Berlin 2026 – part 2

It is amazing how the human body can be almost regenerated by a good night’s sleep. That happened on our first night in Berlin (for me spectacularly, for Ally more slowly and much more low key). We had no plans at all for the day other than ‘find somewhere nice for breakfast’ and…… er that was it.

Given our location Unter den Linden is not too far away and we were intending a visit to the nearest Tourist Info Office which was at the Brandenburger Tor. We stopped for breakfast at a likely looking place and were delighted by getting freshly cooked croissants. OK it took a while longer than expected but it was very enjoyable.

So our random wander round Berlin began – the Tor was an obvious draw and is impressive. Just nearby is the quite staggering juxtaposition between the Akademie deer Künste (Art Academy) – all glass – and Frank Gehry’s DZ bank building.

The Tourist Information chap (Sven) was very helpful and we concluded the business we had – which was public transport cards for our stay.

The Brandenburger Tor is a magnificent thing and it was starting to get busy. With the random thing in mind it seemed reasonable to head towards the Riechstag which is close by – more magnificent monumental Berlin of course and close to a waterside stretch that rang many bells (the Guggenheim area in Bilbao mainly). Again more people about and queues forming for the entry to the various attractions.

Despite not having done much we were both flagging a little and craved some open space – luckily the Tiergarten is adjacent so we had a lovely wander around there. So very quiet and lots of statues – very relaxing. One statue caught my eye – in the middle of a (closed) main road. It is called Der Rufer which means “the caller’ though my vocabulary memory said shout rather than call.

Given our location we decided to seek out the Berliner Philharmonie where we have tickets for a performance by Jordi Savall and his Concert de Nations (Mozart’s Requiem) for Monday night. A striking building inside & out!

One thing to any about this (it is becoming a regular thing) was how we were pulled up sharply and staggered by the reference to history. In this case an excellent display about the extermination and, essentially, the development of the gas for the chambers. I had come across the name Aktion TG4 in my reading in the past but never knew out was the a reference to the hospital where these horrors unfolded. (TiergartenStrasse 4) was the address.

After all this we utilised our public transport card to return to the hotel for a glass of wine and a short rest. Feeling refreshed we went out to pay a visit to the Dussmann shop – or KulturKaufhaus as it is known. Quite the biggest shop devoted to books, music in various formats and much else besides. It was packed with people browsing, lounging, buying and generally having a great time. We were entranced and even made a purchase (a CD box set of Arvo Pärt). We will return and I will get a photo to two to show the scale of it.

By now we were thinking about food and tried a local tapas place but they don’t take bookings on Saturday nights and were doubtful of us getting a table. So we had a drink there – well the cocktail of the month is Negroni so I couldn’t not – and booked for Sunday.

Dinner on Saturday was taken at ‘Einstein Unter den Linden’ an inspired choice which we throughly enjoyed.

That covers our first full day – more to come as I organise my thoughts and photos from Sunday.