Berlin Day 1: Tourist stuff....

I wake up the next day ready to tackle Berlin and get a good look at my flat for the weekend. It is in the Grunewald district and is really peaceful and relaxing. It's pretty open plan, and there's a huge big balcony which looks out onto some huge trees. I'm very impressed:










Once we are up and fed and have a coffee in us, we get the bus to the Berlin Zoo station. It is as much of a centre as you'll find in this sprawling city. Here, my first taste of German life for the weekend is a delicious and freshly cooked Bretzel:



They are scrumptious and just make you want more. From here we get the S-Bahn out to xxxx.



Our first port of call is the Hackeshe Höfe. The Hackeshe Höfe is a series of Hofs or courtyards which each have their own character and style:







We wander around these pretty little arcades. This is the first time I see a shop selling things with Ampelmännchen on them:






The Ampelmännchen were the green and red men used on traffic lights in Eastern Berlin. They have been kept as some kitsche symbol of Eastern germany and are sold in lots of shops all over the place.

We now need a cup of coffee... so we have a seat and a latte in the Caras:





From here, we walk out towards what is called the Museum Island, it is where all the main museums are:



Unfortunately the weather is close to Glaswegian May:




My spirits brighten a little bit when we see the Berliner Dom:



It's a huge impressive church built at the start of the 20th century, but it looks much older.....



From this side of the dome, you can also look further east to the TV Tower:



We decide that since it is pouring.... we will go for a little bit of religious protection and see the church at the same time:















It's really beautiful and very well kept/restored... it reminds me of being in the large grandiose cathedrals in Bulgaria and reminds me that in less than a month I'll be back there... There are various religious icons... you look up to the dome and it is flanked by 12 of the 13 apostles... Rufus is often missed out, but I think it's more to do with design and mathematical regularity rather than any racial issues in the bible...

The rain hasn't abated when we come out onto the Lustgarten...

.... normally it looks like this:



....but today it looks like this:






..... so we run quickly across to the Neues museum. The Neues museum holds the Berlin collection of Egyptian antiquities...



The museum is really busy though, so we just pop in for a pee till the rain goes off. We manage to see the greek god's in the rotunda:





We are going to head to the Pergamon Museum instead:



Before we go to the Pergamon, we stock up on some energy with a quick bratwurst:



It is one of the largest museums in Berlin. It contains reconstructed buildings from Greek, Bablyon and Islamic histories. During World War II it was bombed quite heavily... The Russians took a lot of the pieces back to Russia for their "Safety". They are so safe in fact, that even today the Russian's are looking after them:









From here, we decide that since it is now dry, we can climb the Berliner dome for a different perspective on the city:









The lust garten looks a little better from up here:






The Museum island:





The TV tower:



After all those stairs... all that culture and all the walking... we are well and truly ready for some food:





In a recreation of Wok to Walk in Amsterdam, we pig out on noodles, satay, sushi and green tea:







We've decided that since we've had a long day of walking, that a drink is in order. Paprika makes a few phone calls and we establish that we are going for a drink with some of her friends. We walk off our dinner with a walk to Alexanderplatz:





From here, it's an U-Bahn trip to Schönhauser allee to a bar called Last Cathedral. It was either this bar or one called White Trash... we chose Last Cathedral:



We meet in a small Morrocan bar for a beer and some houmous before everyone is present and correct, and we can continue on to Last Cathedral:






Once in last cathedral, I realise it's basically a Marylin Manson theme bar:



This means... good music(ИIN, Tool), cheap beer punctuated with Jaegermeister and only the mild annoyance of people dressed to the nine's in Marylin Manson replica frowns depressed at how they feel so alone and individual in a world where their favourite albums are multiplatinum....




Taxi home....

Gute Nacht....