Remember how I went to Berlin and promised to share photos from the trip and then a whole month went by before I posted them? Ahem. Here they are at last, better late than never as they say ;) I would have split this into two separate entries but I feel like I've put it off for long enough already so I'll just post it all in one go. Sorry for the length of this.
Friday
We flew to Berlin straight from Kalmar's little airport which meant that we could get up at the same time we usually do for work and still be in Berlin by ten o'clock. So convenient. I'll gladly pay extra for the privilege of not having to spend 4 hours on a train to Copenhagen before the trip even starts.
Since we got to Berlin so early we couldn't check into our hotel straight away so we just dropped off our bags and headed out to explore the Kurfürstendamm just around the corner from our hotel. Of course we spent some time getting lost at KaDeWe and walked past the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche.
In the early afternoon we checked into our room. I really liked our hotel, the rooms were so pretty and the breakfast was divine as we would find out later.
Once we had rested for a little while we learned to navigate the underground system (this was my third time in Berlin, but my first time getting around on my own using public transport) and made our way to the Fernsehturm. We'd got VIP tickets in advance to skip the lines and it was definitely worth it. The tickets included window seats in the revolving restaurant where we had icecream sundaes (and some of us had German beer :P). Visiting the tower was my favourite Berlin experience. I highly recommend it.
Once we got back to ground level again it was quite late but I still managed to drag Per to the nearby Primark and spent a good few hours browsing the myriads of cheap clothes there. I bought the cutest pair of PJs. If I didn't have about 25 other pairs at home I wouldn't have stopped at just one pair. Buying PJs (and summer dresses) is my guilty pleasure.
Saturday
On Saturday morning we went inside the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. Again, this was my third time in Berlin, but the first time visiting the modern part of the church. Can't believe I've skipped it before, it's so unique.
Next up we visited the East Side Gallery which had changed quite a bit since I last saw it. Some paintings remained, but there were many new ones, and the whole area is so different. New buildings seem to be popping up everywhere.
Of course a visit to Berlin wouldn't be complete without seeing the Brandenburger Tor... nor the Holocaust Memorial.
We saw plenty of Trabis while in Berlin. So cute. Saturday's final touristy activity was walking through Checkpoint Charlie. Before that we visited the Topographie des Terrors museum which was really interesting.
Sunday
Sunday's main event was a visit to the DDR Museum. I really liked the interactiveness of it and learned many things, but it was super crowded so perhaps it's better to go there on a weekday rather than during the weekend.
The weather on Sunday wasn't the best and all the shops were closed so we weren't quite sure what to do next. We ended up taking the subway to the Charlottenburg Palace. We didn't have time to visit the interiors but it was nice to get a look at it from the outside. The last time I went to Berlin I wanted to see it but didn't have the time.
By now it was time to make our way back to the hotel and pick up our bags. On the way there I found some of the bears I'd been searching for up until then. I remember the bears being all over the city during my previous visits to Berlin but this time I only saw a few, until I found this bunch just around the corner from our hotel on a street we hadn't walked down before. Finding them was a neat ending to the trip :)
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