Belated Berlin Blogging - day 3.

We woke up to snow and the three of us in the flat had to struggle through it first as we went to pick up Lorna at her hotel. We were meeting there with the plan of having coffee at cafe Einstein - Einstein's is a Berlin institution. There are numerous Einstein's across town but this one on Kurferstenstrasse is the original. It has been a hang out for intellectuals and the Berlin glitterati for quite some time. The Viennese style coffee house is situated within a 1920s villa and is really beautiful inside. Lorna has a fitness fruhstuck which looked great but Lynne, Claire and I had the recommended Wiener fruhstuck. It was, two eggs in a glass, yummy rolls with jam and cheese. Since we were on holiday and it was freezing outside I had rum in my coffee. yum.

We did a little shopping in Kaufhaus des Westens, Berlin's premier department store. Visited the http://www.gedaechtniskirche-berlin.de/KWG/index.php which I can't spell. It was pretty amazing and had a huge big advent calendar outside too. There was a pleasant Christmas market in the surrounding area too we warmed up with gluhwein and eierpunsch.



That evening we met up with some friends of Claire's that were also in Berlin for he new year. We went to Kreuzberg is search of veggie food - 5 out of 6 of us being veggie.

We went to an Arabian themed place with little curtained booths and beaded curtains. We had our own little booth and ate tasty yummy food. Falafel. hung out and had a few drinks.

Belated Berlin Blogging

Photos whoo!

I forgot to take my camera when I went to Berlin but Lynne and Claire took loads of photos and finally gave me cds with them on last weekend so I can start showing what we did.

Our first day all of us together was the only day without snow. It was also the day I had pre planned for us to be really touristy.

We met up at Alexanderplatz to have breakfast in the rotating cafe at the top of the TV tower. The TV tower was built in East Berlin so that it could be seen from the West as a symbol of the dominance/greatness of the East.

And apparently has great views over Berlin, My plan had been that it would be a great starting point for our holiday. Unfortunately, on the day we arrived we couldn't even see the top of the TV tower for all the fog - there was absolutely no view - we wouldn't have gone up at all if we weren't intending to eat there but the novelty, decent breakfast and slight feeling of seasickness in the rotating restaurant were still worth the trip up the tower. Breakfast was fairly expensive but generous enough I would recommend it if you are traveling to Berlin but wish you a better view.

Next stop of the day was to wander along Unter den Linden on our way to the free tour meeting point at Brandenburg gate.

Free walking tours run everyday and last 3 and a half hours - with a break. It was a bit of an endurance test on the freezing cold day that we did it but we say lots of things we wouldn't have known to look for or been able to find otherwise. Our tour guide was excellent - very knowledgeable and interesting. They work for tips and probably do quite well out of it. We tipped 5 euro each but it was probably worth more. The guides do try to promote the tours that do cost money so I guess that makes them some money too. I had two favourite stories from the trip. 1. http://www.berlin101.com/?p=41 Neue Wache - The sculpture inside was made my a mother after she had effectively signed her sons death warrant. The son wanted to join the army but was too young to join without parental permission. The parents signed to give permission and he died shortly after enlisting. 2. The book burning memorial
http://www.newberlintours.com/nbt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=98&lang=en (this link is from the company that led our tour too) Einstein had had to flee as he was a Jew - the book burning happened right outside the university that he worked at and his former collegues and students took part.

One of the most moving parts of the tour was this memorial to the murdered Jews. It covers a huge area at the side of a busy street and within view of the German parliament building. Our guide felt this was important. The Government and Berliners pass by and see this everyday - It is a constant reminder of the horrors of their past.

The experience of walking around the memorial is very unsettling. The ground is uneven and the blocks different heights, lengths and widths. Claire and I got a bit panicked when we kept coming across fences in every direction we turned and thought we would be stuck/lost in the middle for a long time. The designer of the memorial hasn't said much about what he intended - our guide thinks that the feeling of walking around it goes a good way to invoke feelings of uncertainty, confusion and helplessness such as the Jews of the time may have experienced. The plan is that the other groups targeted by the Nazis will all receive their own memorials. A few days later, across the road from this in Tiergarten we found a similar looking block but with a peep hole, inside it showed a film of two men kissing. We didn't find out if this was a memorial to the murdered homosexuals.

