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 kids: We 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).
Bad Munstereifel
Most towns that have a river or creek also have a brewery!
The town stocks are also preserved
Local school, still in use from the 1600’s
Happy to hire a German made car, or van, and enjoy driving on the autobahn
To preserve this very old town the locals have leased the shops to big brand outlets. This brings buses of shoppers into the town and ensures the buildings are preserved.
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.
When Jens said ‘barn’ I wasn’t picturing this enormous, restored home.
Apple tree alone in the field
Ethan and Eva
Fields around Rhuden
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
It’s real… not Disney kids
Sign reads… please return my pants
Traditional ‘Brunswick Horse’ door knocker
To add to the picture postcard look – Goslar has a functioning steam train
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.
SpargelGrilled 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 countryapple flans, apple sauce, stewed appleBig 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 is a great city to ride a bike. For starters it’s totally flat, practically all roads have a dedicated bike lane and it’s quick to get around. On Sundays families load up their bikes with picnics, children, pets, scooters, trailers… and ride into the distance.
But. Berlin is never boring. There are many other ways to get from A to B….
Gothic beautyBeautifully functional
Beautifully restored butcher’s bicycle from the 1920’s
… now an all terrain bar.Tempelhof is the best place, possibly in all of Europe, to get your skates on.
Kinder school bus. Rain, snow or sun… the kinder kids go to the park everyday.
Kind of the MG alternative to the Christiania trikeWhy not??
There are some damn fine motorised options too….
Summer festivals are just a drive away.
Yes, this helicopter did land on the roundabout in Moritzplatz, stopping the traffic, for no apparent reason.
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
Another great typefaceI 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 🙂
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…
Berlin 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 catWell 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 MarktDancing girls are strutting their stuff all over BerlinCosmonaut. 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 stencilROA mural
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.
