Last year I spent most of December exploring tropical islands and
living off Thai green curries which was wonderful, of course, but not exactly
Christmassy. This year, therefore, I was determined to do Christmas 'properly'
and where better to kick it all off than at the original German Christmas markets in Berlin?
The moment we stepped onto the plane, I felt the festive spirit take hold.
There were Christmas tunes jingling away in my ears and a man rocking an
all-in-one Santa suit sat in the aisle next to me. The blistering cold that met us on the other side was the final touch to the wintery weekend
set-up.
Despite using the short flight to scrub up on my old German skills, I was
thankful to find that most of the locals speak brilliant English. My limited
conversation of ‘I’m twelve, live in Winkfield and own a guinea pig’ is
neither helpful nor true these days, and certainly wouldn’t have got us to our
hotel on the other side of town. Fortunately, the people of Berlin were
incredibly friendly and guided us pretty much to the door. I made a mental note
there and then to add ‘be kinder to tourists’ to my list of resolutions
for 2015.
Anyway,
after checking in at the Adina we headed straight to
our first ‘Markt’ in Alexanderplatz. There appeared to be an infinite number of stalls displaying
intricate Christmas decorations and beautiful gifts but the ones which really drew our attention were those
selling food. The steam rising from the small wooden huts held the rich aroma
of German sausages and spiced Gluwein. For our first taste of Berlin, we opted
for a strange looking flat bread which neither of us caught the name of but it
tasted great.
We’d have liked to have stopped for longer to let our food go down
but the fear of freezing over forced us to move on quickly. It really was ‘sehr, sehr kalte’ and even beneath hundreds of thick layers, I could feel my
insides literally shuddering. Rather tactfully, we spent most of our time browsing the stalls
which had log fires burning but admitted defeat pretty quickly, heading back
instead to the big old fireplace in our hotel reception.
Later that evening, we felt ready to brave the cold again and ventured out for
dinner. In a residential part of town, we found a German tapas restaurant
called Die Schule which was highly recommended on Trip Advisor and lived up to
the hype! It was the perfect way to try all the various German dishes at once
which was ideal considering we had just three short days to cram it all in. It
also meant that I was able to try the infamous ‘Currywurst’ without committing
to an entire plateful. Considering my complete phobia of ketchup, it went down
pretty well but the thought of it still leaves me feeling a little
nauseous even now. The other dishes, however, were all brilliant and I could
have eaten a full sized portion of each of them (...in one go, yes.)
Back at the hotel, we checked out the spa and planned our next
day’s activities from the comfort of the jacuzzi. Sunday began bright and early, on a historical
walking tour of the city. The information booklet claimed the tour runs every
day of the year, rain or shine, so we figured the arctic conditions wouldn’t
deter them either. Sure enough, at 10 o’clock on the dot, a rotund young man
with a painfully English accent appeared at the square and introduced himself
as our guide.
Over the course of four hours, Ralph took us to every corner of
Berlin, explaining how it has come to be the city we see today. It’s by no
means a beautiful place but it holds an incredible history and Ralph’s passion
and intrigue for the German identity brought light even to the darkest of
areas. He explained how the gold plaques known as stumble stones, or
‘stolpersteine’ which we see on the pavement (or
perhaps would not have seen, had they not
been pointed out) mark the life of Jews who were
prosecuted during the war. Whilst some hold the belief that their memories
should remain in their place of death, i.e. in concentration camps outside of
the city walls, others argue that they should live on where they once thrived;
outside their homes or workplaces which are still very much a part of Berlin.
One of the most interesting parts for me was what appeared at first
glance, to be a mere car park. However, this historical spot marks Hitler’s
bunker, the hiding place where he is thought to have spent his final few hours.
Of course, we also passed the remnants of the Berlin
wall and the mesmerising memorial of the murdered Jews which is thus named to
not skirt around the fact that this was a brutal
massacre, not a sacrifice as the word ‘holocaust’ would once have suggested. There’s
much speculation over what the concrete blocks are supposed to signify but to
Ralph, they are simply random because there’s no sense behind the events that occurred throughout that period.
Sadly, I have to admit that another highlight for me
was in fact Starbucks; not because I’m incredibly uncultured but because I was
just so bloody cold! Though thoroughly interested in everything Ralph had to
say, I had to continually remind myself to
keep on listening because my body had
switched into auto-survival-mode, focusing every bit
of energy on simply keeping warm. We were jogging between sites and performing
jumping jacks whilst he spoke but I was still shivering like mad with blue lips,
ringing ears and fingers frozen into a claw – a claw, which thankfully fit
perfectly around a giant mug of hot chocolate during our midway break.
At the end of the four hours I was truly pleased to have learnt so much but
equally thankful not to have lost any limbs to frostbite. The jacuzzi was calling and it
was time to head back.
On our last evening in the city, we
visited the most popular Christmas Market at the beautiful Charlottenburg Schloss. The grand castle can be seen from miles beyond as
brightly coloured spotlights are cast over its grounds whilst tiny fairy lights surround the area like fallen stars caught in the hedges. It was here that we finally
got our hands on a traditional German sausage, followed by a traditional German
waffle, followed by a traditional German crepe, followed by a traditional
German gluwein. It suddenly dawned on us that we had very little time left and it
seemed absolutely imperative to squeeze it all in at once.
Aside from the intense cold, Berlin was both very cool and very cultured. Whilst I can't think of a better city to visit at Christmas, I'd love to return one day to see it in the sunshine and check out the infamous nightlife as the streets transform after hours. Until then though, Frohe Weihnachten Berlin and auf wiedersehen!
