Berlin
March 2nd – 4th, 2007

I just returned from a fascinating trip to Berlin. I flew on Friday morning with Germanwings. I bought real cheap tickets online. Only € 60 for a roundtrip ticket from Stuttgart to Berlin! I had been looking forward to this trip from the time I made the reservation. I had only 2 days in Berlin and a lot of places I was interested in visiting. Unfortunately we had really terrible weather and that cut my days of sightseeing down to one.

On Friday, it rained all day and it was very cold. I wanted to see the Berlin wall, the Bradenburg Tor, Reichstag, checkpoint Charlie, some museums.. however I was drenched in the rain, miserable and cold and did not care to do anything at that point except find a nice warm café and drink Latte Macchiato mit Karamel which is what I ended up doing. Drinking Coffee, then a couple of Mojitos.. hmm I love those.. and then went to an Egyptian bar where I got a Sheesha. That warmed me quite well.

Saturday, I had to make up for the lost time. Sebastian, Jeff and I went first to the longest remaining section of the Berlin wall. (Photo 1 and 2) That is close to the Ostbahnhof. There was a small souvenir shop where the owner claimed to be able to stamp your passport with the checkpoint stamp for €1.00. We didn’t have our passports so we could not do it. After walking in that area, we went to Unter den Linden where the Brandenburg gate is. We had heard of a free 3.5 hour walking tour offered everyday at 11am or 1pm which had been getting rave reviews and wanted to try it out. It definitely lived up to its expectations. (Photo 3) Our tour guide Nikolai (an American) was very entertaining. Plus we got to see a lot and learn a lot about this city in a relatively short time. Ideal for us, as we had limited time. We visited the Bradenburg Tor, Reichstag, Hitler’s bunker, Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie (Photo 4), the Berliner Dom, Holocaust memorial, Museum Island and more. For anyone travelling to Berlin, I would highly recommend this tour. It was really good. And yes, it indeed was free (Though tips are gladly accepted). Check out the company at www.newberlintours.com. Apparently they make their money on the paid tours offered. All of them seemed very interesting but unfortunately we did not have the time to take one of those. This tour itself lasted from 1pm to 5pm.

After the tour all of us were famished. We proceeded to find Dada’s falafel place, a place I had read about in guidebooks as having the best falafels in town. It really was super. At least the best one I have eaten so far. Even better than Lashish in Detroit which until Dada´s was my best falafel place. After dinner we went to West Berlin to see the Kaiser Wilhelm cathedral. It is a very impressive looking Cathedral which had been bombed during WWII. It had been heavily damaged and has not been reconstructed. It serves as a reminder of the horrifying repercussions of war. (Photo 5).

In the evening, we went to a bar on Kurfürstenstraße (The Champs Elysees of Berlin). I tasted my first Berliner Weiß mit Schuss. (Photo 6). It is a white beer (sometimes known as the champagne of beers) to which fruit cordial is added (raspberry or woodruff) which gives it a very sweet and fruity flavour and a bright red or green color depending on what flavour you pick. It is actually a summer drink.. but for a non beer drinker like me – this was perfect - for any occasion. I wish I can find one in Tübingen.

In all Saturday was a fantastic day. Even though the weather was not much better, we did get out and explored the city. I am sure I will go back to Berlin. There are still the museums I need to visit ….