A few more things about Berlin


Of course we did more than visit Christmas markets in Berlin in our four days there. Not that we can remember much after all that Glühwein… kidding, kidding. I remember a lot of stuff. Well, some.

To start off our second Berlin trip of the year, we first went to the ever-fascinating Checkpoint Charlie museum. The museum has expanded a lot since the last time I went through it, but it still contains all the exhibits I remember from years ago, like cars and suitcases and shopping bags modified to sneak people over the border. Outside of the museum, in the middle of Friedrichstrasse, a replica of Checkpoint Charlie has been erected, complete with actors dressed as American soldiers who will stamp your passport for two euros (I know this because my mother-in-law excitedly got a GDR visa stamped in hers; I was mildly amused but don’t have enough room in my passport for novelty stamps, even with its extra pages).

We spent a lot of time walking around the east, from Potsdamer Platz to the Brandenburger Tor and down Unter den Linden to Museum Insel and Alexanderplatz. These are my favorite parts of the city, where the streets are dotted with cute little Ampelmänner (more on them later). I think the Berliner Dom is my favorite building in Berlin – I find myself staring at it whenever it’s within view.

We also took a trip over to the west on bus 100 (which is fun because it is double-decker and passes by a big chunk of the sites in both halves of the city). We visited the Gedächniskirche (the ruins of a church destroyed in WWII that have been left standing as a memorial) and the KaDeWe (a gigantic, famous department store where you can buy a tiny vial of vanilla extract for 25 euros).

Food is not Berlin‘s strong point, at least not when you’re a vegetarian accompanied by someone who insists on eating at German restaurants for every single meal. I ate a lot of vegetable strudel and stuffed mushrooms and salad, and filled up on beer. We ended up eating in the Nikolaiviertel twice, since we weren’t having much luck finding restaurants that were open in other areas (everything was closed for the holidays). The Nikolaiviertel is an artificially adorable little neighborhood which was reconstructed to look like a historic town center. Basically it consists of a church, a couple cheesy handicraft shops, and a whole lot of German restaurants.

Berlin is so different now from when I lived there (in 1997). It’s amazing how much construction has gone on, how many new buildings there are. On this trip I saw the new Hauptbahnhof for the first time – I loved the architecture, but was less impressed with their Swarovski Christmas tree (Zurich’s was better). Still, Berlin is one of my favorite cities, and I’d be happy to live there again someday.

5 thoughts on “A few more things about Berlin”

  3. I remember going through Checkpoint Charlie in 1966. It was a little unnerving when the East German guard walked though our tour bus. One person said “Nobody say something stupid”. East Berlin was very stark compared to West Berlin. Would be interesting to see it now.

  4. I’m jealous, Leon! I would have loved to visit the GDR. After living in former East Germany for three years, I feel very close to the people and the culture, and I regret that I never actually got to experience the GDR first-hand.

  5. It’s funny how when you visit a place, a lot of the photos you take are the same ones other people take.

    I tried to order sushi in Berlin with my zero German. Fun!

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