A Weekend in Berlin

 A few years back, I made a starring turn in the show Cabaret as 'guy #2'. Thought my performance was less than memorable, it did awaken a desire to visit the city of Berlin.

I think I'd probably need to visit Berlin again (or with the right people) to properly discover the underground, bohemian hangouts like the Kit Kat Klub from Cabaret. But this time, at least, I was pretty happy exploring my first German Christmas Markets.

My favourite thing about the Christmas Markets is the smell: pine and cinnamon. Every second stall sells glühwein (mulled wine), and I even found glühwein flavoured boiled sweets! The whole thing feels a lot more genuine than, say, a row of amusement park stalls, because you can see them cooking everything in front of you, be it bratwurst, fudge, pastries, or fist sized balls of layered doughy biscuit filled with cream and covered in chocolate icing (a particular favourite!).

The glühwein sweets

A nativity scene with the Television Tower behind

After wiling away the morning sampling every treat at the Christmas Markets, we crossed the river to the Berliner Dom. In history class I saw photos of it looking significantly worse for wear after the Allied bombing of Berlin in 1940, so it was quite fascinating to see it in person.

The unofficial mascot of former East Germany is Ossie Crosswalk Man. He was the subject of a massive campaign after authorities proposed axing him a few years back. I wish all crosswalk guys wore fedoras!

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is a sight to behold (yes, that's actually its name). 2,711 enormous concrete slabs. They get taller as the ground slopes downward. It's very quickly dwarfing and disorienting.

By mid-afternoon, I was really regretting leaving my thermals at home. We took refuge from the icy wind inside the Neue Nationalgalerie. We thought their exhibition was from a guy called Geteilte Himmel. Turns out, that's German for Divided Sky, and it was an exploration of German art between 1945 and 1968. Fascinating.

It was long dark by the time we left the gallery, so we hopped on the metro to Alexanderplatz - the largest Christmas Market.

Dinner was bratwurst and glühwein, followed quickly by a creamy hot chocolate by the open fire.

The next morning we got up early and walked the longest remaining length of the Berlin Wall. It's only 1.3km long, but officially the longest Art Gallery in the world.

From the end of the East Side Gallery, we crossed the river to the Jewish Museum.

Stopping along the way only when completely necessary.

The Jewish Museum is a very... unusual experience. I was expecting it to explore the holocaust a little more, but it was more aimed at capturing the longer history of German Jews. Probably more effective for the German public, and definitely less morbid, but not quite what we were hoping to experience.

An installation in one of the empty spaces at the Jewish Museum.

A quick bite to eat at a German bakery followed (why is German bread so delicious!), then a visit to Checkpoint Charlie - the main crossing from West to East during the cold war.

Afterwards, a visit to the Reichstag. Another building I remembered well from History class. As I was trying to imagine what it would have felt like to be one of the thousands of young men in straight lines watching the Führer speak from the steps, my hair did something freaky.

So attractive.

Though tired, we walked from the Reichstag through the Tiergarten to the main art gallery, where, I have to admit, I completely ran out of steam and felt it hard to concentrate as Paul slowly circulated through hundreds of enormous rooms!

The Brandenburg gate as seen from the Tiergarten.

Easily the best part of the weekend was the last part. My friend Phil from performing arts school moved permanently to Berlin just three days earlier, and we met up with him in Alexanderplatz, along with his lovely girlfriend Stefanie. We had several mugs of glühwein along with potato pancakes, country potatoes and currywurst before it was time to go.

With Phil and Stefanie in Alexanderplatz

I can neither confirm nor deny whether we finished our eggnog and glühwein on public transport. Or whether we opted to forsake the €2.50 mug bond in favour of taking some genuine German glühwein mugs home with us!

We'll definitely be back in Berlin. Phil says he can even take us to the Kit Kat Klub!

