Day 27 – July 23: The end of our trip

We checked out of our cool apartment at 11 am today but before that strolled around our little neighborhood, eating a fantastic breakfast at the place we had passed everyday on our way to the U-Bahn, going to the grocery store (Rachel had discovered in Germany they sell Lion (her favorite candy bar) cereal), and wandering the farmers’ market in our square.  After a week it starts to feel like it really is our neighborhood...and we were sad to leave.

We got to the train station with plenty of time to spare, and then our train was 40 minutes late on top of that.  We had reserved seats so I wasn’t worried about the hordes of people on the platform but when we boarded we found that they had sold reserved seats to seats that somehow didn’t exist on our train. Our seat numbers were thankfully here but we had to kick people out of our seats who had nowhere else to go.  In my stereotype of Germans, this situation is really uncharacteristic.  For the first half we sat on the train with many people who had to stand or sit on the floor all the way to Amsterdam.  It was super hot and just a little miserable.  In some ways it made it easier to find time to catch up on the blog and read.  There is a very nice woman (50s) sitting next to me with her mother (80s).  She didn’t speak great English but good enough…and definitely better than my German!  Turns out they are Polish (where the older mother still lives) but the younger one lives in Berlin and works at the Jewish History Museum we visited yesterday.  The 80-year-old Polish lady I think really liked hearing that the girls had Polish blood and from then assumed I could speak Polish – though I was clear it wasn’t my blood.  She would every now and then explain great things to us in Polish.  She was so cute, we just smiled along.

Midway through the trip our train stopped and after great confusion we learned we all had to get off, cross the tracks and get on a different train to get to Amsterdam.  It all worked out for the best though – we eventually got the seats we actually reserved in an air conditioned car – sitting in a group with a table in between us.  For this part of the trip we sat across from a young man from Australia traveling with a young Swiss woman.  They had each been traveling on their own but met in a hostel in Scandinavia and started traveling together. We ended up having a very interesting conversation with them about world politics…and how all of our countries are struggling right now. They were both very well spoken and, as we had with the Polish women earlier, we had to somehow try to explain what could possibly be happening in America that Trump has gotten as far as he has.  I found his explanation of Australian history and the poor treatment of the Aboriginals there very interesting – especially in how much he and his country seem to own responsibility for past generations.

We finally arrived in Amsterdam, stored our bags at the station, and head out on foot to have one final adventure. Rachel led us to an area near the train station to some restaurant choices along the canals.  It was a perfect night – the temperature just right for sitting outside.  When I saw an available outdoor table in a great setting it turned out to be the same vegetarian restaurant the girls had gone to with my mom and were happy to go to again.  Unfortunately, the service was super slow.  We sat at 9 pm and didn’t get served until 10.  We had wanted to try to get to a grocery store to bring home more treats but by the time dinner was over, the stores were closed. We thought about getting pancakes but those places were also closed!  We walked back to the train station enjoying the Amsterdam vibe and coffee house culture, picked up our bags, and headed to the airport Ibis Budget Hotel – about as nice as it sounds – to spend the night before heading home tomorrow.  We fly out first thing in the morning.  This has been the most amazing trip!  I am so grateful to have had these experiences with the girls….thanks for reading along!!

Day 26 – July 22: Final Day in Berlin

Friday was our last real day to explore Berlin and we had lots on our agenda – so we had our earliest start to the day – out and about by 8:30 am.  We started at a restaurant/record store that Rachel had found online called Gordon.  We got talking with the owner and learned that they are music producers big in the techno world and wanted to combine music and food in a way that would reach a wide variety of people.  He initially asked if we spoke Hebrew when we entered so I asked if we were in an Israeli neighborhood.  He said it was actually a Muslim area but that he thinks eating together brings people together.  He filled us in on the big happenings in techno world going on that night, but I’m not sure which of us he thought he was appealing to.  The food was amazing though and he gave us a great tip, insisting that we walk a few blocks out of way to see Templehof Field.  We didn’t know where were headed and were surprised to walk into a HUGE open field used at various times in the recent past as an airfield, concentration camp…(look this up) and is now used by Berliners for recreation – biking, running, gardening, kite flying, etc. It was last used as an airport in 2008 and the people of Berlin voted overwhelming to not to turn the land over to developers. 

