While we had heaps that we wanted to do in Berlin in our week here, we didn’t feel we needed to be out the door every morning super early. So this morning it was after 10am before we decided to get out and explore some more. So I grabbed a pretzel from the cafe and off we went.

We were playing today on the fly, with our first destination a store in the Berlin suburbs that specialised in figurines, in particular military and Christmas ornaments. Kate was up for some Christmas shopping!

What we found was a very cool small store with a lovely guy running it who was keen to help. While their main focus was on small metal hand painted military figurines (or which there much have been thousands), Kate was mostly there for the metal Christmas ornaments. They were the ones she knew she wanted and while we had found some at the Christmas markets, had done her research to find where we could check out a bigger selection.

Kate was loving it and hating it all at one. Loving the ornaments which were exactly what she wanted… hating it because she had to decide. I thought it was funny as she was just like me when trying to decide what to order for dinner… paralysed by choice. In the end she didn’t go overboard… buying us a few as well as some gifts. They were very cool and would be a great reminder of our trip to Berlin.

Another reason for being in this neighbourhood was that we were quite close to two other things. First was more Christmas markets (although I now don’t think you can go 500m without visiting some) but mostly it was to visit the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, one of the most photographed places in Berlin. A church is one of the most photographed places? I hear you ask. That is because it is one of the most visible reminders of the bombings that happened back in the early 1940’s.

 

 

What remains is about a quarter of the original church. Rather than demolish completely or rebuild exactly as it was, it was decided to leave part and rebuild a new church around it. So what you get is a shell and a new, very contrasting, new building.

I couldn’t really capture the new building in the photo with the old, as the “new” part (still 50 years old) was behind scaffolding. But they bombed part was a chilling reminder of yesteryear. What remained inside was some preserved mosaic work which was quite stunning. But alas, there was not much to see that was left standing.

 

 

We also went into one of the new parts and it was a huge contrast. This was very dark and brooding inside… all dark blue stained glass. A very dramatic statue looked down on us too.

 

 

With that it was time for some lunch at the nearby Christmas market. No wine for lunch, but of course there was some wurst… currywurst this time. Mmm…

We hadn’t really planned our afternoon. We originally thought we would head back to Museum Island to visit the other museums we hadn’t seen, but instead the glorious Berlin day led us to think we should stay outdoors for a bit. So given we were close-ish, Kate suggested we pay Charlottenburg Palace a visit.

 

 

Kate had a couple of palaces on her list, this and Schloss Sanssoucci in nearby Potsdam. We thought about doing both, but given all the bustling around we were doing, we thought maybe Charlottenburg might be the place to visit first.

 

 

 

This was an interesting place to visit, as much of Berlin is. A 17th century palace for King Friedrich, the palace was heavily hit during WW2. So what we were visiting was, in many respects, a faithful reproduction of the original. As much original material was kept as possible, but at times were were looking at restored, or repainted, or rebuilt palace.

 

 

 

So for this reason while it was still quite a sight to behold, it was not as impressive as say a Versailles that was a more pure time capsule.

But this is what Berlin has to manage… preserving the past after the devastation of the past century. It is what makes it so fascinating for me.

 

 

 

 

So over the next few hours, we wandered through the new palace and the old, as well as out into the gardens. Time was our enemy though as the sunsets in Berlin at about 3:45pm, meaning our wandering in the gardens was a little more brisk than usual.

But you know what that meant? We got to their Christmas market even sooner than expected! Yep, another market!

 

 

By this stage, all the stalls were starting to blur into each other from the other markets. But what we loved is that we could rely on being able to get tasty food and wine for dinner. I was going to make the most of it!

 

 

 

With sausage and potato pancakes and gluhwein under our belts we wandered about, soaking up the Christmasy vibes until it was time to jump back on the S-Bahn and chill out back at the hotel for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow was going to be another day full of shenanigans of which I was very excited about.

 

 

To this point in the trip there had been a lot of museums. A LOT. Given we were in Berlin, there was going to be quite a few more. But we decided to start our day with a different kind of museum.

While painting and sculpture and ancient antiquities are important, it is also important to experience as much of the history of your location as you can. So Kate found a great way for us to do that… by visiting a set of old WW2 bunkers that had been preserved.

 

 

So off we headed to visit Berliner Underwelten… a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to preserving this part of Berlin’s history. I was really keen to hear the locals take on some of the events of WW2 and this was a perfect way to do it.

Carsten was our guide, a very funny and affable local (with odd Irish inflections in his voice that he told us was from hanging out in pubs with Irish and Brits too much) that ended up being the perfect guide.

He led us down into what he said was the only real preserved bunker from WW2. The reason it was so well preserved was only due to its proximity to the subway station, meaning it was not in the best interest for it to be destroyed at the end of the war. That was great news for us, as it meant all the painting, signage and the like was all original.

