and best of all, what I think is a pretty much unbeatable location, 5 minutes walk in one direction to the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag, 5 minutes the other way to museum island, plus barely 200m meters from Friedrichstrasse S-bahn station.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/de/mari...=total;ucfs=1&

Post conference exploration to follow…

Waiting....waiting....

Excited for your trip report, RM! We'll be in Berlin for the first time in a few months, so I'm happy for any tips, especially good cafes or non-touristy restaurants.

Actually I have forgotten to mention one very noteworthy thing from my outbound journey. Shortly after leaving Cologne for Berlin we passed through a sizeable town called Wuppertal. Houses were set into steeply wooded escarpments leading down to a fast flowing river. Following the course of the river (in fact hanging right over it) I saw a bizarre metal structure like a giant rollercoaster made from huge green Meccano pieces. The rollercoaster went on for miles.

My first thought was that this was some sort of mining structure – possibly a conveyer for ore or some other material. However, when searching for Wuppertal on Google, I discovered that what I was looking at was in fact a suspended monorail, dating to 1901, and unique in its specific design. I was further astonished to read that the Schwebebahn as it is properly known is still in use today, and currently carries circa 4 million passengers a year (25 million at its peak). Had I not been on a schedule I would have loved to get off and explore the town and monorail properly. I found the structure both fascinating and slightly sinister, with somewhat machine-age looking stations and turning loops scattered along its considerable length.

Info here:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wupper...ension_Railway

Love your photos.

Thank you all for the encouragement - another installment to go up at coffee break.

Tuesday.

I’ve not included Monday as it was entirely devoted to my antibody conference (7am to 7pm!) and I didn’t leave the confines of the hotel all day. Tuesday involved another day of talks and networking – however, I was finished by 5:30pm and had a couple of hours free before I was scheduled to meet a friend for dinner, so ventured out for some fresh air.

As I mentioned in my first post, the hotel was only 5 minutes walk to the Brandenburg Gate, so I headed in that direction, light drizzle in the air, but relatively mild temperatures. You’ve probably seen thousands of photos of the Brandenburg gate, but the scale of this structure doesn’t really hit you until you visit in person. This vast 18th century triumphal arch was badly damaged in WW2 and not fully restored until the 21st century. It was also the site of one of the east-west border checkpoints in the cold war years. At night the gate is beautifully lit, to great effect with the horses and their chariot all gold and green on top of the arch.

A few minutes walk further on, past a closed wurst stand, I came to the Reichstag, the german parliament building, again vast in scale, and again masterfully illuminated, even the rain drenched flags beautifully bathed in light (as they wrapped themselves soggily round their poles in the breeze!). The Reichstag was damaged by fire in the early 1930s, survived WW2, but had to wait until reunification for complete restoration, overseen by the architect Norman Foster in the 1990s. I think I could probably have gone in to explore even though I was visiting 'out of hours' as such, because I saw a fair number of people processing through a portacabin at the front of the building; however dinner called, so I snapped a few quick snaps and wound up my brief walking tour.

Strolling slowly in the direction of the hotel, reviewing my pictures as I went, I noticed that some of the photos had weird amoeba like creatures seemingly hanging in the grey night skies. After a brief bit of unnecessary panicking that my camera might be broken I eventually realised that a few tiny raindrops were sitting on the lens, distorting my images. A quick wipe with my t-shirt and all was well, though I didn’t really have time to return to the Reichstag to take better photos before dinner. I resolved to come back another night to take some more shots (though never actually made it).

Walking back up Dorotheenstrasse I noticed for the first time the Fernsehturm, the old east german 60s television tower, one of the tallest structures in Europe, dominating the skyline to the north-east. The tower was almost torn down at the time the wall came down, seen as a symbol of the austere GDR years, but narrowly avoided destruction and is now one of the iconic symbols of the city. There's a rotating cafe at the top and I mentally pencilled in a visit (which again, never happened - detecting a theme here?!). Few more pictures snapped – again some of them compromised by rain amoebas, but on this occasion I had no worries about building up my photo archive later in the trip in better weather as the tower is visible from all over the city.