I need to get dressed and go to work now - I had time to spare when I started this post but have more than used it up. I sign off from this day with another image from our tour. One of the last bits of Berlin wall.

Berlin for new year 1

I'm ill and off work just now, so it gives me some time to update.


I had a great girly holiday in Berlin from 28th Dec to 4th Jan. It really helped prevent to between Christmas and new year slump and we had a memorable new year. (in a good way unlike the years that have resulted in court case, fights, embarrassments etc)

I had rented the small flat in Charlottenburg. Small but perfectly formed and warm and comfortable.

This is the building we lived in, you had to go in the front door then through a little courtyard in the middle, in another door and up the stairs to our little flat.


Once inside we had one bedroom that Claire and Lynne shared and a small en suite bathroom. These photos are of the other room, the kitchen/dining/living room. I slept in here on the sofa bed. Lorna was staying in a new and very nice hotel. Near the famous KA De We department store and the original and fabulous Cafe Einstein. There is also a coffee chain which we assumed are owned by the same folks but which are not of the same class.

The public transport system in Berlin is really good but as the city is so big it took us a few days to work it all out. We had been meeting Lorna in the mornings and taking the most obvious routes via er U bahn stop before realising that the less obvious route was significantly quicker. Thefirst day Lynne and Claire were on a late flight and both Lorna and I got a bit lost and confused trying to go from our accommodations to meet at the Hotel Adlon (where Michael Jackson dangled baby blanket from the window) we had very expensive, but very good cocktails. I discovered that I did not invent the Tom Jones ( a Tom Collins with lime instead of lemon) and that in fact it is called a gimlet.

We went our own ways after dinner and I went home and waited for the Macmillans.

Day 3.

We went to the Carolus Baths http://www.carolus-thermen.de/and spent about three hours in the bubbles, it was fantastic. Aachen has natural springs and all of the water in the pool and jacuzzi comes from them. The water comes out of the ground too hot to bathe in so it must pass through this series of waterfalls before splashing down into the pools.


More pottering round Christmas markets and late opening shops and brief panic buying. A quiet night with dinner at Vapiano again then home to bed earlyish because we had to come home again. boo!

day 2.

We were up fairly early, stopped in at a cafe for coffee and cheese rolls for breakfast.

Visited the Rathaus (town hall) and learned lots about Charlemagne as well as how to 'fresco' and saw the best handbag ever - the purse of St Steven. http://www.khm.at/en/treasury/the-holy-roman-empire/?aid=7&cHash=63e0fb8ff9

Visited the Dom (Cathedral) which is magnificent outside but truly breathtaking inside, the interior, floor to ceiling, wall to wall and including the domed balcony level was jewel encrusted the style was quite Arabian and it was the most beautiful interior I have ever seen. There was fantastic stained glass, dramatic and modern - lots of post war restoration works. It was amazing.

We also visited an art gallery of which highlights were Socialist realism -photo realism photos of East German people. Going about their business mostly as is the way of social realism. Workers on their lunch breaks, small boys watching trains. They were all black and white and quite grainy. They looked poetic, despite the subject matter being mostly mundane.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/6596910/Roger-Melis-how-should-we-remember-Germanys-Communist-East.html this is about the exhibition we saw. There was a fun glass room which was like a music video where you stand inside and can see rows and rows of yourself. disorientating but fun to play in. and a whole room of stained glass too.

In between all this culture we pottered round the market some more and ate - Flammkuchen (like a very thin pizza) , folienkartofflen (baked potatoes) mit krauterquark (with herb quark - a German soft cheese), dampfknudeln (steamed do nuts sort of) with custard and cherry pancakes (but thick heavy pancakes more like scotch ones than crepes) . all super delish and super German. as well as white and red gluhwein and more eierpunsch.

I felt absolutely crap in the late afternoon so we went to the hotel for a wee rest and a bottle of beer we bought from aldi.


I sort of insisted that I was too tired to venture far and we should try the nice looking Italian restaurant near the hotel, It was a good decision and we stayed till 11 mostly thanks to the litre of wine!

The restaurant is called Vapiano: It seems to be an international franchise but it was nice and comfortable and didn't have a pork based menu. http://www.vapiano-international.com/vapiano/ They give you a little 'credit' card and when you order drinks at the bar or food from the counter, you swipe. the food is freshly made despite being self service and they have the good sense to give you a hand held buzzer that vibrates when your pizza i ready rather than you standing around waiting.

