Saturday 20th December 2025

Berlin

Looking to make the most of our short stay in Berlin so  it was up early and a street cafe pastry and coffee breakfast. 

It was a bit of a sombre short walk at 800 in the morning with the impacts of drug, alcohol and mental illness all seeming  to manifest into homelessness. 

In a stretch of 300 metres we passed at least 6 poor souls, ironically outside a great glossy building that was one of the first reconstructed after the war, wandering about aimlessly with life in a backpack or a collection of shopping bags.

It seems that all that glitters is not gold with the complex repurposed in 2024 after the shopping centre went broke, along with Oscar Wilde business.

Worked out best way to see Berlin was the Hop On Hop Off bus and jumping off at the sites we had already marked as must do’s.

Drove down past the Jewish Memorial with its 2711 stones of rememberance  and then around to the old Soviet side of Brandenburg gate, both we would return to later in the day.

First drop off was Reichstad the Parliament building which is a great mix of the new and old. Like many points of interest a ticket is required, even though this one was free. A 20 minute wait secured us a 300pm entry permit.

A quick walk around the outside of the building with its 4 stone corners the only remnants after the war and a huge glass dome atop.

Back on foot we headed for the next pick up point to rejoin the bus. Interesting to see the number of Italian restaurants as you wander the streets.

On the bus we passed the area settled by the Hugonnets who established the first market gardens in the Moabit area. Another feature , if you could call it that, was the Moabit Gaol

 Visitor Centre which once held some of the worst 3rd Reich offenders after the war. Thankfully it’s now a place of reflection.

Just on animals, around the corner was the Zoo , which if blurb is correct,  has the biggest number of species cared for in the world. 

Went past the Presidents residence , the Schloss Bellevue  Palace, which is situated adjacent to the rambling 3 square  kilometre Tiergarten Park – a remarkable forested park in its natural state which was redeveloped after being razed  in WW2 along with 70% of Berlin. 
it was just down the road from the gold topped avictory Column

Its no surprise to see  the Soviet side is all vanilla unit blocks and the west an aggregation of modern and restored buildings.

Interestingly during the war 40% of population fled despite significant investment in shelters.

Back in the modern side we passed the  Hotel Berlin  the first built after the war, and then another Embassy Row.

Staffemburg the guy who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Hitler has a street named after him and a building, ironically the Ministry of Defence.

Next STOP was the intersection that was the crossroads for the divide between Soviets and the rest- it used to be controlled by an amazing lollipop light which is still there.

Then came the first glimpse of the remnants of The Wall built in 1961 to prevent people escaping from East to West. It was actually two walls about 8 inches thick divided by a death zone of 30 metres and it covered 155 kilometres. There is only about 1500 metres left. 

About 200 metres is standing outside the Museum of Terror and covered in information about that Cold War era. The other section is 1300 metres covered in murals including the famous Kiss between Brezhnev and Honecker celebrating the anniversary of German democracy.

The remainder of the wall is represented by a trail of stones along tne original path. If you didn’t want to walk it you could twje a balloon ride and get a birds eye view by balloon or borrow a Russian made Trabant (a fibreglass car produced by the Russia’s during coldest which was good at turning to the left).

Another  interesting point was it was demolished in 89 on 9th November a date now familiar with other historical events.

A visit to Berlin would be incomplete without going to Checkpoint Charlie where the great divide gave protected access across from East to West. 

It’s a pretty innocuous structure flanked

with pictures of a Soviet and US soldier on each side. It was site of the famous 63 tank standoff between US and Soviet’s. They called it a tank confrontation, pictures suggest US bought a tank and unsurprisingly the Soviets had a vehicles similar to a VW.

It was probably the most popular spot we visited.

Back on the bus passing the highest structure in town the TV spire, gold  topped Victory Column and a raft of Xmas Markets. The town is crisscrossed by pipes of different hues which are simply above the ground water pipes.

Headed back to the Reichstad passing a protest outside Brandenburg Gate. Lots of different causes were represented by about 60 participants who were slightly outnumbered by the 100 police.

Off the bus, security checked and we were off to visit the amazing dome above the parliament building.

What a structure –  with a double helix stairway taking people up and down the inside. It sits directly over the house with purple seats of parliamentarians clearly visible. 

It’s a tribute to clever  design concepts to maximise the use of natural elements. A huge monolith of mirrors provides light, a moveable shade reduces the impact of heat, a hole in the top allows the escape of hot air( much needed sitting above a bunch of politicians) and solar panels provide energy. 

it had another monumental moment when artist Christopher wrapped it in plastic.

On top of all of this it provides a great panorama of the city whose architecture is definitely a reflection of its turbulent history.

Back down we visited the Jewish Memorial which was an eerie experience with the strategically placed lighting. Another walk through the Brandenburg Gate and a wander along the Un Der Linden which was heaving with a weekend crowd.

Managed our daily dose of gluhwein before heading off to the Nivea shop to make ourselves beautiful. Of course there was another Xmas decoration expedition- as the advert says ‘ we are going to need a bigger tree’. 

Worked our way along river and over the bridge, with its community of homeless settling in for the night, before heading to dinner.

Managed to get one of the last seats next to a nice German couple who were celebrating a birthday. 

Decided to go for a smaller dinner by having a shared sausage plate. Wrong – doubt whether butcher would have much stock left after the offering put before us.

Beer was another experience,  with prices set by an internal ‘drinks stockmarket’. There was no drinks menu prices were driven by supply and demand. We adopted the simple ‘ most for least’ principle and enjoyed a couple of nice Pilsner.

No thought of dessert so that was it for Berlin before tomorrow’s train ride to Nuremberg.