As you might have noticed by my Instagram, we went to Berlin at the end of May – I know… – and it was just a perfect weekend: food, coffee (like shitloads of it) and walks, sightseeing, and laughs.
One of the (not so good) skills in my array of them, is booking hotels & flights. I am terribly incompetent at it. I don’t know why, maybe the pressure? The anxious thoughts of losing the chance of booking? Who knows.
And this time around, much to my sisters’ amusement (NOT), the hotel I booked had nothing to do with the wonderful flat we managed to grab in Barcelona, even though it was still me who booked it.
Do not get me wrong, it had a couple of beds that were clean, a nice ensuite bathroom and a TV too, but it was not as central as I hoped/seemed to understand, if anything a nice 50 minutes walk from the city center. But it was clean, and it had breakfast included, so that we could have a second breakfast as soon as we left the hotel without breaking the bank too much. I think they are slightly snobs if you ask me, but hey oh.
So, Berlin – it is a beautiful city. I never though I’d say this, to be fair.
Copenhagen had left me to feel disappointed for the grey & new buildings, so I came here with the lowest expectations one could have, and was pleasantly surprised as soon as we started walking around.
Maybe the weather helped, but the whole weekend we had blue skies and mild temperatures, so we were of course sporting our best summer outfits and Birks.
We had some of the nicest food, including a recurring fried chicken place we have gone back to something like 3 times?!
Best places for FOOD in Berlin
A special mention goes to this Instagram-worthy part Japanese restaurant, part coffee shop called House of Small Wonder. If you need the nicest green-house looking cafe, from top to bottom, then this is the right place for you. The food was nice and the service was great too.
The COFFEE in Berlin
Coffee wise, you know we’d be looking for this all around, and our main to places for the gold liquid where the below:
- The Barn Coffee Roasters, various locations, find their website here;
- Five Elephant, here;
- 19 grams, here;
I should mention the special treatment we got at The Barn thanks to Alex & Felix – some of our favourite coffee ever, some of the nicest people in the industry. We left with loads of samples, and some beer too.
The SIGHTSEEING in Berlin
And of course, we did a lot of sightseeing, a lot of selfies and pictures of each other were taken…the whole lot. I am just dropping here some pictures, I am sure you’ll enjoy?!
Some highlights were the Museum Island – think bust of Nefertiti and the Pergamon Altar, between the many things, it’s breathtaking – and the DDR Museum, the first one you pay 1 ticket and can visit 4 different museum – so ideally keep a day for this – and the second one is a day in the life of East Germany while the Wall was up.
Also, the Typography of Terror was a great full immersion in the whole terror period of Nazis and it is actually located where between 1933 and 1945 the principal instruments of Nazi persecution and terror were located: the headquarters of the Gestapo, the high command and security service of the SS, and from 1939 the Reich Security Main Office.
Another great visit is the Memorial to the Murdered Jewish of Europe, surreal and peaceful at the same time.
Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, and the most beautiful Synagogue I’ve ever seen.
We spent the last afternoon at the Berlin Zoo, and it is definitely worth a walk around if you have time, the place is very nice and the animals were great – the hippos just made my day.
And then just a few pictures of us, selfies and all you can think of, just because yes.
We have a similar guide for Barcelona – post one and post two.
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