Brats in Berlin (a.k.a. Berlin Take 2)

(Note: Read about our 1st trip to Berlin below (posted 03.01.2008) before reading this post.)

The beds in Berlin at the Generator hostel were as comfortable as we remembered them being. And the breakfast was just as full of meat and cheese as we remembered as well. We now had more time in Berlin than we had initially planned, so we decided to take the opportunity and go on another NewEurope tour. However, This one wasn’t free, it was 12 Euros per person, but we thought it was important to go on this tour. We went to Sachsenhausen which is the former concentration camp outside of Berlin. It is actually the model camp, which all of the other camps are based off of. The tour was very heavy and sobering. We saw what happened there, how the people were treated, how they were worked, and how they were tortured. It baffles the mind how people were able to treat other people this way, but it is important to remember as well, so that it isn’t allowed to happen again. We learned a lot from this tour, and recommend this one as well if anyone ever travels to Berlin.

This day also happened to be Maunday Thursday. After the tour we picked up our bags from the hostel we stayed at and headed to the Lutheran church in Berlin. It was a bit of a train ride and then a good walk, but we made it just in time for the service. Of course, the service was all in German, so Mandy understood about 1% of it, but I understood about 10% so I gave Mandy a rundown of the service afterwards. It was a really great service with a good sermon (at least the parts I understood were good). After the service the Pastor, Pastor Martens, showed us to our room. The church also has a “Youth Center” where guests can stay for a couple of evenings. It’s cheaper than a hostel, too, which is nice. That evening we found a nice Italian restaurant (we couldn’t wait for Italy) where we had a good meal of pizza and calzone.

The Good Friday service was at 10 the next morning, so we took the opportunity to sleep in and then we headed downstairs for church. This was also a very nice service with some great hymns, and singing them in German made it extra fun. We had a lot of fun in Berlin’s Christmas markets in December, so we decided to hit up the Easter market as well. The market was not as great or grand as what the Christmas markets were like, but they still had brats with German mustard so we were happy. Our next stop was the Ampelmann store. The Ampelmann is the man on their crosswalk signs. They are unique in the city of Berlin, and have become a bit of a cult classic to residents and visitors. Apparently he’s very marketable (even to us) since you can buy just about anything from clothing to candy in the shape of or with the logo of the Ampelmann. We decided to pick up Ampelmann ice cube trays and a set of Ampelmann cookie cutters. We’re suckers for some good tourist trinkets I guess.

Next on our list was Potsdamer Platz, which at one time was the largest construction project in the world. Most of the shops were closed, but the architecture of the buildings there was really neat-o. At one point you feel like you are in an outdoor courtyard when you are actually covered by a giant clear canopy. Not as fun in the winter though, so I guess we’ll just have to go back in the summer sometime. One more thing we wanted to do before leaving Berlin was to go up in the dome of the Reichstag (Berlin’s parliament building). We were going to do this last time we were in Berlin, but the morning we wanted to do it was cloudy and rainy. We weren’t going to miss it again, so we got in line. It’s free to enter, but they only let people in a little at a time, so where we entered the line it said it was an hour and a half wait. The line moved well for just a little bit and then stood still for a while. We almost decided to get out of line and forget the whole thing, when we started up a conversation with the couple behind us. They were from Australia and were really nice. Both of them had recently retired so they were going on a 5 week journey through Europe. Then we found out that both of them had lived in Cambridge and the husband actually received his undergraduate degree and his Doctorate there. What a small world. We stuck with them and chatted throughout our Reichstag visit, which gave us a great view of the city. We left them as we picked up our S-Bahn out of the city back to the Lutheran church. For dinner we found a good kebab joint where we picked up chicken kebabs and some Beck’s (what else?). We took it back to the room where we watched the most recent episode of Lost (yes we’re still addicted) and then hit the hay before traveling out to Prague the next morning. Berlin was once again a wonderful time, and still remains one of our favourite European cities.