day two in Berlin

Cafebravo
It was a very long day.  Berlin is a very cool city.  My guess is some cities would be best discovered if you lived here for a short length of time.  I think Berlin might be one of those.  We were here a few years back for five days and dug in.  We hit the highlights, saw many museums, walked liked crazy, went to some of the classic restaurants and fell in love with the city.  Jessica went back and didn't have the same feeling as she did the first time.  I am back and everything feels familiar but the more I read about it the more I think there is a lot to discover and that takes sometime. 

Breakfast
We started our day in the gallery section of Mitte on Augustrasse.  There is a gallery there called Kunst Werke that has a small cafe in their front garden called Cafe Bravo.  Josh made the call with the mueslix but my camera was barely going to make it through the day so I refrained from all the pics.  I had the same thing we have been eating since being in Europe.  Totally different type of croissant but still really good. 

Yards on august
This is a garden on Augustrasse that has a pizza place in it and small cafe.  The grittiness of the place combined with the beautiful garden gives you an idea of what Berlin is like.  A city continuing to under go change.

Galleryochtitle
The galleries open starting from 11- 1 so we just walked into the few that we found open.  This is by Ohne Titel at Berlin Projects.

Basedinberlin
At breakfast, the guy who was running the shop gave us a small map of the four different pop-up galleries that Berlin has built for the summer called Based in Berlin.  Each gallery has an installation from the variety of young artists living and working here.  Very cool idea since Berlin is a mecca for young artists.  This one is in the middle of the Monbijou park that borders Mitte.  Most of the art here were installation pieces that I had a very hard time wrapping my arms around.  Maybe each of them have themes. 

Train
We hopped on the train to take us out to Kreuzberg which is a Turkish area also loaded with artists and students.  An area undergoing transformation which could be compared to Williamsburg NY although that area has pretty much transformed.  The train system here is one on honor code, like Switzerland.  You buy a ticket but can get on the train without buying one.  The fear is that you can get caught.  The train stations are definitely gritty and as we say in our family, very ghetto.

Turkisholives
There is a Turkish market that takes place on Tuesdays and I believe Fridays.  Loaded with locals getting their food for the week.  Cheese and olives.

Turkishbreads
Bread and others treats. 

Turkishtaste
I bought this because I had never seen it before.  It is filled with something that takes like chopped liver and the outside is some type of potato or starch.  Quite good with a spicy kick. 

Turkishwatermelon
Watermelon was everywhere

Turkishlandjaffer
This is the sausage and cheese man.  He had the landjagger sausage which I grew up on because my father loved the stuff.  So bad for you.  I had bought some earlier in the day for the boys to try (of course Josh has had it before).  Kind of like a thicker fattier piece of beef jerky. 

We could not find a place for lunch in the Kreuzberg area and quite frankly when I did research in the morning I came up empty handed.  I am sure there are some very cool cafes, which we did pass, and some interesting shops but it was super hot and we had no interest.  Fred had a meeting in the area which is why we went in the first place so we left him there and went out on our own.  We headed over to the Tiergarten area to eat at the Zollpackhof Gastronomie which has a beer garden.  Unfortunately they did not start the grill area until 6pm and that was the food we wanted, the sausages.  So we had a coke light and moved onward. 

Lunchsarahweiner
We decided to go over to the Hamburger Bahnoff museum which I went to last time.  It is an amazing structure and some of the most incredible art.  We first had lunch at the cafe called Sarah Weiner.  Farm fresh food.  We split a platter of meats, cheeses and of course had to try the currywurst.  The smell of the currywurst made us all take pause but the taste was delicious. 

Lunchicecream
We also split an ice cream sundae which we all felt we deserved after so much walking.

Lunchherbgarden
This is the garden of fresh herbs outside the cafe which they use.  Smells incredible.

Anselm kiefer
Inside the museum, the highlights are on the ground floor.  Anselm Kiefer (above), the most amazing Andy Warhol originals including the largest one of Mao and Robert Rauschenbergs from a Berlin entrepreneur Erich Marx, this is part of his collection. Most of the pieces in this collection are all the size of the Kiefer above.

Museum middle
The main area had an installation from Richard Long called the Berlin Circle.  We loved this.  Then we walked through the long corridor of the museum with many small rooms that rotate their permanent collection. 

Holocaust memorial
After the museum we went over to the Holocaust Memorial.  We opted against the Jewish museums this time.  Josh has now been to every major Holocaust museum in the world and we went last time.  Max has done the one in DC and I am in Josh's camp so the memorial had to be enough.

Meandjosh
Here is Josh and me before we made the walk back to the hotel.  Long day, good day and time for a little rest.  Either he is getting taller daily or I am shrinking.  I think it is the first.

 

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Comments (Archived):

  1. David Noël

    Spent the entire Sunday afternoon in that garden in Auguststr, love this place. It’s called Clärchen’s Ballhaus, an authentic East Berlin dance hall. It’s lovely inside and on Sundays people go there to dance. If you happen to be in the area again, make sure to take a peek inside. There are a few more of these spread across Mitte.

    1. Gotham Gal

      this confirms the theory that you must live here to really get Berlin.

      1. David Noël

        Join other New Yorkers (mostly artists and musicians) and spend the summer here 🙂

  2. ellen

    The item of food that you had with the chopped liver inside and potato surround is similar to what I purchase cooked at the hot food counter at a Russian market in Newton called Baza off Needham Street.  The outside is fried and there is chopped chicken surrounded by potato on the inside.  It is called Zrazy at that Russian market.  I eat 2 and am stuffed .Easy to keep and to heat up in the microwave .

    1. Gotham Gal

      good to know. one bite was all i needed.

  3. Tracey Jackson

    Makes me want to jump a plane. Think you’re right about not doing Paris then Berlin. I think London then Berlin or Brussells then Berlin might work.

    1. Gotham Gal

      perhaps. don’t love brussels though

  4. aminTorres

    I am so hungry now hehe.- The 9th photo, we have something called kipes is the DR that seems almost identical to whats on your photo: http://www.thatsdominican.c…They are usually made stuffed with cheese or jam or chicken… haven’t had one in years!