BERLIN MITTE - AUGUST 27-30, 2005

Jenny and Ulf moved to Berlin in May, just before we all left for our family reunion in Virginia Beach. Of course the vacation was all arranged and booked long before they knew they would be moving. It made for a turbulent few weeks (if not months – they were both working full time) for them, but by the time we visited them in August they were well settled in.

Our trip began very well. We took the “Sprinter” from Frankfurt to Berlin and it was an experience in itself. It was like being on an airplane without the nervousness at the take off and landing. First we were offered our choice of newspapers and magazines. Then they came around with coffee and tea and after a while supper was served which was better than any meal I’ve had on a plane for many years. And all this while traveling at 250 km per hour. It was delightful. We were in Berlin in three and a half hours (from Frankfurt).

Jenny and Ulf picked us up with Jenny’s Jeep Wrangler. It’s a cute little car, designed for two people with luggage or four people without luggage. Ulf luckily has had a lot of experience packing cars since he has a Smart himself and he managed to get everything in and we could still breathe, although not deeply.

Although it was after ten o’clock by the time we arrived at their apartment, we decided to take a short walk around where they live. Berlin Mitte is an exciting place to be these days. The formerly Jewish quarter and then the middle of what used to be East Berlin has undergone a transformation and is now a very hip area of town. They live right around the corner from the Hackeschen Höfe which were built at the beginning of the 20th century and housed a number of elegant Jewish fashion houses. They were of course destroyed by the Nazis, but the tradition of fashion remained even in the years of the German Democratic Republic. At least clothes were designed and produced there – I guess the word fashion was seldom heard in connection with East Germany. And today the whole area is full of boutiques and fashion houses. Jenny LOVES it. A few weeks ago she was looking for a dress to wear to a wedding and found THREE that she really liked just around the corner.

The “Höfe” are a series of courtyards which is typical of Berlin. Most of the old houses are built right on the street around an inner courtyard (or two or three or more) – as is the house Jenny and Ulf now live in. So even in this very big bustling city you have thousands of islands of tranquility. Of course these courtyards were not always pleasant or well cared for, but today people seem to realize what jewels they are - and have the funds for their upkeep.

The next morning Frank and I decided to explore the area in daylight. In the street where they live is a Jewish cemetery which was destroyed by the Nazis. It’s now more of a memorial park.

The only grave remaining is that of Moses Mendelssohn, an influential German philosopher of the Enlightenment and the grandfather of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
He had TEN children. How did he manage to think so much?
Those are stones on and around the tomb - a Jewish custom.

Just around another corner is the old Jewish synagogue, built in 1866 to accommodate 3,000 worshipers. It was one of the very few to escape destruction in the Pogromnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) in 1938 due to the brave intervention of a policeman. For a while it was misused as a warehouse for men’s clothing, until British bombs practically destroyed it in 1943. Today it houses a museum of Jewish history.  When they rebuilt it actually only the facade was restored.

We were enchanted by the market that was held on Saturday morning. It was quite small by German standards but had some really interesting stands. There was one with about thirty different kinds of mustard and you could taste them. I found there is a definite limit to the amount of mustard I can eat but I managed to pick out three kinds that I liked and bought a number of jars as presents.

I’m going to skip over the rest of Saturday because I want to write a separate entry about what we did. On Sunday morning we were indecisive about what to do. The weather was beautiful so we thought about a boat ride, but the boats looked awfully full and I didn’t know if I really wanted to sit for three hours on a wooden bench in the sun. Frank decided he wanted to go to the Museum of History and Jenny, Ulf and I wandered towards the “beach” which had been created along the River Spree by dumping sand and putting out deck chairs and umbrellas. Evidently you could get a good Caipirinha there. (I had my first and up to then my only one at Jenny and Ulf’s wedding.) Since we had to walk past the museum where a Goya exhibit was taking place, we wanted to have a look at the legendary lines that form every day. To our great surprise there was hardly any line at all and when we asked we were told it would take about twenty minutes to get in. We placed a quick call to Frank to tell him come at once – he could see the history museum on another trip. (How did people manage in the ancient past without cell phones?)

The four of us enjoyed the Goya exhibit very much. It’s the most comprehensive show of his works ever in Germany and since we haven’t made it to the Prado yet this was a great opportunity. The audio equipment was very good except that I asked for English and only the introduction was actually in English – the rest was in German. It didn’t really matter and it was too much of a hassle to return it, but I wondered what American and English tourists did when confronted with a lecture on Goya in German. Ulf honed his debating skills when he returned it for me by arguing that we should get a refund. Alas, he really didn't have a very good case to work with.

On Monday Frank had to complete some work so we didn’t really do anything until noon when we met Jenny for lunch. She works at Potsdamer-Platz, as does Ulf, but he was out of town. In the afternoon we decided to revisit Dussmann, the book and music store that we liked so much last year. After an hour or so of browsing (and buying) we went to the café that I had discovered adjacent to the store. It turned out to be American in theme because, as we learned from the very nice waitress, Mrs. Dussmann is American. I tried their apple crumble and it was perfect. Next time we are in Berlin I want to have lunch there!

Frank left me for his hotel on the other side of town since he had a two-day seminar to give. After Jenny got home from work we walked to the video shop and spent quite a while looking for something that neither of us had seen AND we both wanted to watch. Not easy, but we compromised on Hitch because we both like Will Smith. I wasn’t expecting much and it was better than I thought it would be.

Tuesday I was on my own and I thought I would like to take an American bike tour of Berlin that I had heard about. I went to the meeting place and met the guide, a young man who had only been in Germany a few weeks and spoke no German. However the weather was beautiful so I didn’t give up immediately. Then when the group was all together he gave an introduction that was one joke after another and he told us we weren’t laughing enough. He said we would have lunch in a beer garden and we could drink all the beer we wanted because in Germany you could drink and ride a bike. (Absolutely NOT true – you can lose your license for drunk driving on a bike!) He promised the second half of the tour after our liquid lunch would be a lot more fun. I had already decided this wasn’t for me, so when everyone went to pick out their bikes I made a hasty and I hope unnoticed getaway. Too bad. I think I would have enjoyed biking through Berlin.

I made my way to KaDeWe, the most famous department store in Berlin or in Germany for that matter. I spent some time in the food section comparing it to Harrod’s. Actually I thought it was bigger but maybe not quite so exotic. Upstairs there was a buffet restaurant where I had a delicious lunch. I spent the afternoon shopping although I was limited because I had to pack anything I bought into my suitcase and carry it home with me. In the evening Ulf returned and the three of us went to a sidewalk café where I finally got my Caipirinha.

The Germans like to comment whenever you say that you have been to Berlin that “Berlin is worth a visit”. I’m not sure where the saying comes from but I totally agree.