Every November it’s a tradition that we always go to Amsterdam. We’ve done this for the past four years but after visiting this summer as part of our European Motorcycle Adventure, we decided to change things up and after a brief chat, we picked Berlin as our city break destination.
We’re very food motivated, so the Christmas Markets were high on the agenda, but since we’ve never been to Berlin before we’d been given several recommendations from friends for things to do.
With our winter clothes packed, we headed off to the airport…
Where did we go?
Berlin
We stayed at a really cool AirBnB in Kreuzberg which is known as being one of the cooler areas of Berlin. Our host, Thor, was a lovely Norwegian man who greeted us upon arrival. Oh, and he had two lovely cats. Chupa (from Canada) and Perejil (from Argentina). You can tell this man (and the cats) were well travelled.
On the first day out we headed to Checkpoint Charlie as it was only a 20 minute walk away. The first thing that hit us was how modernised it had become. There was literally a McDonalds and KFC right next to the checkpoint.
There was a museum set up on one of the corners where you could look at images and read up on the timeline of the checkpoint, as well as some of the stories of those who either lived or died during the cold war.
After this, we headed up to the War Memorial for the Jewish people killed in the Holocaust. I know it might only seem like concrete blocks, but visually it was an incredible site. It stood to serve as a reminder for those who lost their lives in such a tragic way.
The Christmas markets were next on the list and after a good walk across the city to get our steps in, we found our first market. The food awaited us. We found this stall selling the cinnamon pretzel like pastries that were roasted over a fire. AMAZING!!
Feeling full and unable to breathe, we headed to the U-Bahn to find our way home, which made for some great photography opportunities in the stations.
The next day we headed out straight to the East Side Gallery. For those unfamiliar with the gallery, it’s a long section of the wall that remains next to the river. The great thing is that artists have been given permission to cover the wall in their work.
As we wandered along the wall, many of the artists had chosen to go down a political angle with their work, which made for some great visuals. As expected, it was swarming with tourists.
The next day we decided to book a Trabi tour. The jist was that you got to drive one of the old Trabi cars around the city in a convoy on a sightseeing tour. It was so much fun and was one of the highlights of the trip.
We’d highly recommend Berlin, especially at Christmas time for anyone looking to book a city break. The Christmas markets were fantastic and the food was sensational.
Take a look
We’ve added a lovely selection of photos from our trip showcasing the highlights. Please enjoy them…
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