The experience that is Berlin

Travel is said to broaden the mind and, for me, our four days in Berlin have certainly had that effect. It has been an exciting, surprising and sobering experience and there is so to say which makes it the most challenging post I’ve written so far. Alongside that, I am continuing to experience difficulties with moving my photos across from phone/camera to laptop and the quality of the internet service we can access varies from place to place. The service at our hotel in Berlin was extremely poor, while here in Hamburg, where I am writing this, it is excellent. 

Berlin is a city that has never really attracted me, perhaps because of its grim history and my impression of it as a grey and austere city. Our daughter spent time there when she was interrailing three years ago and my elder son was there last summer, and they both urged us to include it in our itinerary as they both really enjoyed their time there and felt that we would too.

They were right, we did; Berlin is a real experience and unlike any other European city I’ve visited. We arrived there to fantastic weather yet again, blue skies and sunshine, with real heat in the sun, so my expectation that it would be a cold and dreary place was challenged from the start. Our journey from Bamberg on Sunday involved 3 trains and 2 changes, but no delays or long waits. The last phase of the journey was on a high speed train from Stuttgart, and we shared a compartment with a couple from Stuttgart who were travelling to Berlin to visit their son. They saw our inter-rail tickets during the ticket check and in conversation (mostly in English, I’m ashamed to say) expressed the view that Berlin is a very special place and well worth visiting.

We checked into our hotel, the Berlin Inter-City, which is literally a 2 minute walk from the stunning new Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Fans of “Homeland” might remember it as the setting for the climax of the last episode of the last series when Carrie chased her prey down lots of escalators and into the lowest level of this 5 or 6 level glass building.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Inside Berlin Hauptbahnhof

We wasted no time in dumping our luggage and heading off to start our sightseeing, and after a short walk, perhaps 5 minutes, we were in the Tiergarten at the memorial to the Russian troops killed in the second World War and reading all the information and photographs, and this was just the start of it. Everywhere you go history hits you between the eyes and everything is described and explained. There are information boards everywhere around the city centre, with the text in both German and English, and in some instances in French, Russian, Polish and other languages. There is information relating not only to the rise of the Third Reich, World War II, the division of the city between the allied powers and the erection of the Wall (although as you would expect these are the major topics) but also to World War I, Bismarck (all the swotting up on his foreign policy from 1870 for my History O’ level over 40 years ago started to come back to me!) and Napoleon’s conquest of Berlin.

Brandenburg Gate

We did divide our time quite well, in hindsight, because of our 4 full days plus Sunday afternoon and evening, we spent most of the time in the city centre covering all the history, but we also spent one full day, Monday, in Potsdam and a large part of Wednesday in Schonberg, a suburb to the south of the city centre.

Potsdam was an amazing place, a beautiful old town

Potsdam town centre

which included a delightful Dutch quarter

Potsdam Dutch quarter

which had housed workers brought from Holland by Frederick the Great of Prussia to build his palaces, of which there are 4 or 5. These extravagant building occupy a huge area of parkland which is gorgeous, full of beautiful trees and flowers and the sound of birdsong, and has UNESCO World Heritage status.

Palaces at Potsdam

Again, we were fortunate to have fabulous tee-shirt weather and enjoyed some time sitting in the sun, relaxing. We caught the train to Potsdam and decided to make a detour by tram and bus on the way back via the Glienicke Bridge.

Sign at Glienicke Bridge

Glienicke Bridge

Wannsee from the Glienicke Bridge

For anyone who has seen the film “Bridge of Spies”, this was the bridge which was chosen by the Russians for the exchange of the Russian spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) for the US spy Gary Powers. As Potsdam was in the former East Germany, we walked across the bridge from the East to catch a bus in the West to take us back to our railway station.

I wanted to discover a bit more about the stylish side of Berlin, something which I felt was missing from the city centre, for all kinds of reasons. Our guide book recommended Schonberg and we enjoyed having coffee and cake in a cafe in a green and pleasant square, with no history to read about; visiting the gay village; checking out a farmers’ market and passing by the apartment that David Bowie shared with Iggy Pop back in the 70’s. The shops were cooler and the restaurants more diverse and cheaper, so much so, that we went back in the evening for a good curry in an indian restaurant.

Apart from that, we walked, we looked and we read about huge moments in history and tried to make sense of things that just don’t. We walked along the route of the wall through the centre of the city, including a rather cheesy Checkpoint Charlie; we spent a morning in the Museum of German History and an afternoon (not the same day) in the Museum of the Topographie des Terroirs, which analysed how the nazis used terror to build and maintain their power base; we saw the Holocaust memorial and I made a brief visit to the centre underneath which provides context, but brief felt like enough; we walked up and round the wonderful Reichstag dome, designed by Sir Norman Foster, which is poetry in glass and steel; had a laugh when my husband and I, at different times in the same cafe, both managed to use the wrong toilets - if they are going to use pictures to differentiate then at least make it clear which gender they are supposed to portray; we got used to seeing blankets laid out on the backs of the chairs outside cafes so customers can sit outside even when it’s really too cold!

We had lunch in the revolving TV tower restaurant and looked down on the city from above, which provided shape and perspective. My lunch there was kind of east meets west, as I ordered something called a Flammekuchen, which I thought was going to be a quiche, but turned out to be a thin,flaky pizza base, half of it topped with onion, pieces of bacon and grated cheese and the other half with pieces of apple, raisins and cinnamon. I ate it in two separate pieces, having the savoury bit first then saving the sweet half for pudding (but I had pudding as well, of course!) but the bits where they met were interesting and actually combined better than I’d imagined they would.

I didn’t find Berlin beautiful or elegant, but it was certainly special in a very unique way; it’s full of energy and seems to have a burning need to set out and to describe what can’t be explained. I came away ready to move on to our next stop, Hamburg, but haunted by the single question, “How could that happen?”

I was saddened to learn on our last night, by way of a friend’s Facebook posting, that the comedian and writer, Victoria Wood, had sadly died. Her self-deprecating, compassionate and and perceptive humour, particularly on the subject of northern women of around my age (she was only about 18 months older than me) is the perfect antidote to the pomposity and bullying of the nazis.

Berlin: historic and energetic

We stayed at the InterCity, Berlin, which was a predictably comfortable and well appointed chain hotel right next to the station. With breakfast at 17 euros each, we never got to try it as there were plenty of far cheaper alternatives nearby. 

Food tip: unless you like frankfurter sausages covered in ketchup sprinkled with curry powder avoid the curry wurst, the Berlin speciality. My husband had it and didn’t enjoy it - I didn’t even try it as I can’t stand ketchup (with or without curry powder) or frankfurters.

Sightseeing tip: many of the visits we made were free, including access to the Reichstag dome, which we would highly recommend. However, you have to register in advance and be allocated a time to visit. We’d tried twice and not been allocated, however, my husband went onto the website to register at 7.30am and was successful that time, so we think if you get in early, it increases your chances.