Arrival

I arrive late on Thursday night – Ange has already arrived after fifty hours of flights and trains from the other side of the world, and so is already checked in and waiting. I grab a cab from the airport and am surprised at the speed and cost – €27  instead of the €35-45 I’m expecting. The cab pulls up outside the Derag Livinghotel Berlin-Mitte.

The next day we breakfast on food bought from the organic store around the corner and then head out to drop off our bags at NH Collection – Berlin Mitte Friedrichstrasse. We’re actually able to check in, so head up to the room straight away.

Reichstag Dome

Ange has pre-booked a ticket to the Reichstag Dome and so we head off along the Spree river in that direction. We reach the airport-style security bang on time and I smirk as the metal detecting wand that the guard uses continually decides that Angela is somehow metallic and regales us with a steady barrage of high pitched beeps and squirls.

We join a group of fellow tourists waiting at the door to leave the security hut. After a while a teenager leads us up to the Reichstag building and we wait again as another group comes down the lift and leaves. We’re then able to ascend to the roof level. There’s a roof garden restaurant and we have a reservation, so there’s just enough time to climb the spiral to the top of the dome, have a look around, and then descend again.

Kafer Dachgarten Restaurant

We are a little worried – we only have 45 mins for lunch before our free walking tour begins. We enquire as to whether that will be enough time and are assured it will be – the Brandenberg Gate is just around the corner.

Ange elects to try the local delicacy – Berliner Weisser – a wheat beer with raspberry cordial added. Apparently in the 17th C when Loius XIV kicked the French Protestants out of France, 5000 of them descended onto Berlin, increasing the population by 25% and bringing with them a sweet tooth. They were more wine drinkers than beer quaffers and decided that the local wheat beer was uninspired and started adding either raspberry cordial to make it red and sweet or woodruff to make it green and hallucinogenic. The modern green Berliner Weisse just has woodruff flavouring and all of the hallucinogenic stuff removed.

We have the veal meatballs, mainly because they seem to be the best value for money on the menu – the starters go for €14 and the expensive main for €25 making the €16 meatballs look pretty good. And we are rewarded with some pretty awesome meatballs. The complex flavours of the leek in the potato salad is the perfect foil for the veal and we’re both full and pleasantly surprised by the quality. The service is fast too, and with the open kitchen you can watch the chefs prepare the complete meal.

Walking Tour

After paying for the meal we head down to the Starbucks beside the Brandenburg Gate and wait for our free walking tour of Berlin to begin.

Palace of Tears

After our walking tour we head back towards our hotel and take advantage of the locality to visit the Palace of Tears. It’s a museum on the spot where people visiting East Berlin returned to the West and was so named because of the tearful farewells which happened here. It’s not very well signposted or marked so we actually end up walking around it before finding the doorway and it wasn’t until we actually entered that I was sure we were in the right place.

After the Palace of Tears we head back to our hotel for the night which is literally a five minute walk away. You can almost see the Palace from the hotel room.

VisitBerlin Card

We’d very kindly been given VisitBerlin passes which included transportation on all Berlin transport, so getting around was a breeze. The next day we change hotels from the NH Collection to Hotel Otto and then head back to the Topography of Terror to learn about the SS and to see the remnants of the wall. While a lot of the museums in Berlin are free, there are a huge number of discounts available with the VisitBerlin card, and the booklet listing them all is satisfyingly thick. It also comes with a free pull out map which serves us well.

Topography of Terror

The museum is interesting (and free!). It shows both sides of the SS: the unspeakable atrocities that they committed, as well as the human side that exists in any other organisation – workmates having a drink or a break from the daily grind. The tragedy of course: the daily grind is the extermination of millions of innocent people.

Remains of the SS Building

Just outside the Topography Museum are the exposed remains of the SS building’s foundations. After the war these were the only remains of the hated headquarters and the decision was made not to rebuild on the site because it was so evil. Even the Topography of Terror Museum is off to one side of the original location.

