Wow is Berlin COOL! If cities have sex, then Berlin is definitely masculine. My husband thinks it's because of all the modern architecture but I never got that vibe in LA and nothing there is older than Andy Rooney!
We took the baby with us, so the cool factor is usually lost right there...but Berlin's got it 'goin on'. Despite being entirely rebuilt with no money by the allies or worse in the political oppressionist style of the communist block, Berlin still has incredibly style and an edge to it's architecture. It's black and metal, sleek and dominating or in the places that LUCKILY the communists didn't want to waste money on...charming art nouveau buildings in Prenslauerberg that are being re-done properly rather than torn down and replaced with cheap concrete block.
We arrive at Schoenefeld Airport in the old East Berlin and as an American, I can't help but say 'Hello Berlin'. It's still somehow exotic and I feel like I'm breaking the rules...which I know is silly but I can't help it. Not to mention, everything near and in this airport is absolutely as choc-a-commy-block as it gets! One really feels like they could still find wire taps in the subway. However, Germany is still Germany and the trains are efficient, clean and on time.
We climb out of the all modern, clean handicap accessable u-bahn at Potsdam Platz and look for our hotel, which is basically at what used to be the ole' check point Charlie. Today, you can actually pay some young guy wearing a military uniform a couple of Euros to have your picture taken with him in front of what's left of the wall. Things of importance to Germans in hotels (following cleanliness) are breakfast, sauna and if you're lucky pool. Occasionally, there's also some sort of ruhe rauhm (the quiet room) and thalasso of sorts...we were lucky enough to stay in a hotel with all of the above. Unfortunately, there is not much else around Potsdam Platz, so when I find myself ridden with the decision of the 35 euro buffet breakfast or eating at Dunkin Donuts (a place I DO NOT frequent in the USA). Dunkin's it is and I happily find myself getting a fasching donut as well as a mond(sweet poppy seed)donut, not something you'd generally find in the Dunkin donuts next to Tuppins fishin'n'huntin.
Although we've come to see friends and dabble in business (as much as anyone can do business in germany on the weekend), we were hoping there might be atleast one little German christmas market. The big ones are in Ulm, Stuttgart, Nurnberg...but we are sweetly surprised to discover the entire city is taken over by little villages and fake tiroler huts selling gluhwein, sausages with real meat (sorry english folks but those things you call sausage are made of sand and pig's nails), home made wooden ornaments...some carved as well as painstakingly painted. Like any fair, many of these have the mandatory number of kitsch and 'arts and craps'- you know, candles that dead heads always have in college, or fake hollowed out candles, or those dreadful fake rose quartz lights...but in amongst the junky glass ornaments and chilean sweaters, there's always the leathersmiths and the brush man who sells, literally just every brush under the sun, which he and his family have actually made and will last you your lifetime.
Saturday morning, we wander the Ku'dam (Kufurstendam is the original name meaning Prince/Elector's hunting embankment, but Kudam pronounced in this way is much more visually entertaining, as it is the main haute shopping area and Ku Dam would mean Dam of the Cows). Ku'Dam is littered with the little huts and after a round of shopping Germany's answer to Selfridge's called the Kaufhaus Des Wests (literally, Shop of the West-as a little 'in your face' to the folks at the border), I am exhausted and chilled to the bone and there is nothing better than a gluhwein!
Later in the day, we go to see the Gendarmenmarkt, which lies between the French Church and the National Theatre (Schaulspielhaus). If you are a french visitor, you'll never be home sick in Berlin. Aside from surprisingly good food, there is a Gallerie Lafayette housing various excellently priced restaurants as well as a service at the French Church. It seems there were a large amount of Hugonots, who settled in Berlin in the 18th century and a few of their descendants are still in attendance of this church.
If you're not french, don't worry there's still abstract theatre for all at the Schauspielhaus, on the other side of the Gendarmenmarkt and the Gendarmenmarkt also has a 'klein aber fein' (small but sweet) christmas market, which is charming at night. Just make sure you don't go on saturday night because despite the euro entrance fee, there are too many people to make it enjoyable. With a stroller, it was a little like someone decided to have a fiesta in King's Cross tube on a monday morning.
However, if you want an easier christmas market in Berlin, you can STILL go to the Unter den Lindenstrasse market (under the limetree street - isn't that a lovely name, always makes me think of the German Lied 'Der Linden baum'). But wait, there's more...there are still christmas markets in the Brauerei in Prenslauerberg, in old Spandau (yes, like the ballet) and there was a fantastic Austrian themed one in Potsdam Platz. Obviously, I did not make all of these, otherwise, they'd have to airlift me onto our plane--there's only so much fondue, raclette, feuerwurst, rum-punsch, chocolate crepe, grandmarnier crepe, knackwurste, lebkuchen I can eat...but I did my damnedest:).
As you can imagine, most of Saturday night was spent eating or recovering there from...Sundays in Germany usually have nothing much to talk about. As the Germans say 'toten hosen' (dead pants, a phrase meaning there's nothing going on...but you can geuss where from where this phrase may have 'arisen'). However, we were lucky it was Sunday and the Germans are digging this whole capitalist thing, so we were able to enter and shop at not only the regular stores but even Lidl, (germany's answer to the 99 cent store but oh, so much better - imagine a walmart that sold salmon, cod roe, fresh panetone...). As you can guess by the way this article is turning out...I did gain 2 kilos over christmas! It was Germany's fault, I suppose it was my own. None of my family's christmas recipes are made for less than an army...but I did manage to buy most of the items in Deutschland!
Next time we go in summer, when there's no holiday food available and next time, I'm definitely taking an architectural tour (as long as I don't discover that statue my grandfather, the count posed for naked during his grand tour -well, nobody said my family wasn't eccentric).
