Berlin Day 16 (31 July)
Day of much walking. Headed across to the old east side via Potsdamer Platz. Temporarily stopped to briefly look at Berlin Wall bits. Had said no Berlin Wall tour or visits to Checkpoint Charlie as have done this before but every time we come back they do something interesting with the Wall. Potsdamer Platz was divided by the Wall and they have placed sections of it where it once stood plus a path that shows where the rest of the wall went through the Plaza. We did stop and have a quick look.
Then kept going to Mitte and an area called the Nikolai Quarter. It is Berlin's oldest residential quarter - situated where Berlin was first established around 1200. Until WWII this area had a number of shops, taverns, workshops and artists lived here like Ibsen, Strindberg etc. Of course was destroyed in WWII and then in 1981 the East German Government started to reconstruct it. The place is a reconstruction according to historical records, including the church that once stood there (St Nicholas Church). Being a church, many variations of a church have stood in this particular place (oldest church in Berlin apparently - dating from 1230) but we decided to visit it as was interesting historically (also not a church anymore, is a museum). A number of old headstones and artefacts that had been found in the churchyard and nearby are on display and was interesting. While Berlin was largely flattened during WWII I tend to forget that the Berliners themselves were pretty good at razing a lot of historical bits as well before WWII. This point was made in the museum and how they have largely had to reconstruct what Berlin was like from historical records. The Nikolai reconstruction also includes more modern, Soviet Era styles using concrete "plattenbau" blocks. Not an attractive look for apartments (or anything really).
After a brief refuelling stop we walked back over Museum Island to Gendarmenmarkt which is a rather lovely square with 2 churches at either end (a French and German one) and a Concert hall between the 2. Good place for sitting and doing some people watching. Somewhere nearby on Charlotten Strasse we found ourselves in a huge chocolate shop - Rausch Schokoladenhaus, mainly distinguished by the largish chocolate models of Berlin icons such as the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. Also a very large bear sat in one corner pouring a continuous stream of chocolate from a teapot into a cup. Someone was very intrigued and we bought some chocolate to sample for research purposes.
Got keen and walked all the way back to the hotel. On the way we found ourselves at a place called Platz des Volksaufstandes von 1953. Saw some tourists stopped there starring at something on the ground. Turned out was a photo of a workers uprising in 1953 which the Soviets killed off with tanks (and shooting people). Behind the photo on the building is a classic Communist era style mural showing many happy workers. The mural was painted at the same time as the uprising . The failed uprising was also followed by the Hungarians and Czechs' uprisings. On the way back also found a part of Berlin on one side of our hotel that was particularly uninteresting - full of one star hotels and fairly grotty although not dangerously so - and decided at least we know where not to look for dinner tonight.
Dinner tonight ended up being at a local German restaurant, only a few doors down (Berlinchen). Very enjoyable. Looked to be a husband and wife team and served good home cooked food. I went for the day's special - stuffed cabbage rolls with potatoes and Stephen had calves liver with boiled veg. Good stuff. Finished it off by sharing an apple and sugar pancake. Oh and back at the hotel Stephen completed his meal sipping on some Kummel. He also had a sample from today's chocolate shop telling me 'I'm going back to that shop. The chocolate is seriously amazing.'
Then kept going to Mitte and an area called the Nikolai Quarter. It is Berlin's oldest residential quarter - situated where Berlin was first established around 1200. Until WWII this area had a number of shops, taverns, workshops and artists lived here like Ibsen, Strindberg etc. Of course was destroyed in WWII and then in 1981 the East German Government started to reconstruct it. The place is a reconstruction according to historical records, including the church that once stood there (St Nicholas Church). Being a church, many variations of a church have stood in this particular place (oldest church in Berlin apparently - dating from 1230) but we decided to visit it as was interesting historically (also not a church anymore, is a museum). A number of old headstones and artefacts that had been found in the churchyard and nearby are on display and was interesting. While Berlin was largely flattened during WWII I tend to forget that the Berliners themselves were pretty good at razing a lot of historical bits as well before WWII. This point was made in the museum and how they have largely had to reconstruct what Berlin was like from historical records. The Nikolai reconstruction also includes more modern, Soviet Era styles using concrete "plattenbau" blocks. Not an attractive look for apartments (or anything really).
After a brief refuelling stop we walked back over Museum Island to Gendarmenmarkt which is a rather lovely square with 2 churches at either end (a French and German one) and a Concert hall between the 2. Good place for sitting and doing some people watching. Somewhere nearby on Charlotten Strasse we found ourselves in a huge chocolate shop - Rausch Schokoladenhaus, mainly distinguished by the largish chocolate models of Berlin icons such as the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. Also a very large bear sat in one corner pouring a continuous stream of chocolate from a teapot into a cup. Someone was very intrigued and we bought some chocolate to sample for research purposes.
Got keen and walked all the way back to the hotel. On the way we found ourselves at a place called Platz des Volksaufstandes von 1953. Saw some tourists stopped there starring at something on the ground. Turned out was a photo of a workers uprising in 1953 which the Soviets killed off with tanks (and shooting people). Behind the photo on the building is a classic Communist era style mural showing many happy workers. The mural was painted at the same time as the uprising . The failed uprising was also followed by the Hungarians and Czechs' uprisings. On the way back also found a part of Berlin on one side of our hotel that was particularly uninteresting - full of one star hotels and fairly grotty although not dangerously so - and decided at least we know where not to look for dinner tonight.
Dinner tonight ended up being at a local German restaurant, only a few doors down (Berlinchen). Very enjoyable. Looked to be a husband and wife team and served good home cooked food. I went for the day's special - stuffed cabbage rolls with potatoes and Stephen had calves liver with boiled veg. Good stuff. Finished it off by sharing an apple and sugar pancake. Oh and back at the hotel Stephen completed his meal sipping on some Kummel. He also had a sample from today's chocolate shop telling me 'I'm going back to that shop. The chocolate is seriously amazing.'
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