Visiting Berlin - October 12-14 2012

We had a very early start this morning for our journey to Berlin and although I went to bed at a reasonable hour last night, I was still wide awake at 11pm! Rather than lie in bed worrying about the minutes ticking past, I got up and went downstairs to watch the end of Grand Designs and then I caught a programme called World’s Weirdest Restaurants which featured a diner in Japan that had monkeys serving beer and hot napkins after the customers had eaten. It was hilarious and certainly sent me to bed with a smile on my face!

It only seemed like minutes had passed when I was aware of Keith moving about and getting showered. It was 2.15am… As soon as he’d finished I jumped into the shower myself, then finished packing and stripped our bed ready for mum to come and use her own quilt and pillows. There was no way I was going to re-make our bed so early in the morning!

We left home at 3am and had a fairly good journey down to Luton although at one point the  M1 was reduced to just one lane because of roadworks.  I’d booked the car into the long term parking and just as we were about to jump onto the shuttle bus, my mobile rang. It was Sophie saying that the smoke alarms were going off which must have been the noises we heard last night. Keith told her what to do and we could hear them being silenced but I couldn’t believe what had happened! The last time we travelled to Berlin (two years ago) she’d called me as we were parking the car to say that Mikey was having a coughing fit! 

Luton was very busy indeed and after going straight into Departures, as we’d checked in online, I went in search of coffee but most of the cafes and restaurants were still closed.  The queue in the one open place was horrendous so I resigned myself to having to wait for my fix of caffeine. It looked like all the first flights were leaving at 6am so you would think that the numerous cafes would be ready and waiting for the checked-in travellers at 4am, but no! I did eventually get my coffee but the place was heaving with people queuing for breakfasts (and in some cases, alcohol…ugh!) and it was a relief to get to the relative quiet of the departure gate.

We joined the scrum getting onto the plane and managed to grab two aisle seats near the front. The flight was great, just 90 minutes, and we were soon at Berlin Schonefeld airport and delighted to see blue skies and sunshine. As we had no luggage to collect we were soon speeding out of the terminal and into the train station. I did smile to myself when I remembered our first attempt to catch a train here when we were new to Berlin. We just walked onto a platform and didn’t even think about where to get tickets! We could have ended up in Poland!

We bought two day tickets and didn’t have to wait long for our train which was a good thing as we had a visit to the Reichstag booked for 11am and time was in short supply! Luckily we arrived at our hotel before 10am, checked in and put our bags in the left luggage store and then dashed back down to the underground to catch the U-Bahn to the German government buildings. We had to take our passports with us as proof of ID and we made it with twenty minutes to spare. The last time we had walked past the Reichstag there was just a normal queue to get in but now the whole of the front of the building was cordoned off and all visitors have to go through a security checkpoint to gain access. I think all visits have to be booked in advance and are free.

We’d originally booked just for the roof terrace as the Dome was being cleaned but to our delight, the Dome was opened early and we were able to go in and then follow the gently sloping walkway right to the top. The views were spectacular with the bright sunlight reflecting off all the glass and steel  and making everything shine and glitter.

We spent a while gazing at the views and pointing out all the familiar landmarks before descending to the ground level and deciding what to do next. Our main aim today had been to make our appointment which we’d done and Keith was over the moon that we’d been to the Dome as we’d wanted to go in every time we’d visited Berlin but the queues had always been too long. 

We were starting to feel a little hungry so we made our way to Potsdamer Platz via the Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden. The streets were packed with tourists and there were various mime artists and street musicians performing in the area around the Gate.

Memorials to people who died trying to escape to the West

On the way we passed the British Embassy, which again, was cordoned off, and then past the Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of WWII.

 

Jewish Holocaust Memorial with the US Embassy in the background.

At Potsdamer Platz we visited the Mommseneck Restaurant, or House of 100 Beers! They do a very good daily menu and, as the name suggests, a huge range of beers from all over the world. Keith and I chose a Schneider Weisse beer at 8.2% alcohol, which was delicious, to go with our chicken and chips and pork escalope.

After lunch we waddled out of the restaurant and visited the Topography of Terrors, an exhibition all about the rise of the Nazi regime during the Second World War which is situated at the old headquarters of the Secret State Police.

Topography of Terrors

The exhibition is outside and you can see the old remains of the building behind the information boards. Behind this is one long preserved section of the Berlin Wall. The exhibition is very informative but one photo was very sad, that of a little girl who was taken away from her parents and put in a clinic because she had epilepsy which they treated as if she were a lunatic. She was never reunited with her parents and she was sent to a clinic and murdered by the Nazis. One woman who was standing next to me with her own little girl gasped loudly when she read it as it was, quite rightly, an upsetting story. The look of fear on her little face brought tears to my eyes.

By now we were both a wee bit tired so we decided to take a slow walk back to the hotel, check-in and then have a nap before dinner. We passed Checkpoint Charlie on the way and the beautiful square of Gendarmenmarkt. We saw some unusual things on the way!

This "person" obviously hasn't had his fair share of pork and potato dumplings!

Decorated sections of the Wall.

On every street corner is a vendor selling Russian artefacts

Pop Art on the Wall

Gendarmenmarkt is beautiful with its churches and opera house. We were lucky to be visiting when Berlin was celebrating its 775th Birthday and to mark the occasion, a lot of the city's monuments were being bathed in lights of different colours. We never got to see the square lit up but it must have been a gorgeous sight.

When we first visited Berlin we walked past the old East German Government building which was in the process of being demolished. It has now completely gone and a new Palace is being built in its place. There were loads of building works going on and this area is in a constant state of change. I'm looking forward to going back when it's all finished to see how it looks. There was an open air exhibition here but we decided to leave it until another time over the weekend as by now we were dead on our feet!

Luckily our room was ready so we quickly unpacked and then had a nap before showering and dressing for the evening. However, as we got ready we realised we had no toiletries as we didn't bring any with us so we did the best we could with the soaps and shampoo the hotel provided and then walked over to Alexanderplatz to try and find a chemist. The TV Tower was lit with alternating red, purple and green lights and looked even more alien than usual!

We found a chemist but the prices were horrendous (8 euros for a deodorant stick!) so we left and came upon a store very similar to our Superdrug where we bought travel size bottles of conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant and face cream. Keith bought himself a pack of bic razors so we were now all set to find somewhere for dinner.

I love the Nikolai Quarter and had a hankering to eat at Reinhard's restaurant so we headed back the way we'd come and found a tiny bar with just three other people having a drink. There was nobody serving so we waited and eventually a waiter appeared and it turned out the bar was part of Reinhard's restaurant. Years ago, on our first visit, a waiter had upset Keith by dictating to us where we should sit so Keith had walked off in a strop, vowing never to eat there, despite its good reputation. Now I managed to persaude Keith to book a table for later in the evening and we settled down for a few drinks before dinner.

The bar was called "Otello" and was lovely. It was very small and cosy with candles on the tables, red seats and lots of wood and accordions hanging from the ceiling. Soft music played in the background and it was just perfect for a quiet drink before dinner.

Heaven is...a beer and a good glass of German Riesling

We had a fabuous evening in the restaurant and Keith was forced to agree that not eating there before was a mistake as he said his meal of lamb chops was the best he'd had in Berlin. We both started with soup, French onion for Keith and leek and potato for me, which were almost meals in themselves! For my main course I had a trio of meats in a mushroom sauce served with vegetables and pan fried potoatoes. Delicious! We were both too full for dessert but lingered over the meal with our drinks, enjoying the ambience and atmosphere of the busy restaurant. It was a perfect end to a brilliant first day!