Back at the Maritim, I got dried off and then met up with my friend Gareth for a bite to eat in the Restaurant Berlin Tapas, around the back of the hotel. This was surprisingly good pitstop, with yummy things like generous whorls of salmon on potato rosti, german beer-battered chicken, and a mini version of the famous currywurst. I had been warned off the currywurst, but actually quite enjoyed it – pork sausage in a sweet and sour-like sauce. I had a couple of glasses of Riesling, Gareth a couple of beers, and the whole thing made all the sweeter by charging it to a company credit card at the end! The staff spoke good english and were friendly and helpful, although they underestimated how much we'd likely need to eat and we had to reorder our favourites all over again. Not an expensive outings - I think most of the tapas plates were only about 4 euros apiece.

Back up to my hotel room for a long soak in the bath before bed.

Next up – Nefertiti, apple strudel and cold war art!

I have stayed at the Maritim and thought it was a great location.
Love your pictures.

Signing in to bookmark this to read later.

Looking forward to the rest of the report. Three of us visited Berlin Jan 30-Feb 3.

The Reischtag does require a reservation. Across the street from the entrance (portacabin) you can reserve a slot (same day possible) but it's better to reserve on line to avoid waiting to book at this office. It may not appear that there is much of a line at th entrance but the reservations are made in groups of 25 at 15 min intervals. A guard checks you in against the reservation list that requires you to show a passport or ID. We had a 4:30 reservation that was fully booked on Feb 1.

Ty for that info nubbyrose.

Your pictures are wonderful too.

Signing up to travel with you... more please?

Very nice photos.

Can relate to your camera panic... a good reminder to check photos as you go.
Smoked salmon on rosti... yum. :)

Thank you all. More to go up at teatime ( UK teatime that is :-) )

Wednesday

I had a workshop to attend as the final part of my conference on Wednesday morning, but it was over well before lunchtime and I was out of the hotel and heading along Dorotheenstrasse (in the opposite direction to the previous night) by midday.

My first port of call as a free agent was to be Museum Island, specifically the Neueus. En-route I passed a delicatessen, university buildings and a fairly grand library, a theatre, posters plastered all over the railings outside, and endless webs of criss-crossing tram lines. Every now and then a yellow tram glided serenely past me, warning horns occasionally blaring out to alert wayward pedestrians.

I arrived at my destination in no time at all, crossed the thin sliver of the Spree separating it from ‘mainland’ Berlin and eventually managed to locate the Neues, (right in front of me all along, but partially obscured by scaffolding and with the entrance confusingly concealed on the other side of the building). I bought a ticket to enter from the kiosk alongside (most of the museums sell tickets inside as well, but the Neues seemed to be the only one specifying purchase from the external office), made my way up the steps and in through the doorway.

I’d come to see the Egyptian collection including the famous Nefertiti bust, but was directed away from the stairs leading toward the Armana galleries, and pointed toward a cloakroom down in the basement instead. The rule about leaving outer garments seemed to be being applied quite randomly – I had to hand over my long navy coat, but lots of people were walking round in shorter jackets that were still obvious outdoor brands, unintercepted by the staff. I didn’t really mind as it was quite warm inside and I had a cardigan on too. Oh – and I was allowed to keep my bag and camera with me.

Having deposited my coat with the attendant I decided to explore the exhibits on the lower level first since I was already down there. There were a number of Egyptian artefacts including impressive ushabti and some exquisite jewellery in gold and blue faience. The location worked really well, being a stone cellar with a vaulted ceiling – you actually felt as though you were seeing the exhibits in situ in a tomb. I then headed to the upper floors, admiring various Amarna-era sculptures, loving the clasped hands separated from their associated bodies centuries ago, and the lips floating Dali-esque in space, finally entering the room where the Nefertiti bust resides alone in a glass case. It’s a magnificent piece but I can understand why some people are convinced it must be a fake – the colours are incredibly vivid for such an old artefact. You aren’t allowed to take photos in here btw, and the light is kept very low indeed.

