Bad Münstereifel, Rhüden, Goslar

One of the things I ached for in Berlin was open, wild space.  There are lots of popular lakes and forests on the outskirts of Berlin – we visited a couple, but didn’t really get to know them.  Thanks to generous Berliner friends however, we were lucky to have a couple of beautiful excursions out of the city.

serenity now

It’s easy to forget that Germany is not Berlin.  Germany truly is made up of lots of small Brothers Grimm villages, most with their own brewery.   Note to kidsWe are not on the set of Shrek – this is all really, really old. And real humans live here.

There is a magical story to share later about a double bass… But part of the story’s magic is the fairytale village of Bad Münstereifel, near Köln (Cologne).

We made some wonderful friends in Berlin, including Jens, Sofie and Daphne   They generously lent us their ‘barn’ on the outskirts of Rhüden, near the Harz mountains.  A joy to watch the Autumn storms roll across the fields and to collect windfall apples.

Exploring the nearby Harz mountains, we visited the UNESCO world heritage town of Goslar.

The town is famous for its nearby silver mines, but the homes are made of dragon scales

Seasonal discoveries

Food is core to all cultures.  The growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing of it.  The regional flavours, traditions, recipes and festivals.

source: https://www.essen-und-trinken.de/rezepte/43837-rzpt-bratkartoffeln-aus-pellkartoffeln

In Berlin we lived a block away from Marhieneke Markthalle, a fabulous fresh produce market, where each deli has it’s own small cafe, serving great value meals.  I cried when I visited Berlin recently and the two man-mountains in line before me took the last two serves of Bratkartoffeln.  Didn’t they understand I’d travelled all the way from Melbourne just for potatoes fried with bratwurst?  And I don’t even eat bratwurst…. usually.

Unlike Melbourne, the seasons in Berlin arrive confidently and with them celebrated foods.

Spring

Spring = Spargel 

Germans love this white asparagus.  Huts appear on street corners.  Kids miss school to help harvest the spargel and be Spargel King or Queen in the local spargel festival.  Restaurants adapt their menu to include spargel in every dish, cooked every possible way.   There was really no way to avoid this pale, phallic vegetable.

So I put on my best German Hausfrau apron and grilled, steamed and pureed spargel.  It was a bit bland and boring really – which I mostly blame on my cooking.  I think the real joy of spargel is that it heralds longer, warmer days ahead.

Spargel
Grilled spargel in garlic butter

Summer = Strawberries

mmmmmm… and the balsa boxes are pretty sweet too

German strawberries have ruined me.  I’m doomed to never enjoy another strawberry; fresh, on a tart, in jam… they just cannot compare to the sweet perfection of German strawberries.

In summer huts appeared all over the city selling large balsa punnets of freshly picked strawberries.  Easily located by following the fragrance.

I made the best strawberry jam… ever!

Perfection: croissant, strawberries and strawberry jam

Autumn = apples

the crispest, sweetest windfalls

We were lucky to stay at our friend Jens’ barn near the Harz mountains.  This 3 storey barn (with indoor pool) is on the edge of a village.  Nick and I walked through the fields after a storm passed.  Windfall apples covered the ground where old, solitary apple trees stood between the rows of corn.

Autumn in the country
apple flans, apple sauce, stewed apple
Big stormy skies at Jens’ barn

Winter = Weihnachtsmarkt

There are so many special German Christmas foods… most include marzipan, so let’s leave those ones out. We discovered that each of the Weihnachtsmarkt in Berlin had their own specialities and flavours.  This was true in Hamburg too, where we sampled delicious deep-fried battered cauliflower (German pakoras).

It’s very convivial to sit on stools around a large fire/open air kitchen, where a half dozen men cook a dozen varieties of sausage. Matched with an equal range of condiments. Meeting friends. Buying kitsch glass Christmas ornaments and drinking gluhwein.  The night air below freezing.  Enormous Christmas trees looking right at home.  All under sparkling lights.

Yes, I’ll have another gluhwein danke… after all, I’m taking the uBahn home.

 

Berlin U Bahn

The Berlin underground is brilliant. Living in Berlin we depended on the U Bahn daily.  It’s clean, reliable and safe. We’re all seriously peeved when we need to wait five minutes for a train. “Trains run every two to five minutes during peak hours, every five minutes for the rest of the day and every ten minutes in the evening.” (Wikipedia)

The U Bahn has consistently easy to understand signage, so getting lost wasn’t an issue.  Charmingly each station has it’s own ‘look’.  Ours wasn’t winning any design awards.

A rare moment of waiting for a train at our home station

This is just a taste of some of the U Bahn stations…

Love the bold tiling
Love the bold tiling

img_3483

Another great typeface
Another great typeface
I love the colour of these tiles.

The longest time it takes us to get from home to anywhere on Berlin public transport is 30 minutes – just ask Google Maps.

They cleaned the tiles and now I can't read the station name :)
They cleaned the tiles and now I can’t read the station name 🙂

The Ubahn opened in 1902 and has over 170 stations. With the building of the Berlin Wall some stations became ghost stations and didn’t re-open until 1990.

One of the first stations to re-open after the wall came down

It’s possible to take an underground railway tour – sitting on exposed bogeys like coal miners.  (Commentary is only in German.)  I can’t tell you how strange it is to see one of these trains passing through the station.

 This is kind of weird   Source: BVG

The station platform stays at a comfortable 20 degrees year round.  Worthy shelter when the weather above ground becomes too inclement for drinking.  The convivial drunks that populate benches 1&2 at Gneisenaustrasse Station may look dishevelled and smell bad, but their dogs are the most well behaved, well fed, cleaned and groomed that you will find in the city.

It doesn’t matter that you can’t say it… you’ll never forget those tiles.

A market for spittel?

Source:  www.mapaplan.com

And if the train is taking more than 5 minutes… then the tiles make a great backdrop for reluctant subjects…

Street Art in Berlin

img_3524Berlin embraces street art with a similar enthusiasm to Melbourne. 27 years ago I took photos of the five-storey murals painted on West Berlin apartment firewalls.  This time there’s street art large and tiny all over the city.

Commissioned public art still exists. Since the wall came down in 1989 graffiti and murals have appeared in what was East Berlin – most notably the tourist attraction of East Side Gallery – a long section of remaining wall along the Spree river.

Here are a few of my favourite street artists/work from our neighbourhood; Kreuzberg.

Little Lucy has a very ‘special’ relationship with her cat
Well known Spanish/Berlin street artist El Bocho decided the Czech TV series about ‘Little Lucy’ could be more interesting.

It was a treat to find new Little Lucy paste-ups

Grunge photogenic in Hackescher Markt
Dancing girls are strutting their stuff all over Berlin
Cosmonaut. When Victor Ash painted it, the shadow from a light pole of a nearby car-sales yard – became a flag in the hand of the cosmonaut.
Ned Kelly making an appearance in a tiny stencil
ROA mural