The last museum on our list to see (though there are many more for another trip to Berlin) was the Jewish Museum, tackling 1000 years of Jewish History. The museum is super interactive and interesting, focusing on the lives of Jews over the years.  I was surprised that recent history focused on how Jews were treated in the years leading up to the war and how Jews were treated as Germany healed from the war, but very little on the actual Holocaust itself.

Synagoga

From there we went back into Kruezberg to the Turkish Market along the river, which is held on Tuesdays and Fridays.  We got one big Turkish lunch and sat at a table to eat it.  We were joined by an older Turkish woman who has lived in Berlin for 30 years but still likes to get her Turkish fix at the market.  We also had the chance to try juice made from sugar cane.  The man had a big machine to juice the cane and mixed it with a little lime and mint.  It was surprisingly not overly sweet, but really refreshing.  Rachel is still trying to figure out how we can juice the cane available at our farmers’ market in Mountain View.

With the sites on our list out of our way, we set out to take care of some business that needed to get done.  Birkenstocks are cheap here by US standards and we all wanted to get a pair as a usuable souvenir from our trip.  Shopping and decisions don’t come easy, but we eventually all decided on the best pair for us.  The girls also wanted to stock up on Ritter Sport chocolate before we left, so that was our next stop.  I was thrilled when I walked in to find that the ice cream machine was in action!  I ordered up my ice cream mixed with a white chocolate crisp bar and, truth be told, it was tasty but nothing compared to the Jones Ice Cream from the night before! 

The very last thing I really wanted to get to was a bike ride through the huge Tiergarten Park stretching two miles in the middle of the city.  I had no interest in riding a bike on the streets of Berlin so we rented bikes very close to the park entrance and quickly left the hustle of Berlin behind as we rode through paths winding through the beautiful park.  If only we had time to pull over and sit on the grass and read!  Instead we rode along, stopping briefly in the Rose Garden and to see the iconic Victory Column (so glad we didn’t miss that!).

We returned our bikes in time to drop our shopping bags at home, change into our Birkenstocks, and head out for our 7 pm reservation at Industry Standard (isn’t that a great name for a restaurant?).  We enjoyed a delicious and interesting meal, with each course described to us in detail by the waiter.  They had forgotten one of our course – a pea and goat cheese on toast – but brought it to us when we reminded them.  They were having trouble with their credit card machine so we scrounged together every last cent that we had to pay the 45-euro bill (thankfully they decided to comp us the pea dish) and were able to leave a small tip.  We walked out penniless.

On a whim earlier in the day I had googled Jones’ Ice Cream to see where else they sell it in Berlin.  Turns out their one store is just a couple of blocks from our house.  If we rushed from the restaurant we figured we could get there a few minutes before they closed at 9.  But, of course they didn’t take credit, and we didn’t have even 2 euro for a cone.  We left in search of an ATM and had to walk quite some ways to get to one…we returned to Jones’ at 9:30 fearful he would turn us away but he stayed open. Two cones in one day is a little indulgent I know, but for the best ice cream of one’s life you make exceptions.  It was a perfectly sweet end to our wonderful week in Berlin!