Feeling a bit peckish I next headed for the café, which was quite small (long and thin, galley style) but a welcome oasis away from all the school parties, smartly furnished with wooden tables and comfy banquettes. There was an excellent light menu with quite an Italian flavour - lots of rustic sounding sandwiches and salads, names themed around exhibits, and some good old fashioned Teutonic baking. The waiters seemed to be mostly Italian or Spanish and were all very friendly and very efficient. I ordered an apple strudel, my waiter insisting I had both cream and ice cream with it when I dithered over choosing between the two. The strudel was really excellent, plenty of good spicing, and accompanied by a decent cup of coffee.

Sustenance scoffed I checked out both the gift shops – small but full of tasteful items, mercifully little tat. There were very convincing replicas of some of the artworks – including the clasped hands I’d loved – ranging from around 70 euros up to several hundred euros. Lots of great stuff for kids too, including quite cool pencil tins in the shape of sarcophagi.

Collecting my coat, I headed out of the museum, walking further east toward my next point of interest – Alexanderplatz. My aim here was to see the gargantuan TV tower at closer quarters, take in some of the brutalist architecture from the GDR era, and most of all, find a U-bahn or S-bahn station where I could buy some sort of transport pass, now that I was looking to venture further afield.

Alexanderplatz was just a short walk from the museum and my route afforded good views of the TV tower juxtaposed with an older church tower. The platz itself was an open, windy space bounded by 60s concrete tower blocks and offices, bustling with people. There was also a mid-century water feature with strange metal ‘plants’ that looked quite impressive. I don’t think the area would be to everyone’s taste, but it gave a good flavour of how life in the east must have been in contrast to some of the posher bits of Mitte and the park and villa suburbs I would visit later on the trip.

At Alexanderplatz S-bahn station I bought three day’s worth of unlimited travel (S-bahn, U-bahn, trams and buses, all for 21 Euros). The S-bahn is a partially elevated suburban railway, the U-bahn largely underground, trams and buses self-explanatory! My first use of the service was the S75 service to Ostbanhof taking me further east to see the Berlin wall. Nb with the day passes you just validate your ticket at the machine on the platform the first time you are using it, no need to revalidate for every leg of the trip - so I did this and awaited my transport, which arrived quite promptly. Actually, I never had to wait more than 2 or 3 minutes for a train during the whole of my trip. The S-bahn trains were uncrowded, warm and comfortable for shortish journeys, and became my preferred mode of transport for the duration of my visit.

I had read that not much of the wall had survived, but one fairly long stretch (over half a mile in fact) had been preserved and painted with murals by multiple artists around the time of the reunification, now renamed East Side Gallery and said to be one of the biggest open air art galleries in the world. I particularly wanted to see the famous kiss mural depicting Honecker and Brezhnev (full title ‘My God, Help Me To Survive This Deadly Love’.

The weather was bitterly cold by the time I arrived at the wall, but the vivid murals were so engrossing I forgot my numb fingers and spent hours wandering up and down happily taking shots. The kiss mural had attracted a large number of visitors, but I thought many of the other paintings equally compelling. The images seemed to divide into two camps – peace and hope (lots of doves and happy smiley figures in the sunshine or verdant gardens) or dystopian reminders of the past (gas-masked figures, prying eyes peeping from behind curtains, tortured faces bleeding from orifices, and escapees being pursued over the wall).

Satiated by art I headed back to the station, and being a bit peckish decided I’d try out one of the brotchen shops or stalls uniquitous along the transit system. These little outlets sell sandwiches made with traditional dark german breads, stuffed with salamis, sausage, cheeses, pickles and salads. I paired my sandwich with a bottle of apple juice and sat at one of the counters to eat my very very late lunch.

Over my sandwich I decided that I wanted to head back to Alexanderplatz to take some more photos of the TV tower and concrete and neon plaza, this time illuminated at night, but since it wasn’t yet quite dark enough, I headed back to the hotel first for a breather. After a bit of a rest I ventured out again, retracing my earlier steps but noticing how much quieter the area round Museum Island now was. Back to the bustle of the plaza for my photo op, where I snapped away for a while, before heading to the S Bahn to get the train home due to the late hour/safety (and tbh my feet were hurting a fair bit by now anyway!)