Apologies for the lack of photos, however they were not permitted below the surface. So I will try and describe for you.

The tour was a great history lesson, using the number of rooms we made our way through. Carsten told us all about what it would have been like to be in Berlin at the time, with a very sly sense of humour. He explained that many Berliners shared a similar sense of humour, mostly as a mechanism to deal with everything that had happened in the past. I’m not sure I would be too comfortable cracking some of the jokes he did, and I’m not sure it would be appropriate, but I loved hearing the way locals talk about the past and share their, and mostly importantly their parents and grandparents, experiences. It is not that he was disrespectful. Almost the opposite. Too brutally honest maybe.

It was crazy to imagine the thousands of people that would make their way down almost every night and the conditions they experienced. One great trick Carsten showed us was how all the walls were painted with a glow in the dark paint that still held its glowing properties to this day. He got one tour member to make a pose and he flashed a very bright camera flash… and the resulting shadow on the wall was incredible!

For almost 2 hours he guided us through, telling stories. This was a such a good find by Kate, I can’t recommend it enough.

 

 

It was after lunch by now, so we decided to head to our next destination and find somewhere to eat on the way. We were headed to Museuminsel. Museum Island is home to 5 of the most important museums in Berlin. These are predominantly museums for ancient artefacts more so than paintings (although the Alte Nationalgalerie fills this gap).

 

 

 

There was a lot of work going on on the island, which made it difficult to get a sense of where everything was. In fact the whole island was part of the Soviet side, and as a result had endured tough times. By all accounts their collections had also been dispersed to some degree after all of the events of the past century.

 

 

We decided to start in the Neues Museum (New Museum), home to ancient Egyptian antiquities amongst others. We made our way to the top and started our way down. On our travels we found this crazy gold hat. Yep, it was a hat made of gold alright.

 

 

This museum was most famous however for its bust of Queen Nefertiti. Photos were off limits of this, however I was able to snap one of her husband. I love that she has ended up being the most famous of the two of them. Her bust is quite spectacular and in pretty amazing shape given its age, and can only imagine how it captured her beauty.

We wandered the rest of the museum, and thought about popping into another, but decided against it. We had a number of days to visit them with our museum pass so decided to have a break from museums and chill out for a bit at the hotel.

By 6pm though we were getting hungry. Hungry for Christmas food! So we chose another Christmas market from the list and hopped to the metro station to Alexanderplatz.

 

 

This one was considered one of the bigger ones and when we got there it was certainly bigger than the other two we had been to. Maybe not as much food as the first night, but more stalls, including one huge ornament seller. Score for Kate!

 

 

 

We started with food though, this time bypassing the usual bratwurst for a hue potato cake type thing covered with sour cream, cheese and tomato. Yes, it was as delicious as it sounds! We both got stuck into that and in no time at all it was in our bellies. I washed it down also with some gluhwein, this time with one of their cool glass mugs. I could get used to this.

 

 

So buzzed on food and wine we wandered about. Kate was in her element checking out all the Christmas ornaments, choosing just a couple on this visit. We had scoped out a few markets now, so Kate was formulating her purchases in her head. If it meant more food and wine for me, I was happy.

 

 

Speaking of food, we decided to get some dessert for our walk back to the train. How could we go past Quarkballchen? What on earth are they I hear you ask!

 

 

Well, you could probably guess. Basically warm doughy balls covered in icing sugar. What else would they be at a chrissy market?! Mmm… what a sweet end to another fun day.

 

This day had both arrived so amazingly quickly, and yet also taken forever.

You mean how long it had taken me to come back to Berlin?

Nope… new Star Wars!!!!

Everyone knows I love my Star Wars. I’m a child of Star Wars, and I have probably watched the original trilogy 100’s of times each (without exaggeration). Empire Strikes Back is quite possibly my favourite movie of all time. And like everyone else, I was burned by the prequels. I’m not going to bang on about those, but to hear that Star Wars was coming back, with JJ Abrams at the helm, I was a bit excited to say the least. Some people had been laughing at me the past few months that I was so excited… “don’t you remember how you were burned by Phantom Menace?!” I have been asked constantly. Sure I do, but that was even more reason to be excited by this.

So when we had booked our holiday and I knew we would be away when it opened, I had to work out the plan. Berlin IMAX seemed to be the best bet for getting an original language version, and when tickets went on sale, I jumped. Opening day! Yes!

On our first proper day in Berlin, the big day had arrived. We jumped on the train and headed toward our first landmark… the Brandenburg Gate.

 

 

Eiffel Tower. Big Ben. Statue of Liberty. The Brandenburg Gate fits in to these as the quintessential sight for the city. You know you have been to Berlin when you have seen this landmark. As it turns out I had never seen it. When I was in Berlin, it was covered in scaffolding being cleaned, so this was exciting.