Day 25 – July 23: Sachenhausen morning, Berlin afternoon

Enter at  Tower A

Today we started with a daytrip to Sachenhausen Concentration Camp which takes about an hour on the S-Bahn plus time on the bus from the station out to the camp. So, we started pretty early this morning but still didn’t get to the camp until noonish.  Sachenhausen was a special camp in its proximity to the capital and used as a testing ground for many other camps. It was more of a labor camp than a death camp, though 50,000 died there.  We walked through the camp listening to the detailed audio guide.  This is where the large Nazi counterfeiting operation happened.  There was a prison next to the camp where Joseph Stalin’s kid was held (and killed when his dad wouldn’t barter for him). They have a couple of barracks that you can go in to see the conditions people lived (and died) in and used one half of the barracks for museum exhibits about the people. We saw the crematorium and gas chambers where they tested the poison that was used more frequently in other camps.  Here they preferred to shoot people in the back of the head through a hole in the wall while they thought they were getting measured for height. It was all very depressing.  And, as seems to be the case in most museums here, there is more information than you can possibly absorb in one visit.  As the war was ending the guards took the 35,000 remaining prisoners on a death march through the forest with no rations for 7 days.  On the 8^th day they left the ones who were still alive in the woods, free. After the war, Sachenhausen was used as a Soviet camp for many years.  In 1961 (to divert attention from the Wall they were building) Sachenhausen became the first camp to be turned into a memorial, at first celebrating the Russian liberators as much as or more than honoring the Jewish victims.

1961 Memorial honoring the Soviets

Exit at Station Z - Nazi humor

Commemorating the Vicitms

We got back to Berlin with a few hours left to take advantage of the fact that many of the museums stay open til 8 pm on Thursday nights.  We went directly to the Neues Museum and I sat outside reading while the girls (who are free at most museums in town) ran in to see Queen Nefertiti.  (I called Ritter Sport to see if their ice cream machine was operating today and sadly it wasn’t – at least I didn’t waste a trip!)  

Long-necked beauties!

Though we had seen lots of art on this trip, we took the bus down to the Gemaldegalerie (The Painting Gallery) to see Germany’s best collection of European paintings form the 13^th-18^th centuries.  It was fun to see which of the Vermeer, Hals, and Rembrandts are housed in this museum.  We also knew there was a Pieter Brueghel there and when we found it just as the museum was getting ready to close, we were delighted to see it was the wonderful “Netherlandish Proverbs”.  Rachel was in heaven and stayed studying it until she was told it was time to go. 

A topsy-turvy world

A Vermeer in Berlin

Our food situation today had been pretty pitiful – just grabbing bread at train stations and yogurts at a grocery store.  So we were pretty hungry when we arrived at our last stop of the day – Street Food Thursday – an event Rachel had read about.  It is our top food recommendation of the month!  Rows of vendors selling yummy food in a great environment.  First we sampled a delicious pasta arrabiatta we could watch them making, and an equally good egg/spaghetti sandwich with eggplant.  Now not starving, we could walk around and look at the other choices, many of which were selling out for the day. I waited in the long line for the paneer naan wrap and when he counted out how many more he could make I was the last to get one. We enjoyed that along with the fries the girls bought.  When we walked in we noticed a man selling Jones Ice Cream – homemade in Berlin - out of a bus, so that was an obvious stop for dessert.  I ordered a lemon blueberry cone that was easily in the top five lifetime ice creams.  (I can’t think of any better now but I’ve had a lot of great ice cream in my time, so don’t want to overstate – but this one was perfection.)  You would think we could stop at the perfect ice cream, and might have if we hadn’t walked past a man selling “muffles” -  a cross between a waffle and a muffin, topped with powdered sugar and whipped cream. You can see that we had no choice!  Plan your trip to Berlin around a Thursday!

a muffle!

Jones' Ice Cream

Day 24 – July 20: The Wall

Our piano with Rachel's bed behind

We thoroughly enjoyed a cereal and banana breakfast in our apartment and took the opportunity to play piano (the girls) and plan our next three days in Berlin (Liz).  Given a full week here felt a luxury but the city is really big and we needed to put a little thought into where we really wanted to be sure to go – especially around the restaurants Rachel has found to try.  So, we got a little later start than normal, but knew exactly where we were headed.

I’m so glad Katie suggested we start our tour of the wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial (rather than Checkpoint Charlie and surrounding museums). They have done an excellent job putting together short movies (one with lots of actual footage from the time and one a graphical depiction of the inner and outer walls and the land in between), a small museum full of personal stories and a viewing deck where you can see into the preserved wall section memorial across the street, and four blocks of outdoor exhibits along a stretch of the wall where apartments butted up to the street and became part of the wall.  It was from these apartments that people would jump from windows as the sidewalk outside their windows was on the west.  (The windows of these apartments were bricked in and the buildings eventually evacuated and then torn down.)  It felt strange to me that the outdoor space, which is full of markers indicating places were people were killed trying to escape and tunnel escape routes, is just a generation later really a lovely outdoor green space. 

The memorial preserved dead zone

From the former East 

People who died at the wall

The Chapel of Reconciliation was a 1800s church that was stuck in the no man’s land between east and west Berlin and so the day the wall went up was no longer in use.  It survived empty until the mid-80s but was torn down because it broke up the sightlines of the border guards (given reason).  They have put a smaller church in its place now with the original carved wooden alterpiece standing in the same spot it had in the original church.

Rather than just grab food, we made a purposeful trip to SpreeGold for delicious smoothies, veggie burger, and an avocado/egg dish.  Besides great food, heading to a specific restaurant took us into a part of Berlin we wouldn’t have gone to otherwise. 

From there we felt like it necessary to walk down to Checkpoint Charlie and at least see it.  Of all the things we have done in the past month, this definitely felt the most touristy and kitschy.  We were happy to be able to take a photo and walk away feeling like we had had a more substantial look at the Wall earlier in the day.  And besides, we had chocolate on our minds.  

We had read that while we’ve been enjoying trips to Ritter Sport, Europe’s largest chocolate store, Fassbender and Rausch, is actually just a few blocks away.  So, we walked there first to get a sample and check it out but I was determined to get to Ritter Sport to order that ice cream mix-in concoction before 6:00 pm (if you are following along you know I just missed it both Monday and Tuesday).  Today it was just 4:30 when we arrived at the store…and I was so happy to see no one in line – until I found out that they were not running the ice cream machine at all today!!  No real explanation.  They weren’t sure when they would turn it back on.  How much disappointment can I be expected to take?!? 

I pulled myself together so we could race to get to the Pergamon Museum, Berlin’s Collection of Classical Antiquities, with little under an hour before closing time.  The star attraction of the museum, the Pergamon Alter, is not currently on display as the entire museum is undergoing huge renovations, but we were able to see the amazing, awe-inspiring Ishtar Gate, the 575 B.C. entrance to Babylon.  Wow. I have no idea how people are able to reconstruct something like that from the piles of rubble they find, but I am so glad to have seen it.  The girls both had a 6^th grade history teacher who loved Babylon so they enjoyed actually seeing pieces of it. 

The upstairs Museum of Islamic Art had some very cool stone carved walls and ornately painted wooden ones as well.

cool mosaic fountain on Museum Island

Walking through town you come across these "stolperstein" - little brass plates with the name of victims of Nazism.
There are over 50,000 placed around Europe to date - making it the world's largest decentralized memorial.

We had a reservation for dinner at 8:00 pm and two hours to spend before then.  We toyed with the idea of heading back to the apartment but decided we would spend much of that two hours in transit.  Fassbender & Rausch has a hot chocolate bar above the chocolate store so we decided to spend an hour up there, enjoying pre-dinner treats and playing some cards.  Our restaurant, Lokal, took us into yet another fun neighborhood where we got to act like locals and eat some very, very good food.  They have a menu that changes daily.  We have mastered sharing a couple of entrees between us and this time augmented with a bowl of apple-turnip soup and sides of potato gratin and cucumber salad.  Entrees were peas served three ways and a homemade pasta dish. All delicious!