Getting off at Friedrichstrasse I noticed a Vietnamese restaurant opposite the station exit and headed in for a bite to eat. A poster on the wall behind the counter advertised various delicious looking take away options in cute American style Chinese takeout containers. There was no one serving at the counter, and no-one eating in the attached restaurant, and I perhaps should have taken this as a hint, but my rumbly tummy persuaded me to ignore the obvious and I hung around until someone finally came through the beaded curtain to help. A young Asian woman (surely that’s a good sign?) took my order, and I selected a box with noodles, chicken and lovely looking wilted Asian greens. The portion was generous for 3.5 euros, but unfortunately didn’t taste great – the meat had an unadventurous boiled flavour (inoffensive but bland) and the seasoning on the noodles was overly salty like a stock cube had been crumbled straight onto it. All in all like a giant studenty pot noodle. Nibbled a bit, binned the rest and went home to my hotel to raid the minibar :-)

This is great. I can picture you on your travels through Berlin. The transport system is superb isn't it. And I remember being freezing about this time of year and there was fine drizzle too which made me feel like I was walking through frozen mist!
Did you 'Walk the Wall'? Somewhere we found a route, well signposted, that took us all round the former wall with parts of it restored and with information boards. Could see the nasty watchtowers that had been preserved untouched and some houses around Bernauer Str I think. And yes, the East Side Gallery is fun isn't it.

Missing your gourmet experiences on previous threads!

Hi Gertie - I didn't do the walk (wish I'd know about it before I went) and I didn't see any of the watchtowers either. There was a huge tower painted entirely black and in the same shape as lighthouse which I saw repeatedly from the railway in the east, but I've tried looking it up since I got back and it doesn't appear to have been one of them. I was actually in the Treptower area at one point so god knows how I missed that one!

I mostly ate sandwiches, snacks and baked goods this time round (and was very well fed whilst at the conference anyway), but I do have some slightly more exciting grubbing coming up in the next installment where I visit KaDeWe.

And I forgot to say I was blown away by Nefertiti too. Was the Ishtar Gate on view? It was being restored one of my trips. :(

I think that might be in the Pergamon(?) which I didn't actually visit, though it was recommended to me.

Yes, you are right. Getting my Museums mixed up. So many on the Museum Insel and so much wonderful stuff to see.

Gourmet-wise Berlin was one of my least exciting experiences. Interested to see what you found.

>>gourmet experiences<<

Haven't I recommended an incredibly inexpensive 2-Michelin-star lunch at Fischers Fritz here on this forum?

BTW, the Maritim ProArte is not a bad choice. Excellent location, modern art in the lobby and the corridors, all the comfort you expect from a business hotel, pool and often good rates.

I went up in the TV tower last time I was there. The view was amazing. I feel like I am in Berlin with you!

I loved the art in the Maritim, Traveller1959 - they had different paintings right outside the lifts on every floor so you knew where you were the minute the doors opened, without having to look at the numbers. I do take a mark off for the fact they didn't have tea and coffee making facilities actually in the rooms though - unforgivable from a British perspective!

MarthaT - did you eat at the cafe at the top of the tower?

bmk to read later.

Enjoying your TR.
Am hoping to revisit Berlin next year (last time was 1986!).

RM67, No I did not eat up in the tower. I had already eaten lunch that day.

Thursday

I had two more full days in Berlin, but my stay at the Maritim was over. Happily, due to the generous midday check out, I had plenty of time to take a leisurely breakfast before departing. It was 18 euros for the buffet which I thought quite pricy, but there was a very varied and generous selection, so costly as it was I don’t actually think it was bad value. There were the usual pastries and cold cuts of meat, but also a vast selection of yoghurts, fruit piled high in old apple crates, an entire cheese counter including expensive soft oozy ones, cereals with just about every type of milk on the planet (soy, rice, buttermilk etc), and a station where hot food was cooked to order – generous omelettes, good quality bacon, mushrooms and so on. I had an omelette with bacon on the side, a plate of Danish pastries, another plate of poppy seeded rolls and dark rye bread with pale, unsalted butter and various preserves, black cherry yoghurt, pink grapefruit juice and tea.

