German Christmas Tour: Days 20 & 21 - Berlin

Up in the morning to find that the once lauded DeutscheBahn (never again) had fucked us. Fucked us well and truly!! As we readied to get ourselves to the Goslar hauptbanhof for a leisurely trip to Berlin, we were notified that our ICE would now not be stopping at Braunschweig. What followed was a scramble to try and find a route that wasn't booked out only 3 days after christmas. It led to tense moments, but in the end I found a route through Hannover that, while not optimal, was doable. The downside was that it was much later in the day, and our arrival time in Berlin was blown out to 4:15pm. Our plans for a half day of sightseeing were sunk. DBahn cost us day 20 of our trip. Yay. 

Anyway, in the end we got there. We transferred from the Berlin Hbf via the U8 & U2 to the hip suburb of Prenzlauer Berg and the rather posh Hotel Oderberger. While we settled into our room, the kids struggled with their bags up 4 flights of stairs. But soon we were all squared away and looking for dinner.

We found a 4.8 star burger joint "Grindhouse Burgers" (cool name) within 15 minutes walk and hastened there for sustenance. It was cold! Zero degrees as we left the hotel.

Amazing burgers, fries and Paulaner at Grindhouse Burgers.

The food at Grindhouse was amazing, as was the Paulaner Hefeweizen! A beer that I can't possibly add to the list again, but was no less thirst quenching. Finally replete, and with my alcohol addiction sated for another day, we headed back to the hotel through the slowly chilling evening. Before heading into the hotel, Eb and I decided to check out OYE Records situated right across from the hotel. It was mainly a house music store, but they did have a punk/hardcore section drawn from the acquisition of old collections. Some Reagan Youth albums definitely caught my eye, and were duly noted.

Day 2 - dawned clear and very cold. A temp of -2C was reported as we headed out for breakfast at "Zeit für Brot" (time for bread) right near the Eberswalder Straße UBahn station.

Eberswalder Straße in the light of morning

Zeit für Brot 

After a breakfast of average coffee and amazing baked goods, we headed out to the Brandenberg Gate to absorb some history. Unfortunately, the history was surrounded by temporary fencing and construction workers. Turns out preparations were underway for New Years Eve celebrations. Fortunately, the history eeked out of its temporary containment anyway. 

Turdners at the Brandenburg Gate

After the obligatory photos had been snapped, we turned our attention to the Reichstag, and our 10:30am reservation to climb the dome that has been installed. We walked around the building and basically soaked up the chill until it was close to time. We then underwent, with all german efficiancy, a security screening that any TSA employee would have been proud of. Finally they let us in and we rode the elevator up to the roof.

We had a nice walk around, reading the history of the Reichstag, climbing the dome (a slowly circling ramp on the inside surface) and looking out over the city. It was pretty foggy so we couldn't see too far - the TV tower and the victory column eluded us for the longest time. 

The glass dome at the Reichstag.

At last we'd had our fill and it was time to follow the hoardes of touristen (and I mean hoards OMFG) towards the other sites. First on the agenda was the obligatory (yet ultimately disappointing) Checkpoint Charlie. I think I'll leave it to the hollywood movies to experience it from now on.

Chalie's checkpoint is shared with Uri. 

With the checkpoint checked off the list, we continued our walk towards Alexanderplatz through Gendarmenmarkt. Some nice, presumably important, definitely old, buildings were viewed. It was nice and all, but food was calling.

Gendarmenmarkt

The fog of the morning was now starting to really burn off as the sun desperately poked its head above the buildings (and ready to dive back again at any moment). Nearing Alexanderplatz, we finally glimpsed the tv tower (death star) in all its glory.

The death star pops into view!

In no time we were actually standing in Alexanderplatz - the centre of the old East Berlin. We checked out the soviet era Weltzeituhr (world clock) and just soaked in the iron curtain ambiance.

We're in Alexanderplatz!

Food was calling now, and very loudly. We looked for the first place we could see that sold that Berlin staple - currywurst. Definitely one of my Berlin bucket list items! We headed towards a store in the ground floor of the Alexanderplatz station and ordered up some wurst & pommes, stat. 

Chowing down on currywurst and pommes at Alexanderplatz.

All agreed that the currywurst was really quite lecker! Sehr, sehr lecker!! Much nicer than anyone expected it to be. It was so good that the first 3 wurst were dispatched in short order and another 3 immediately replaced them.

After lunch it was time to jump on the UBahn and head out the Berlin Wall Memorial. We walked the sections of wall still remaining, and climbed to the observation platform to see over the wall and glimpse the observation tower and its killing field. We then spent a little time checking out the photographs and harrowing stories of both successful and failed escape attempts. Interesting, but sobering.

The Berlin wall memorial

After we were done with the memorial (well, I was done anyway) Eb headed back to the hotel for a rest while Katrina and Clau continued in the museum, I headed to Coretex records in Kreuzberg for my only chance at big city crate diving this trip.

As soon as I got out of the UBahn in Kreuzberg, I realised that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. This was no hip neighbourhood like Prenzlauer Berg. Drunks, homeboys and beggers were everywhere. I girded my loins and force-marched to Coretex.

Coretex records in Kreuzberg

Coretex was an ok shop.  A reasonable selection of vinyl, but too many t-shirts and other shit for my liking. I ended up getting myself and Eb a Descendents record each, as well as a tote and a t-shirt (ironically). It was then a simple-enough matter to brave the streets back to the UBahn and back to the relative familiarity of Prenzlauer Berg and dinner. Just before I headed up to the room, however, I ducked into OYE records and grabbed those Reagan Youth albums we spotted yesterday. I also had a nice chat with the guy running the place (since he saw my Coretex records tote).

For dinner we found a nice little German restaurant "Oderquelle" just up from the hotel that was highly rated, and moreover promised Berlin's native warmth and welcoming politeness. Even more importantly, they had Schneiderweiss Hefeweizen on tap!

Mmmm.. Scheiderweisse hefeweizen 

A very nice evening was had by all; a litre of weizen all but guaranteeing it. The food was traditional German, but without a schnitzel or haxe in sight. I was forced to break out of my well honed ordering habits (although I still ended up eating pork!).