5th Jan - Berlin
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2008
1
10
28
Trip End
Jan 26, 2009
Berlin,
Germany
Monday, January 5, 2009
When we finally did get out of bed and open the curtains we saw the courtyard was thick with snow and the skies were clear and blue.
We both helped ourselves to lavish breakfasts then went out into the freezing cold. Snow may be pretty but it was accompanied by icy conditions. We made our way to Alexanderplatz then caught the 200 bus out to the broken church(Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche). The church is quite magnificent, even as a partial ruin, the mosaics and ceiling decorations inside are still in great condition.The new church that has been build on either side is a matter of tast - horrendous to some (eg. Darren) and lovely to others (eg. Penny), although the interior of the new part is very nice with the stained glass windows creating a soft blue light
Checkpoint Charlie
.We then jumped on the U-Bahn and headed to the Reichstag building via the Brandenburg Gate. The sunshine was so nice we took some more photos of the gate in the nice light (while dodging a suspicious woman who wanted to know if we spoke English) then headed to the Reichstag. It is another magnificent structure and so much more impressive as you get closer. We went to the Tiergarten side to take some pictures and join the queue to go up to the dome. About 30 minutes later we were still in the queue and decided instead to go for a walk through the Tiergarten to the Victory column.
The garden was lovely, blanketed in snow on the ground and on the tree branches.
We made it to the column and decided to have a look at the "museum" inside and climb up to the top. Penny reckoned most of the "exhibits" were collected in garage sales, while Darren thought the dump was a more likely collection point. The view from the top weas very good and extremely cold.
After a brief discussion we wandered in the general direction of "Checkpoint Charlie" and the museum and caught a couple of buses to get there in record time.
Due to foot soreness and starvation we stopped for lunch at the first non-Starbucks, non-McDonalds eatery we found. It was a kebab place and Darren had the best kebab he has ever eaten - although it contained feta cheese, cucumber and a herb cream sauce it was very tasty - and drank his first beer of a known brand (Becks). Penny had a huge pizza which was not bad.
Christmas decorations
We eventually found the museum and made our way through the numerous exhibits.
The museum had a fair amount of interesting stuff in, but a lot of crap as well. The price of 12.50 euros is also a rip-off.
Foot soreness was still an issue so we went to the nearest non-Starbucks coffee house, called Balzac, which was eerily similar to Starbucks in many ways. Refreshed, we headed for the Jewish Museum and spent a while looking around the very interesting building. Penny considered it one of the best museums she had ever seen and suggested that if Darren had had enough, he might like to sit in the kiddy area (under the stairs - very cool) and watch cartoons for a while so she could keep looking around, but he wasn't keen so we headed back out - not quickly, as the building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, did a good job of what he intended, which was to disorient people.
By the stage any more long walks were pretty much out of the question so we caught a bus right outside and then the U-Bahn back to the hotel for showers and resting of aching feet.
Dinner was at the Indian restaurant about two doors down and was absolutely delicious. The short walk home was freezing - must be getting closer to the -20°C that has been forecast for later this week.
Comments
It looks cold!
Wow, it must be freezing in Germany right now judging from your photos. It's nice to know you still had a great time. Keep up the great writing!
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager