Day 21: Never drink anything bigger than your head

Our plan of attack for our first full day in Berlin was to see some of the big sights. There's certainly a lot to do here! Breakfast, the Jewish memorial, the espionage museum, Checkpoint Charlie and then the Jewish Museum.

We left our hotel and headed in the direction of the Brandenburg gate once again looking for a breakfast location. We found a cafe not too far away that looked to have a good spread. It was a bit fancy and the prices matched, but we didn't realise that until we sat down. Addy ordered porridge and I got the bircher muesli with fruit. It seems the Germans don't like their porridge hot, as Adelaide found when her meal came out. The food was still good though.

We left the cafe ready for our big day and headed through the Brandenburg gate towards the Jewish Memorial. A full block filled with uneven concrete pillars built as a memorial to all the Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. It's haunting and disorientating; as designed I suppose. Even with the school and tour groups there it's eerily quiet in the middle. We wandered through it and then headed south for the espionage museum.

We spied the espionage museum on google maps over breakfast and it looked cool! As we neared Potsdamer Platz on our way, I saw a huge tubing slide in the plaza outside the train station. Addy's been keen to go tobogganing but the lack of snow has foiled those plans. As soon as she saw it, she wanted to have a go! It was pretty cheap, only $1.50 each per slide. We got our tube and walked up to the top. We had to keep our tubes together so as soon as we got pushed off we suddenly went backwards. It was fun! That adrenaline rush over, we checked out the adjoining Christmas markets (by now you'd think we've seen them all...) and stopped for a hot wine.

Potsdamer Platz skyline

The slide!

Lots of the Christmas Markets have these big nativity towers

The espionage museum is relatively new, and has exhibits on spying through the ages, from ancient Egypt all the way up the modern day, and includes a fiction section for the likes of James Bond and Jason Bourne. It was fairly text heavy at the start but then moved into some interactive exhibits. Towards the end there's also a secret-spy-laser-maze which Addy and I couldn't finish - it's really as hard as it looks!

I was hoping it would combust after we'd used it

Nathan will like this - a briefcase scanner for taking document pictures

*Mission Impossible theme plays*

Addy and I sunk about two hours into the spy museum. Next up was Checkpoint Charlie, the famous checkpoint between east and west Germany for many years. What is left is just the small checkpoint booth, which had some American Soldiers on guard (who spoke a lot of German) out the front, with accompanying Christmas tree. As it's a tourist hot-spot there were many coaches parked near by and it was all a bit chaotic. I found it ironic that right across the road is now a McDonalds. The associated parts of the Berlin wall which were located nearby are now boxed up and you have to wait and pay to get into see them, which in the cold, Addy and I weren't too keen on doing. There were other exposed sections of the wall we got to see just down the road anyway.

Time for lunch. We opted to walk back to the Christmas markets we'd seen earlier for a bratwurst. Addy got tempted by a pulled pork burger instead, which was apparently delicious but a bit messy to eat!

Our last sight for the day was the Jewish Museum. This was a bit further away, so after we had finished our lunch we stopped off at a coffee shop for a blisteringly hot and rather disappointing long black to keep us warm on the walk there. We made it to the museum just as the sun was starting to set. We had bought a 3-day museum pass at the espionage museum, and entry into the Jewish Museum was also included.

The Jewish Museum started off with an art installation downstairs. Part of the exhibit was a dark room with only a small slit three floors up for light. It was cold and dark, but I found it very effective. There was a variety of belongings and stories in this part of the museum. Continuing upstairs and around there was a section dedicated to Jewish culture today. This section then lead onto the memory void, filled with 10,000 iron faces which you can walk on. Its noisy and uncomfortable, but again, very effective.

Upstairs was a new part of the museum about Jerusalem: the history of the city, and it's religious significance to a number of different faiths. It being the quiet season, the other floors of the museum were closed off for renovations and updates. Overall, I thought the Jewish Museum was really well done, would recommend it to anyone who is in Berlin.

After a rather full and heavy day, Addy and I went back to the hotel for a sit and chill before we headed out for dinner. We had seen that there was Hofbrauhaus near Alexander Platz to the east about 15 minutes walk, but knew it might be busy. We figured we'd try get in there, and if not, we'd find somewhere else near by. The walk there was nice at that time in the even, albeit a bit cold, but we got to see a new part of the city. The area around Alexander Platz is packed with dinner, shopping and general nightlife (especially with the Christmas Markets on).

We arrived at Hofbrau and it was already in full swing. We didn't have a reservation, but our waiter tried to get us on the end of one table unsuccessfully. She told us to wait and then took us over to our own table but told we'd be sharing later if anyone else showed up which was fine with us. First order of business - Beer! And make it BIG! I had a Hoffbrau Original in the 1L Stein, because when in Rome. Addy started on a pint but next round later joined the 1L club. Our table was in the centre of the room with a good view of the band. I had the Pork cheek roast with potato dumpling, and Addy gave the pork sausages a shot. A very Bavarian affair!

Bigger than her head!

Not too long after finishing dinner we were joined by two Irish blokes, Brian and Charles, who'd come over for the weekend to see their friend that lived in Berlin. They had just come from an Irish Pub (of all places) and vowed that that would be the last 'black beer' they'd have this weekend. We got carried away in conversation before some more of their friends arrived. They were headed to another pub a few stations away and when they offered us to come with, we figured why not. We made it to the train station with them but when we tried to buy tickets the machine froze. In the pressure of the moment we figured it best not to travel illegally, so we quickly said goodbye.

On our way back to our hotel, the beer had run through our system and we needed a pitstop, stat! In our typical style, we stopped off at the Kartoffel Haus to have dessert at the same time. That place, too, was packed to the rafters and so we got seated at a four-seater table with two Brits - Connor and Kieran - who were also over in Berlin for the weekend because why not (their words). We had some strudel with ice cream for dessert to round out our Bavarian feast.

Connor and Kieran didn't really know what was good to do for nightlife, and so when we explained our experience at the Hofbrauhaus, they were keen to try it. Next thing we know we were trodding back there. It was a little late by now, and it seems once the kitchen closes at Hofbrauhaus, the place takes on more of a club feel. The traditional four piece band was out, and in it's place was a DJ playing all kinds of fire. The dance floor had increased in size considerably, and there were also more people dancing on tables. We weren't too game for that, so we just stuck to drinks and chats.

It started to get late, so we walked home with our new friends, who were put up in a hostel near Checkpoint Charlie. When we reached Friedrichstrasse, we went our separate ways; us north and them south. Turns out Connor and Kieran ended up on a bit of a scenic tour of Berlin despite it being a relatively straight route home - whoops!

It was a very fun night, all in all.

Tchuss!
D+A