Grey Berlin!

The story · 3 days

Grey. Cold. That is how this city showed itself. Modern, transgressive, grandiose, full of contrasts. The remains of the wall at Potsdamer Platz evoke the history of yesterday. The grand Holocaust memorial conveys the anguish well. The Gedächtniskirche sparks imagination and memories. The Jewish quarter gives you the shivers. You have to go into the bars, the many taverns where beer flows in rivers, to warm up a little. At night the atmosphere changes, and above all the opening of the Christmas markets brings back the cheerfulness and the Nordic climate we expected to find. The Nikolai Quarter is delightful, and seems to have lived another history. Worth seeing.

Day 122 Nov 2007

This weekend also started from Moscow.. Air Berlin flight, exceptional for value for money.

Day 223 Nov 2007

Departure from the Hotel in Nikolaviertel, a really lovely area especially for the good typical little restaurants where you can have dinner in one of the most romantic spots in the city; walk and visit of: Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, the Holocaust Memorial, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Unter Den Linden, the Gendarmenmarkt district, the Berliner Dom, the Fernsehturm tower, Alexanderplatz, the Hackescher Markt area and finally the East Side Gallery reached by subway.

Day 324 Nov 2007

A stroll along Wittembergstrasse, beneath the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche. Back on the subway, a visit to Charlottenburg. Today the Christmas markets were opening...the entire afternoon and evening were spent losing ourselves among the lights, colors, scents and cheerfulness of the stalls set up here and there throughout the central areas. A wonderful contrast against the greyness of the days.

The city didn't thrill me but by walking around you breathe in and taste the more recent history, the kind that surely moves you more. The quality of the city's services is excellent and the biggest surprise was the Berliners..not cold at all but friendly and cheerful.