A Weekend in Germany

Our weekend in Germany was very eventful. It started with the already-blogged Autobahn drive. What I didn't mention in the post was what happened next... we got lost. Well, sort of lost. I bought a GPS a few weeks ago, so technically we knew where we were, but we couldn't get in. Turned out our hostel only opens for check-ins three hours a day. They have a smug sign on their window informing them of this. I won't bore you with the details of what happened next, but if I did it would include details of how every hostel and hotel in Duisburg was full, so we had to drive to Oberhausen, where still almost everything was full. And we were forced to stay in the Mercure which is, uh, a little outside our price range. We're hoping to claim it on travel insurance. Too bad we can't claim for the five hours of driving in circles it took us to finally get there. At least when you go to bed at 3:00am you always seem to get to sleep right away.

Our first day was spent in Oberhausen, which, unfortunately, sucks. They have Wicked, they have the largest mall in Europe, and they have absolutely nothing else. Seriously, nothing.

Good thing we saw the matinee... we were in Dusseldorf by sunset. I'd read earlier that Dusseldorf isn't a particularly cultural city. So discovering their modern art gallery was awesome was a welcome surprise! Still, the city itself wasn't much to write home about, and we felt like we'd seen plenty when we headed on to Cologne 24 hours later.

The main feature of Cologne is its cathedral. We were lucky enough to see it in absolutely stellar weather. Unfortunately, my iPhone clapped out and I lost all my photos... but here are some similar ones from the interweb (thanks random bloggers).

The same afternoon, we had gelato for lunch in the main square (I know it's good for you because the calories get frozen out), then walked down a bustling pedestrian-only shopping street to the art gallery, which was another goodie.

The next day, our last in Germany, we decided to make use of having a car and go for a drive. We drove through the countryside to some cute German villages and ate lunch (followed by tortes, of course). Stopped briefly for a walk in a cemetery. Strange, I know, but it was nice. We paused at the WWII graves, uncertain if we should feel sorry for those underfoot or not. The jury's still out on that one.

Back in Cologne, we checked out the Botanic Gardens, which were amazing!

Then, crossed the Rhine in a gondola. It also goes over the autobahn, which is a little strange. Very cool overall though, I highly recommend it. Although if you bring kids, get them to look the other way at the end when the gondolas go over a nudist swimming pool. No kidding... it was hilarious.

We stocked up on German chocolate for the flight home.

Review: Wicked: Die Hexen Von Oz

One Sentence Summary:  German version of the popular Wizard of Oz prequel.

Trivia:  The original German Elphaba, Willemijn Verkaik, is considered by just about every critic I've read to be the best Elphaba ever. Just in case you need proof... check out this video!

Best thing about it:  Realising that watching something familiar in another language is just like watching a foreign movie with subtitles: you forget you're doing it after a while. I don't know a word of German, so being able to laugh at the right moments anyway was a really surreal feeling!

What they could change:  Those poor Germans have to make their syllable-heavy language fit into English melodies. It's particularly amusing when Glinda pops out with "heissgeliebt" for popular. Unfortunately, changing the German language isn't really within the show's control.

We left thinking:  Wonder if the Germans grasp the Nazi subtext more than the average English audience?

Verdict:   The show translates surprisingly well, and it's just as enjoyable in another language. A solid 9 / 10.

The Autobahn

My driving skills have been put through the wringer in the past three months.

First, in America I had to drive on the wrong side of the road. Then, in the Lake District of Northern England, I had to teach myself how to tame a manual. Now, in Germany, I have to do both at once. On the autobahn.

I was driving 130km/h most of the time, which meant I was relegated to the granny lane with all the trucks and minivans.

But I couldn't drive on the autobahn without experiencing it properly at least once, so when we reached a long straight stretch, I put my foot down, and after about 20 seconds was rocketing along at 180km/h.

Before long I had no choice but to head back into the granny lane, as the car behind me was most unimpressed with my speed. As soon as I left his lane, I was eating his dust. I had no idea you could get that fast in a VW Beetle!