Posted on Feb 4, 2013 in Berlin |
On Sunday, Feb 3, V. and I have breakfast with E., M. and L. at Barcomi’s Deli in the Gripshöfe. We say goodbye to the kids who were taking the train back to Osnabrück later that day. School beckons on Monday!
Volker and I hop on the 100 bus to take a cheap city tour of Berlin, passing by Unter den Linden with the most important classicist buildings: the Dome, the Residenzschloss of Emperor Wilhelm reconstruction, the German Opera, the German Historic Museum, the museums of the Museumsinsel, Humboldt University. Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Abgeordnetenhaus, Bellevue Castle which is the residence of the German President, various embassies, the Siegessäule, Schloss Charlottenburg. We get off on Kurfürstendamm to walk around.
We visit the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (beautiful place) but are soon disturbed by Karnival music pouring in from the street. We walk back out and there is a most pathetic Mardi Gras parade, compared to what we are used to from Cologne, a veritable bastion (“Hochburg”) of Karneval. I scream for candy with other bystanders, and the paraders throw some at us. It’s a nice nostalgic thing to get some candy, but the parade was truly pathetic. We then walk along Kurfürstendamm, where everything is closed, it being Sunday, but V. finds a few places he would like to check out for clothes or a man-purse on Monday.
We eventually catch a bus to the Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau.
After that, we criss-cross Berlin on the subway to go to Mehringdamm again, this time to eat the famous Currywurst 36. And it was $2 for a 0.5 L bottle of Warsteiner! I want to cry. I didn’t, but I finished my half litre of Warsteiner on the subway on the way home — partly because I couldn’t drink it fast enough, and partly to experience drinking beer on the subway. Which is completely legal here.
Around 7:30 we head home so I can work, but we have a long conversation with each other and with Jeff, and I don’t get to work until 10 pm.
In the Gripshöfe Berlin, a privately owned series of courtyard buildings which is open to the public. Barcomi’s Deli is one of the courtyards, as well as various pieces of public art.
Berlin manhole cover.
Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche, Berlin.
At the Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
The Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
A painting by Jean Lambert-Rucki from the 1920s at the Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
At the Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin was modelled after Versailles.
Beriln subway signage.
Beriln subway signage.
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