As you may have seen on my last post I spent a few days over the Christmas period in Berlin exploring the Reichstag building, the Christmas markets and eating lots of lebkuchen, gluhwein and cake! Today you can join me exploring the rest of the city's landmarks and maybe get a few ideas if planning a trip of your own!
As you can see I woke up excited to start the next day of sightseeing. Berlin is such a modern city but, much like London, has huge historic landmarks and retains some of its traditional Deutsche-ness...for example these pretty, fairy tale-like signposts.
The city is packed with quirks and I couldn't believe how modern it was. This was my first time in Germany and truly dispelled my preconceived images of a land of lederhosen!
We made our way towards the iconic Brandenburg Gate and took a more 'scenic route' passing the city's Holocaust Memorial. The memorial is a huge expanse of concrete blocks that are reminiscent of gravestones.
This streches over a large chunk of the city and visitors are encouraged to respectfully walk between the blocks of varying sizes and reflect on the holocaust and those who lost their lives.
The sheer size of the blocks can create an almost claustrophobic feeling as the deeper you walk the less obvious it is to leave the memorial. It is said that architect Peter Eisenman, who designed the structure, intended visitors who passed through it to feel just a fraction of the enclosed and panicky state the holocaust victims felt.
We continued walking over pretty, historic bridges and past bears (more on that later!) before reaching the picture perfect Pariser Platz and Brandenburg gate,
It was a scene from a Christmas card as the entire Plaza was decked out in Christmas decorations and a traditional horse drawn carriage of carolers circled the square. There was even a Menora- an obvious sign of the unity and acceptance of the Jewish people in modern Germany despite the gruesome history.
Of course we couldn't visit Berlin without taking a trip to the East Side Gallery. The 'gallery' is in the art district of the city but, most importantly to us, is the site of the remaining part of the Berlin Wall. The 1.3km stretch of the wall has 105 paintings from artists across the world on it as a memorial of freedom. Astonishingly this was only painted in 1990 which highlights how truly contemporary this unrest was as it was within most of our family's lifetime.
Even now there is a distinct difference in the architecture of the East and West parts of the city, with the buildings of the East being extremely regimented and communist looking as this was the area under Soviet control at the time.
We walked down the wall taking in the different murals before finding ourselves walking towards another Christmas market- this time at the beautiful Charlottenburg Palace. This was my favourite as, just like Potsdamer Platz, there were rows of wooden huts with treats on offer but this time with the stunning backdrop of the palace...and the sun made an appearance!
We wandered the palace grounds and market for a few hours and as the day began to draw to a close I had planned something special for our evening...
As a music lover, before embarking on our trip, I had spotted that one of my favourite bands were playing in Berlin on one of the evenings we were there. Of course I couldn't resist getting tickets!
Berlin has a huge music scene with festivals in the city centre and music venues and arenas dotted around the city. I had expected Biffy Clyro to be playing in a huge arena and so bought standing tickets to try and get a good view...
It turns out they aren't as big in Berlin and the venue was the size of a UK O2 academy- a tiny venue for a band usually playing arena tours and festivals in the UK. We enjoyed the show (i'm sure I deafened a few Germans in the process) and walked back to our hotel through the super-safe streets, only stopping to grab a hot chocolate.
This only scratches the surface of what Berlin has to offer. Unmentioned are the beer festivals, the TV tower (a huge spindle with a rotating viewing platform), the Jewish quarter and even the amazing shopping districts in the city.
Hopefully this inspires you to plan a city break...I know i'm already thinking about my next one!
G x
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