Check out was quick and painless – the two free minibar items a day meant I only had to pay for some nuts I’d scoffed as a midnight snack – in my case all the drinks were gratis. I headed for Freidrischstrasse S-bahn with my luggage, poster tube from the conference and handbag – a taxi probably would have been easier especially as the poster tube kept annoyingly falling off my shoulder, but I was determined to get my money’s worth from the transport pass, and before I knew it, I was one stop west at Berlin Hauptbanhof.

My next hotel - the Steigenberger – was right beside the station. This was quite different in flavour to the Maritim – an unassuming concrete exterior hiding a very stylish interior with good use of colour (teal, mustard, pink, rust) sweeping staircases, giant modern chandeliers and intimidatingly beautiful desk staff – all whippet thin and clad in immaculate dark suits. Despite this slightly intimidating introduction, service was excellent, quick, friendly and efficient.

My room was to the side of the building and nice and quiet. A black bedcover with a thin edging of gold gave a slightly oriental feel, the flatscreen tv was neatly recessed, the bathroom had a choice of shower heads, limestone tiling and mirror mosaic edging. There was also a kettle (hurrah!) with a box containing a selection of four or five different types of tea and a Nespresso machine and multiple capsules. I also discovered a pillow menu (lavender, spelt-chaff or lumbar support), speakers in the bathroom and some quite nice stationary including the worlds poshest biro styled like a Montblanc, which I was itching to nick from the moment I saw it. Only downside was having to get one of the housekeeping staff to show me how to work the complicated lighting!

http://www.booking.com/hotel/de/stei...=total;ucfs=1&

My plan for the afternoon was to head south west to explore Tiergarten, then on to KaDeWe, the big swish department store for some window shopping, so once I’d unpacked and had a quick cuppa, I nipped onto the S-bahn and made my way further west.

Tiergarten is a sizeable park in the middle of Berlin with ponds, boating lakes, cafes, statues and monuments, and on its fringes, also the zoo. Sandy paths criss-cross the vast expense of parkland (more than 500 acres), fringed by lanterns and lamps from bygone eras (some have little signs on attesting to their Victorian pedigree for example). Outside the park nazi era lamps line the road, (though I doubt they are similarly labelled to fete their origin!). I wandered for an hour or so enjoying the relative tranquillity of the park, away from the hustle and bustle of the traffic. The colours were surprisingly autumnal for February – a sea of red and gold leaves – but there was a chill in the air and a light but icy drizzle. Coming upon a clearing in the wood I saw a restaurant by a boating lake. The boats were all drawn up on the shore and out of commission for the duration of winter, but the restaurant was full of customers, sitting at marble topped tables with elaborate Gustavian candelabra.

Though I’d barely scraped the surface of the park, I'd enjoyed my brief bout of fresh air and was quite happy now to succombe to the pull of retail therapy, so retraced my steps to the S-bahn, heading for KaDeWe…

Had I not been on a schedule I would have loved to get off and explore the town and monorail properly. I found the structure both fascinating and slightly sinister, with somewhat machine-age looking stations and turning loops scattered along its considerable length.>

Yes I was also enthralled by the Wuppertal 'metro' - just as you so aptly described it - I made a special trip to gritty Wuppertal - an industrial town - to see and ride this weird device - that goes down the middle of a river in the town center - suspended over the river.

Thanks RM for going into that - brought back nice memories of my day in Wuppertal (as a town very forgettable except for the monorail as I recall).

RM - really enjoying this TR which is bringing back fond memories of our trip to Berlin a few years ago - we got as far as the top of the Fernsehturm but hadn't booked so were shown the door, and like you we missed out entirely on the Reichstag - a good reason to go back.

we only had 3 days so stuck mainly to the east of the city so I'm interested to read what you thought of the west.

Keep it coming!

Thank you both - writing the next instalment as we speak...

