NEW YEAR’S DAY IN BERLIN
Sunday, January 7th, 2007We enjoyed a late breakfast at the hotel, which included my first Pfannkuchen in Berlin. It was much breadier and not as sugary as an American jelly donut—a good thing in my opinion. We took a few hours in the apartment to continue recovering from all the alcohol we had drunk the night before, then decided to get up and explore the city one last time.
We took the U-Bahn to see the Victory Column and Schloss Bellevue, the Presidential residence. From there we took a bus to Brandenburger Gate. We were taking pictures at the gate area when it started to rain. Hard. Thus, for the second time on the trip, the weather directed our vacation plans. Peter had been saying for a few days that we should take a bus tour to get a better view of the city, and to learn about things that he couldn’t explain. I had resisted because I hate feeling so touristy, and I like discovering things on my own. However, the rain and cold and general fatigue set in, and suddenly a tour seemed like a good idea. Fortunately, we were right next to a Berlin City Tour bus stop. For 15 Euros each, we got a nearly 2-hour ride around the city with a live tour guide who spoke English and German. Some of the sights we’d seen already, but the tour helped us enjoy things such as all the new embassies in Berlin, Nikolaiviertel (a harborside street of shops and restaurants in East Berlin), a stretch of the Berlin Wall I hadn’t seen, the museums of Museum Island, and the opera houses.
When we got off the tour, we took the U-Bahn back to Ku’damm and tried to find a place to dinner. Nothing appealed to Peter near Wittenburg Platz and we ended up at Joe’s near Zoologischer Garten. Peter thought it was even less appealing foodwise. We ordered a drink while we pondered our options. I ended up trying a Berliner Weisse, a beer that came served in a Klingon margarita-sized goblet with a shot of sweet green syrup in it. The syrup is made from an old forest herb called Waldmeister–literally, forest master, but translates into English as “woodruff.” Not something one would find in the spices section of the local markets in America. I was shocked that this was really beer. What happened to German Rheinheitsgebot (German Beer Purity Law?) The first sip was appalling, but it got better after that.
Anyway, after we finished our drinks, we agreed to go back to Wittenburg Platz near Ku’damm where we had seen three decent looking restaurants. I wouldn’t eat Mexican food in Berlin, and he didn’t like the looks of the German restaurant, so we settled literally in the middle for the Italian restaurant in between. I believe it was called Mola. They had huge brick oven pizzas. Fortunately, Peter and I both had a hankering for the Capricioza pizza (ham, olives, and artichokes) so we split that and a salad (same procedure as every restaurant). I was still hungry after that so I also had the embarrassingly named “Heisse Liebe” (hot love): a crepe filled with ice cream and topped with hot cherries. The crepe wasn’t the best but it hit the spot.
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