Berlin with Jess and Pete

A couple of weekends ago, Jess and Pete (two friends from Oz) asked us to join them on their trip to Berlin – and we jumped at the chance. It was a great city for a weekend trip, just manageable enough in size and well served by public transport.

Jess and Pete had been in town for a day already and so had done the four-hour epic city tour. They were kind enough to take us on the abridged version, pointing out the quirky facts as we hit the highlights – Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, Holocaust Memorial and the like.

Perhaps the most famous monument in Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag - the queue was all a bit much for us, though...

The Holocaust Memorial

A memorial in the square where 20,000 books were burnt by the Nazis - these empty book-cases can hold 20,000 books

Stephen entering the American sector

They’d managed to remember a lot of the really interesting facts along the way, such as the Hotel Adlon (which was where Michael Jackson famously dangled his baby), and the fact that the aviation ministry was one of the few remaining buildings after WWII because the pilots were superstitious about bombing it (it is starkly different in style to any other building in the city).

We visited the Pergamon Antiquities museum in the afternoon (which had an exhibition on ancient Babylon) – they had mixed ancient artefacts with some modern interpretations, which was an interesting approach, but apart from a few fantastic pieces it was a little disappointing (go to the British Museum instead). The museum district, though, is worth visiting for the architecture, even if you don’t go inside.

One of the art museums - the sign says 'All Art Was Contemporary'

Jess outside the cathedral (I only had to turn 90 degrees from the photo of the art museum to take this one - there are amazing clusters where everything you look at is interesting)

Far more relevant to Berlin was the East Berlin museum – it is incredible how quickly the city has become one city to the extent that it is difficult to tell the difference, so it was fascinating to see what life was actually like in the East Germany of the pre-unification era. They had a section on clothing, and after seeing the east’s ‘Jeans’ it became pretty clear why Levis were so popular. Hearing about a 16 year waiting list for a car, all the Soviet-era jokes made a bit more sense, too.

We had planned to stay at the Kunst Arthouse hotel, which has every room decorated by a local artist (ours was decorated as if the laundry had come alive, with socks walking up the walls) but had to move because we didn’t like the view.

The view out our bedroom window - yes that is a train and yes German public transport is just as regular as you've heard

It was a real shame, though, because it was a very funky room and a very funky hotel

Berlin is famous for its club scene, so after a long dinner we headed out to find a club. Jess managed to explain to the driver where we were going (mimed dancing made it clear to him) and he took us to a club district. We ended up at a place called ‘Club Soda’, which was like a step back in time – a fun night out nonetheless. Somehow Pete and I had to pay €9 to get in – Jess and Sarah got 3 drink vouchers each (so we broke even)

Sunday after a sleep-in we headed out to the ‘East-Side Gallery’, a 1km long stretch of the Berlin Wall which has been painted with various peace and unification-oriented works of art along the East German side. Some really interesting stuff, but here as everywhere the wall remains people have tried to take their own souvenir and damaged it.

At the East Side gallery

We spent the afternoon wandering through the park, stopping to climb the Victory Column for a birds-eye view of the city, before finishing up back at the Brandenburg Gate for a Currywurst (sausage with spicy tomato sauce, sprinkled liberally with curry powder – really surprisingly tasty) and an apple strudel – our last taste of German cuisine for a while.