Thursday cont:-

I used the U-Bahn for the first time on my trip, to complete the journey to KaDeWe. Timely, clean and efficient in true Teutonic fashion, but a little bit lacking in character imho. Utilitarian stations with little individual identity and corrugated yellow metal trains with much harder seats than the tube. But it got me there, so no real complaints. The department store was just a stone’s throw from Wittenburgplatz station and in no time at all I was in the ground floor beauty hall (having bypassed the Omega and Hermes concessions as being beyond my budget).

The beauty hall had a huge range of global brands and I enjoyed daubing, sniffing and rubbing all manner of lotions and potions. I tested the new L’Occitane facial oil, the Sisely Black Rose balm and let the Byredo lady spritz me in gallons of Bal D’Afrique, before buying a hair perfume in the same scent – much cheaper than in the UK (37 euros vs £37).

I then ventured upstairs to the bag department. This was full of grogeous things – a clutch that looked like a copy of Alice in Wonderland, a pink leather elephant coin purse, the fab new Coccinelle collection, and a lovely silver satchel by Proenza Schouler. As if by magic(!) a shop assistant appeared from nowhere and insisted I ‘model’ the Proenza Shouler bag in front of a mirror. I felt a bit of an idiot doing this, and even more so when the price tag was whipped out showing me that I would need to part with 1100 euros if I wanted to take my Proenza home with me. When I said this was a bit beyond my budget it was suggested that I take out a store card for a 10% discount. Tempting, but when you have dripping taps at home and your laptop takes 15 minutes to warm up, it has to be a no.

I said I would think about it over lunch and escaped to the food halls – replete with bright red lobsters on ice, apple tarts the size of Luxembourg, and champagne bars at every turn. A lot of the food counters had stools that you could pull up if you wanted to stop and nibble. I seated myself at a mini kitchen where two white hatted chefs were cooking pasta dishes to order. I had a delicious salmon lasagne, stuffed with huge chunks of pink fleshy fish and fresh green spinach, a basket of bread, and a glass of Pinot Grigiot for about 17 euros. I watched other customers ordering panzanella and spag bol, the chef grating fresh parmesan from a block the size of a housebrick. After lunch I spotted what at first appeared to be a patisserie counter, but actually turned out to be a collection of savoury dishes cleverly styled to look like sweet treats – for example small but very thick slices of beef sandwiching a savoury mousse that looked for all the world like a macaron. I ordered a choux pastry swan filled with cream cheese here as a sort of second course come pudding.

After lunch (I really had finished this time!) I explored the confectionary section and bought some marzipan for Tommy, (Stilldontknow/Weegie/Uruabam) who had given me lots of tips for the trip, including the KaDeWe food halls as a lunch suggestion, address for the Berlin Wall East Side Gallery so I could just punch it into Google maps, and even a play list of German themed music for me to listen to on my journey over from the UK. Resisting temptation to revisit my 1100 euro satchel, I left with my bank balance mostly intact and headed for my final destination of the day, the Berlinische Gallery.

I’d picked the gallery because it had late night opening during February. Housed in an old art deco warehouse in a residential area a 10 minute walk from the U-bahn, it specialised in modern art by German artists. I started off in the small theatre area watching a film in which actors debated the merits of capitalism vs socialism (much better than it sounds!), then headed into the gallery proper to see works from the late Victorian era to the present day. A good mixture of impressionist, cubist, photography, pop art and sculpture. The internal space was very impressive with the works sparsely arranged which gave them extra impact. Being late at night and fairly empty it was also quite eerie - only a handful of severe looking security guards for company.

After completing my tour of the gallery and having had a quick browse round the gift shop, I headed for the bar next door (Bar Dix), which I at first thought had closed, it was so dark inside, gloomy purple lighting creating an otherworldy atmosphere. I got mildly told off for helping myself to a bottle of fruit juice that was in a refrigerated unit in the middle of the table seating, so ordered a wine as well to atone for my error. Reviewing my photos later I noticed that there were no men present so think I might have unwittingly stumbled into some sort of gay/singles late night opening. No-one attempted to chat me up though. Or it may have been social ostracism due to the self-service faux pas...