 

 

 

It was actually really quite quiet around the location, so we had lots of time to snap some pics. The lack of people in some ways made it feel less like the important landmark that it is, but it was still a buzz to finally see it. Given its location we knew we would be seeing it a bit more in our time here in Berlin.

From there we headed into Potsdamer Platz (the location of the cinema) a bit early to wander and check out the area. Another Christmas market was conveniently located there, so we had a wander about, however it was obviously way too early, as there were few people around, not much food, and mostly just a bunch of stall holders selling not-that-interesting Christmasy items.

In the area as well we started to get our first tastes of Berlin history. Small bits of the wall were about, as were some details about the area and its history.

 

 

One piece was covered in old chewing gum, capturing the disdain the local people had for the wall and what it represented. I didn’t really have to resist too much the urge for a wacky photo with that.

 

 

There was also a piece with the now iconic heads of Thierry Noir painted on them too. We knew we would see lots more of these in our travels around Berlin, but was a kick to start gazing on the wall and its art works.

 

 

Enough mucking around though. It was time!!!

 

 

Into Berlin IMAX we went. It was comforting to be surrounded by fellow Star Wars fans… the many t-shirts, hoodies and beanies giving it away. We grabbed our glasses and in we went.

The lights went down… the familiar Lucasfilms logo appeared… and then… the music! It was happening!

I’m not going to say anymore about the movie. I really don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone who is going. But the one question you probably all want to know is what did I think? I LOVED it. Kate needed to think more about it, but I was sold.

Buzzed, we wandered out of the cinema into the 4pm darkness. It was still early, so we decided to visit one of the key museums in Berlin, the Gemäldegalerie. This houses classic art works from 13th-18th century European masters. That was appealing, but what was the main reason for our visit was the current temporary exhibition, one on my favourite renaissance artist, Botticelli.

I had really only probably seen a dozen Bottecelli’s in my time. Those in the Louvre, the National Gallery in London, and the Uffizi in Florence being the main ones. This exhibition, while housing many contemporary works that riffed on Botticelli, also collected over 50 works by the master.

On entering… BOOM! We were greeted by an amazing gorgeous Venus standing there in all her glory. It really was jaw dropping. The renaissance masters are not my favourite artists, but for whatever reason I adore Botticelli. And this just reinforced this.

Sadly, we could not take photos in the exhibition, but you can see all about it here. That was OK… it just meant we needed to spend a little more time to soak it all up.  The early part of the exhibition also had many contemporary works that played on the popular notions of Botticelli and it was kind of interesting. To see Warhol amongst others placed aside the master put an interesting spin on things.

 

 

We finished off our visit to the museum with a whizz through the main collection. Having just spent much time in museums in Paris, we didn’t feel the need to stay too long, but we did get to visit some of Kate’s favourites such as Vermeer and Canaletto. But we were fast reaching a point where it was just all washing over us.

Conveniently we needed to return back to Potsdamer Platz to get to the metro station, so I took the opportunity to grab another bratwurst and a crepe for our trip back to the hotel.

What a day. New Star Wars. Botticelli. Bratwurst. Damn, life is awesome.

 

When I left you last Kate and I were speeding our way to Berlin on the fast train which cracked well over 200km/h, getting us to our destination in (relatively) no time at all.

Our hotel was super conveniently just 10 minutes walk from the main train station and was a warm greeting for us. Super friendly staff and a mini-bar full of water and soft drinks that was free and restocked each day for us. Now that I hadn’t had before! I think we had made another great choice of hotel for our stay.

We dumped our bags and were about to settle in to relax a little when we thought otherwise. Why not head to a Christmas market?!

Even more conveniently another smaller metro station was only 1 minute away from our hotel, so on we jumped and headed to the first of what would be a few Christmas markets, Gendarmenmarkt.

 

 

This was considered one of the most popular markets and indeed it was well packed when we arrived. I had only been to some Christmas markets in Austria many years ago, so only had a rough idea of what I was expecting. In some respects I thought it may have been bigger with many more stalls. Rather this was fairly modest, with much more food and drink. But I was happy with that 🙂

 

 

As soon as we arrived it was priorities… bratwurst! Mmmm. We both loaded up with a delicious sausage and started wandering about.

 

 

Even though it wasn’t huge, we still spent quite a bit of time wandering about. Kate was keen to check out the different stalls, especially the decorations. Me, I was all about eating and drinking. I grabbed a gluhwein (warm wine) to accompany me as we wandered. Yum! I saw many more of these in my future.

 

 

A big stage was set up with a revolving cast of acts, and at one point we were transfixed by a very strange clown type act happening. We couldn’t really make any sense of it, but absurdist comedy seems to transcend language.

With a big pretzel in hand we wandered the rest of the markets. Kate got a sense of what would be about to buy at a later date, and we decided to head back to the hotel to rest up for our first day proper in Berlin (and THE big event of the holiday).