It was such a pleasant atmosphere no body made us feel rushed and we could decide just to go order aside salad or desert or coffee or ea at our leisure.We had great chat and a nice time and I for one though I think Marisa too - was glad that we hadn't trekked to the other side of town.

We had a glass of prosecco in a nice jazzy cafe that features performers though earlier in the evening before heading home to bed.

The Perfect overland weekend city break. day 1.

Economy and Ecology were the buzz word when planning the girls weekend adventure, taking into account convenience of me being based in Glasgow and Marisa in Cardiff.

The actually holiday buzzwords would be booze, (wine, beer, gluhwein, eierpunsch (like eggnog - yum) rum - in coffee and in 'grog' ) blues (live in a bar) , bubbles (as in Jacuzzis) and Bloody fabulous time.

Marisa travelled on a very early morning train from Cardiff to London on Friday while I travelled Thursday night on the Scotrail sleeper.

we left London on the 8:30 am Eurostar arrived Brussels about 2 hours later (but plus 1 for change to central European time) had time for a Leffe Bruin in a bar near Brussels Midi. Caught the Deutsche Bahn ICE train - very swish - to Aachen and arrived there in less that two hours. Our hotel was a ten minute walk from the train station - an Ibis hotel, not glam but less that 80 Euro each for three nights and clean and quiet and our room was of a good standard and decent size. also located just outside the south city gate.

Quick freshen up after checking in and we headed to the Aachner Brauhaus (brewery) for lunch and tiny beers.

The local beer Kolsch is served in a 200ml glass that looks like a little test tube, a large beer is 400ml still less than a pint. In Bavaria (the part of Germany I have most frequented) a small beer would be 500ml and a normal size a litre.

Lunch was typically German but without my typical Bavarian dishes of spatzle or obazda (both yummy and cheese based) I had to order fried potatoes with sauerkraut. Both came with surprise pork. tiny bits of pork that I had to pick off and eat round- Marisa had a sausage Bockwurst (I think) which she seemed a bit underwhelmed about still the interior was old fashioned and traditional so all was not a disaster with lunch.

We pottered for the rest of the day - swung by tourist information to pick up a map and some leaflets of events in the city over the weekend.

Window shopping at all the bakers was a complete joy - Christmas windows and Printen (the local baked treat - like lebkuchen but a bit more chewy) in them all. The medieval old town has a few remaining buildings (post WWII) but they have worked really well alongside the new architecture.

The Christmas market was bigger than the Edinburgh or Glasgow ones and we spent quite a long time wandering around the different stalls, Took a very German Kaffee und Kuchen break in the old Aachen cafe - though on Saturday evening we found an older and cuter one that alas we could never find again ) I had a cherry flan and Marisa an apple one - the slices were gigantic.

More pottering, we looked in some nice shops and remarked that the street art was really good - lots of nice sculptures in well thought out locations.

We stopped to try some Eierpunsch which was delicious. Boozy, yummy custard.

We stopped back at the hotel to shower and change then headed out to get dinner from a Christmas market stall, we had some garlicky mushrooms and cauliflower fritters.

Then went to a bar where we had seen had a blues band /jam session advertised they were OK, much better than something you would usually see in a pub without a cover charge and we stayed for a few hours observing the locals while our favourite waitress of the trip kept bringing us more beer. Table service in pubs is a great thing, we caught her eye, she brought us more. We gave her a small tip and she wished us a pleasant rest of the evening. I think we left around 10pm then we wandered around a bit trying to work out where the main area was for nightlife - I'd read on Tripadvisor about a busy area popular with students.

We found a nice looking pre-club type bar and had another one for the road then stumbled home to bed around 1am which was remarkably late for two people who hadn't slept much at all the nigh before - we had great plans for a bigger night out on Saturday. After a busy day of being tourists and boozy custard.

Man I am shattered.

I arrived at work this morning just before 8:30am yuk!

I 'slept' on the Caledonian sleeper last night. It's a good way to travel but not a good way to sleep before a day of work.

I had a great long weekend break though.

I will write something about all the eggnog after I have slept.