Back to the hotel to tend my blisters and lament the lack of a kettle in my room…

I said I would think about it over lunch and escaped to the food halls – replete with bright red lobsters on ice, apple tarts the size of Luxembourg, and champagne bars at every turn.>>

I think that I would just have taken up residence there for the rest of the day! congrats for being so forbearing.

There's actually a café on the very top floor, above the foodhall, which I somehow missed, so I feel I have unfinished business, Ann...

"I said I would think about it over lunch and escaped to the food halls"

A few years ago I stayed at a hotel five minutes from KDW....had breakfastn/ lunch
combo at food halls each day...
Very nice dept. store...I liked staying in the west...

I like the sound of that lasagne and pinot grigio. I never got to KDW foodhall and it's on my list for next time. And I'm glad to hear you got a little something for Tommy... was wondering where he figured in all this!

>was wondering where he figured in all this!<

At home slaving over an itinerary for a mammoth Thailand/Vietnam trip at the end of the year. A man's work is never done.

Friday

Friday dawned sunny and clear, so I decided to venture out for breakfast rather than dine at the hotel (the fact the Steigenberger was charging 24 euros for brekkie was a major factor in this decision btw). Using Google and my trusty smartphone, I looked up a list of recommended places for breakfast and brunch and plumped for Distrik Coffee, frequently cited in the top 10 cafes in Berlin, a few minutes walk from Nordbahnhof S-bahn station. The menu promised buttermilk pancakes and toasties which I thought would make a nice change from the vast buffets I’d been consuming up till now.

The walk from the S-bahn was short, through a quiet residential area with the occasional tram clanging past and the distant sound of schoolchildren playing in a playground somewhere. Opening the door of the café I was assaulted by a wave of chatter, every table occupied by the young and hip, students doing last minute homework and trendy art and design types hunched over their ibooks. I had a fair old wait for table – one lovely guy ahead of me in the queue asked if I’d like to share seating with his party, but his girlfriend looked daggers at me so I politely declined.

Eventually I was seated on a large scrubbed pine communal table next to a stack of inviting books, and overlooking a small courtyard where bicycles were parked. I perused the menu, which had lots of healthy-ish options like toast with avocado, bircher museli and (less virtuously) a ham and cheese toastie with pickles, finally plumping for a helping of grilled banana bread with fresh bananas, lime butter and candied walnuts, all to be washed down with a flat white. The coffee was brewed on some vast vintage machine by hipster beardy types and was excellent. Opposite me a woman with a batwing jumper and 80s wedge haircut drank ginger and lemon tea from a jam jar, matchsticks of ginger floating in the hot water.

Struggling a bit with phone reception for the first time, I used a mixture of slowing loading internet pages and my trusty Time Out guide to finalise my next destination. Chatting to Tommy over tea at the hotel that morning via Messenger I had tentatively decided to visit Treptower Park, home to several dramatic Soviet war memorials - however on examining my guide a bit more closely over breakfast I spotted a short paragraph in the Treptower chapter mentioning an abandoned theme park nearby – Spreepark. This had been a gift to the people of East Germany, opened in the late 1960s, but closed down around the millennium when the park owners went bust.

An image search on Google revealed a host of tantilising photos of rusty rollercoasters, ghost train tracks, circus tents, abandoned carousels, model dinosaurs and even a Viking longship, all overgrown with weeds. Some of the web links suggested that even though none of the rides were still functional, walking tours of the park were still held from time to time. On the spot I abandoned my Treptower plans, and with my heart beating a little faster at the thought of the fabulous photo opportunity that awaited me, got the bill sorted before heading back to Nordbanhof to commence the journey south east to Spreepark!

That's more like it. I can see and taste the brekkie. And the ambience sounds just perfect. Only in Berlin. My kind of place!

And I'm looking forward to the Spreepark...have never heard of it. I wonder when it became a sightseeing spot? Last time I was in Berlin was 2008/9 and I don't remember it then but there are always so many places to visit, you can't get to 'em all. Looks like it is just past Treptower Park... I certainly went there. How annoying to miss it.