20,000+

That’s how many steps we are currently doing in the average day, no wonder my feet are so sore! But it’s been fun so far…

Thursday
We checked out the Picasso exhibition at the Gemaldegalerie, followed by a morning of art and culture in the painting gallery itself, featuring paintings from artists such as Rembrandt and Michelangelo. One of the stunning paintings is Michelangelo’s Love Conquers All (Amor Victorious), 1602. After quick lunch in the gallery café, it was off to Potsdamer platz.

It was time for something from the surreal, so we checked out the Berlin Salvador Dali exhibit. This was an odd exhibit to be honest and I walked away feeling a bit… meh. It should be pointed out that Dali is one of my favourite artists and I was really looking forward to seeing it after missing the exhibit in London. However, it was like the whole thing was built around a large collection of “B side” art pieces with only a few of his more major work added in to round it out. It featured very heavily his water colour and ink & pencil works, with a few sculptures thrown in and a lot of photographs that had no real context and were really just images of him at places and parties. There was not a single one of his more famous painting or any of his photographic works, but it did succeed in displaying just how any mediums Dali worked in. So all in all I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed.

It was time for some lifting of spirits, so it was off to the Kurfurstendamm Weihnachtsmarkt to visit the Kaiser Wilhelm. This is a church that was badly damaged during a bombing raid in 1943. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained as a memorial with the new church being built next door from over 21,000 stained glass inlays. Raz tried his first Glühwein, which he enjoyed greatly! :) and then it was back to the Nollendorf Platz.

Friday
We got up early this morning to visit the Reichstag building, which is where parliament convenes. Upon arriving we discovered that you need to first register for entry which meant we couldn’t go in until the next day. Oh well, best laid plans and all… So instead we took a walk through the Tiergarten and stumbled across the Gypsies memorial, a Monument to the Porajmos: Sinti and Roma Holocaust victims. We then travelled down to the Brandenburg Gate where David and I were nearly scammed by a young girl demanding donations after signing a partition for support for deaf teens.



We continued down Unter den Linden to Museum Island where we visited the Neues Museum, home of the bust of Nefertiti. This museum has a huge collection including the Egyptian, Greek, and Bronze Age artefacts and statues which were very impressive. After this we walked on to Alexander Platz to visit the Weihnachtsmarkt for a quick refresh of fresh baked melted cheese roll and Glühwein.

Saturday
It was time to visit an old friend, KaDeWe. This is a department store in Berlin and it is the second-largest department store in Europe, with the top two floors being entirely devoted to food, the 6th floor is called delicatessen and is famous for its wide variety of food and beverages.

It has around 110 cooks and 40 bakers and confectioners supplying more than 30 gourmet counters. The top floor houses a winter garden with a 1000-seat restaurant surrounded by an all windows offering a view over the Wittenbergplatz. I’m not one for hanging out in stores, but I could spend the entire day here without batting an eye.



This place is like David Jones on steroids!

After grabbing some lunch on the top floor it was time to meet up with Raz and visit the Reichstag. The reason for going to the Reichstag is the to walk up the new glass dome that was installed in 1999 giving a complete 360 degree view of the city. It’s a pretty stunning building in its own right and has been treated with care and respect in its redesign and refurbishment.

We left the Reichstag and walked over to the Holocaust Memorial, it consists of a 19,000 m2 site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field and the slabs vary in height. The slabs are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. It’s a sobering site to visit, but also one that has not yet connected to the youth who were running and hiding and taking selfies throughout the memorial.

After exiting such a site, it was both entertaining and enriching to see a young woman riding a bicycle with a couple of massive speakers on a trailer pumping out old skool trance (Juno Reactor if I’m not mistaken) for her own private dance party!



It was time for more Glühwein, so we headed to Potsdamer Platz and the Weihnachtsmarkt. After grabbing something to eat and a glass or two of Glühwein we wondered over to the Sony Centre were we discovered an impromptu Christmas light & dance performance, a nice little surprise.

It had been a very long day, so it was back to the apartment for a disco nap before heading out to Woof Bar for a few beers with the locals.


Sunday
After a well-deserved sleep in it was back on the U-bahn and out the see the Charlottenburg Palace, which is the largest palace in Berlin and was built in the 17th century.

After walking through the palace and its gardens we partook of the very large Weihnachtsmarkt located directly outside the palace which was very busy. I really love just how festive the Germans get at Christmas time. So more Glühwein, more yummy food (including deliciously moist ginger bread), and much more walking…

We then headed over to the Kurfurstendamm Weihnachtsmarkt and listed to a very good trombone band playing inside the new church at the Kaiser Wilhelm.

As David’s now sitting on the coach falling asleep, it’s time I took him off to bed for an early night… and back at it again in the morning for our final two days in Berlin.

"Let the mind be enlarged to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind." - Francis Bacon