We landed at about 10 AM on Sunday, May 17th. We tried to catch the train that seemed most straightforward but apparently there were route changes so we ended up taking the wrong one! 

After dropping our things off at our hotel, we went across the street to try our first currywurst! We also got fries (with mayo) and a nudelsalat. Very yummy! Now that I’ve had a currywurst, I’m fairly certain I can recreate it back at home. 

Afterwards, we walked to the Berliner Fernsehturm (TV Tower) and Berliner Dom. We sat on the grass in front of the cathedral and were listening to someone play the violin. Then it suddenly stopped and I was like “nooo don’t stop!” Then I saw that the guy was getting a ticket write up from the cops. Whoops. 

We then Ubered to the Jewish Berlin Museum. One of the reasons why I wanted to visit Germany was that I’ve always had a deep unease of the holocaust. I don’t think that’s odd since it’s a horrific event, but I also find that being able to learn more about it helps to give it more meaning and grounds us to the realities. And maybe helps us prevent history from repeating itself. 

This museum was very cool. Their audio guide was great and there were many facets of Jewish life to learn about. There is a decent portion of it dedicated to exploring, remembering, and documenting the holocaust. The architecture of the building itself (especially the bottom floor) was wonderfully done by Daniel Libeskind. It makes you feel unsettled and uncomfortable, but that also forces you to pay attention to those feelings as you learn your way through the exhibits. It was also sobering to walk through the Shalekhet (Fallen Leaves) space by Menashe Kadishman. This installation pays tribute to victims of war, and you can hear the metal plates depicting screaming heads clink as you walk across the 10,000 disks. A different experience from most museums! And it was free! 

When we wrapped up at the museum, we took an Uber to the Brandenburger Tor and had a snack and a drink at a cafe nearby. Pretty sure the pretzel was not authentic, but the pumpkin seed and cheese combo was so good?! 

Then we had to walk over to the Reichstag Bundestag: the parliament in Berlin. We pre-booked our timed entry reservation (also free) and were surprised to find that they still do old-school cross referencing of your name on a printed out paper vs. your invitation letter to visit the parliament building. I will say that view of Berlin was great from the top!

I was dying from thirst at this point so I chugged a giant juice box. They’re huge!!  I saw them later at the grocery store too. 

Afterwards we headed to Nante-Eck for some classic Berlin food. We ordered the brotzeit platter, which was much bigger than we thought! We had to take it back to the hotel afterwards and snack on it at night! We also ordered the spargel and schnitzel. The white asparagus was great. Tender and almost a little sweet. We were stuffed but we felt we couldn’t leave without an apfelstrudel to round off the meal! It came with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, and this vanilla custard sauce for you to dip your strudel in. It’s almost like having apple pie with a thinner, flaky outer layer instead of a pie shell. 

After dinner we explored a German grocery store. We bought a bunch of drinks for later, to hydrate ourselves at the hotel. Our walk home took us along Spree River. We saw a Monbijou Theater that looked really cool and across from it, there was a bachata dancing party happening. So many people out on the park benches and just hanging out! 

Monday morning, we finally got to get 8 hours of sleep for what I think was the first time this trip?  But we went downstairs to get a breakfast egg sandwich from Breggs. Not very German, but very yummy! 

After this we headed off on the subway for a visit to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. This church was bombed and missing its roof on one of its towers. It’s also very hollow looking. Different from the other churches we’ve seen so far! 

We walked down Kurfürstendamm for a bit but it was a pretty typical shopping street these days. We stopped to get some döner and currywurst again at Cobi’s Chicken Döner Berlin. I liked the currywurst from the day prior better, but the döner was loaded! 

The next stop was Checkpoint Charlie and we took a bus there. Lots of other folks were taking pictures and we joined the queue. It’s funny that there’s a McDonald’s right across from it and everyone’s pictures probably has free advertising for the fast food chain. 😅

We were then a short walk away from the Topography of Terror. It was a very informative walk down the long aisle of informational displays. Berlin’s been through so much. Whether it was opposing political parties, Hitler’s regime, the war, or the separation of Berlin post-war, it’s no wonder the city has so many memories and memorials for those they’ve lost. It’s a bit scary seeing many of the parallels in history seeming to repeat itself.

A good chunk of time was taken up by our Topography of Terror walk, and afterwards we went to the Mall of Berlin because I wanted to try the strawberry matcha at their McDonald’s. Unfortunately it was sold out (as were other McDonald’s that we checked previously). We ended up getting milk tea and we also did some shopping since I wanted another cardigan as I packed a bit too light. 

We walked back to the hotel afterwards to take a break before heading off to Max und Moritz, an old style German bar and restaurant. We were sat inside what seemed like a giant hall. We ate dinner earlier than folks here I feel, so it was pretty empty when we got here (and they just opened). We ordered the Kasseler Rippenspeer, which reminded me of pastrami. It even came with a little side of mustard! We also had their sauerbraten, which I liked. It was slightly vinegary. Both meats were tender! 

For our post-dinner walk, we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial along Bernauer Straße. We saw more remnants of the Berlin Wall here too, and also got to read about the unique situation of those living on this street where the wall went up. It drove apart so many families and caused so much fear. 

We rounded off our last night in Berlin with cinnamon rolls that we saw near our hotel. I caught them when we first arrived and they looked so good. I also grabbed a keychain for my collection and we called it a night! The next day, we’d have to wake up and take a train to Munich! 

Oh and one last note! It was very cool seeing the TV Tower from our hotel. The Monbijou Hotel was in an excellent location given how much we walked everywhere 🙂