Ich bin ein Berliner

And now … Berlin. My friend René calls it “the city of my soul” so it had a lot to live up to, which it mostly did!

We stayed at the Abion hotel, right at the Spree river, at Bellevue station so just a little in (former) west Berlin. We had been told that the drive from Amsterdam to Berlin was deadly dull and long; we did not believe it, but it was true! We did take a quick lunch break in Hannover on the way.

We arrived in Berlin, checked in, and then, since one of my Bucket List items was dinner at  Michelin star restaurant (Patrick and I have eaten at both Chez Panisse and Bouchon, but it appears they have lost their stars?) we headed to Cookies Cream for a vegetarian prix fix menu that was amazing. Patrick and Beatrix were amazed that I figured out where it was (follow the dark alley you see in the speeded-up video) and it was an amazing evening of food. Maybe more on this later.

 

Despite being 4-stars (in theory), or hotel was not necessarily all that comfortable (again, separate post later), but we did have a 2-story suite so I only kept Patrick up when I did not sleep well. By the time we got going the next morning it was kind of cold and rainy, but we headed to the old Jewish quarter to explore the hopfs and had a wonderful time exploring). Stumbling stones, a hidden artist hopf, a museum about a man who saved numerous deaf and blind Jews through a brush factory “essential to the war effort,” a lunch at a Peter Pan-inspired chain that turned out to be delicious, a market — what’s not to love?

Top on all our lists was East Side Gallery (Theresa Sweetland has taught me well!), so we spent the afternoon walking that and exploring the art, then made the required tourist stop at the Alexanderplatz. 

We stopped back at the hotel so Beatrix and I could sauna, then went to see Arise (look familiar to you all? The Fredrichstaat Palace is the “Mexican hotel” in Queen’s Gambit) which was … derivative…but fun enough. Then delicious desserts at some random Italian place down the street.

Day 2 started with a visit to the Topography of Terror, an extremely well-done exhibit where I think Beatrix learned more about WWII than she would in any world history class. When you walk past a bullet-riddled building just to get there you really start to think of things in a different way. The way the exhibit discusses the events before, during, and after WWII (including the erection of the Berlin Wall) is sobering.

Then a walk in Prezlauer Berg so Beatrix could shop, then we hit the “must see sites” — Potsdamer Place, the Brandenberg Gate, the Holocaust memorial. 

Another sauna, then we went to “Monster Kabinnett” which defies description except “if Skewed Visions and Open Eye Figure Theatre had a baby” (more on that later too). 

We headed to Kreuzberg for dinner but were out of cash and NO PLACE there took cards (Very strange! Usual or due to bank crashes?) so headed back to our old fave Haecker Market for dinner at a sprawling German place under the U-Bahn tracks that was a lovely last night.

 

Berlin, you are quirky and lovely and overwhelming. I love you but I don’t understand you. You lived up to my expectations and I wish I knew you more. You are very…complicated…