Berlin Wall Segment

The section of the wall outside the museum is small and there is limited information about it – we flesh out context when we visit other museums.

We’re about to go back to the cafe where we got the berliner the day before but a tour happens to arrive at that second and descend upon the cafe, so instead we walk towards the Dali museum, past the old Luftwaffe HQ building and site of the quelling of the uprising in 1953, and hunt down a cafe nearby instead.

Eleven Bar

A few steps before the Dali Museum is a cafe called Eleven. We head inside and I have currywurst and a radler (lemonade and beer), and Angela has the apple juice and gerillter bunter – roast veg salad with feta and pickled artichokes which she assures me is delicious.

Dali Exhibition

And then it’s on to the Dali Exhibition! Our VisitBerlin cards come in handy with a discount of 25%. The downstairs is small – we’ve booked into a guided tour, so I’m hoping the upstairs portion is more substantial. We wait for the tour to begin by watching some surreal movies in the little theatre on the ground floor. When the tour begins we are guided through the downstairs section and then up the stairs where a suitably large section awaits. Special mention must be made of the guide who is both knowledgeable as well as having an infectious enthusiasm.

One photo makes me laugh, Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your flaming giraffe!

After Dali we head across town to the Story of Berlin – which includes a visit to an underground Nuclear Bunker.

Story of Berlin

We get to use our Visit Berlin cards again for a discount to the Story of Berlin museum, and I’m impressed with the scale of the museum – there’s a lot to take in and it’s split across multiple floors. I like how it’s well signposted and flows well. There’s enough to justify paying for entry, but the real reason for coming here is the bunker!

Nuclear Bunker

Deep under a carpark building (ok, maybe 3 flights of stairs), we find ourselves at the beginning of the bunker. The door has stenciled “trepped” on it which I read as “trapped” until I realise “treppe” is German for “stairway” and that there are likely to be multiple entrances into the bunker. The story of the bunker is in equal parts sad and comical – and well delivered by the tour guide. The lighting seems perfectly created for atmospheric photography – the blues and greens highlighting the alienness of the environment.

The following morning we leave our friends at Hotel Otto and head down the road to the 25 Hour Bikini Berlin. It’s still too early to check in so we store our luggage and head out to Potsdam.

Potsdam

We get off the train and to Ange’s surprise I have agreed to hiring bikes and riding around the town. We eventually find the hire shop which feels further away than then 200m it’s advertised as and we get the bikes. Again we get value from our VisitBerlin cards with a small discount.

We weigh up getting helmets too but on the walk over we noticed nobody seems to have been wearing them so we don’t bother. The guy at the shop doesn’t speak much English and looks visibly annoyed when we say that’s what we speak. He keeps us waiting for a while and then shows us the map of the area and rattles off an impossible to remember list of navigation instructions which may have been better replaced by “follow someone else who looks like they know where they’re going, you can’t ride here and here. There’s a nice restaurant here”. When he goes to get us the bikes he looks me up and down and says “120kg” (264lbs) to himself. Mock offended I correct him – “115!” (253lbs).

And then off we go! While the sun is out, it has been chilly recently which we suspect is keeping people closer to home which is good for us – fewer people on the streets!

We head first of all to Sans Souci which is a UNESCO palace on a hill nestled in a lovely forest with avenues crisscrossing thru it. We have to park our bikes at the bottom of the hill and climb up by foot, but the views make it worth it. Sans Souci backs on to a main road so we could have cycled up the main road and parked up the top, but the stroll is delightful in the strong sun.

After we’ve enjoyed the view from the top, we head back down the hill and swing right to take in the Chinese Tea House. We stumble across a group of locals dressed up in high court costume and take some photos of them. We eventually find the Chinese Tea house – it doesn’t seem that the ticket booth is open so we cant go inside – it looks very small but it is well decorated with gold leaf frescoes and ornate cornices.

Back to the bikes and back on to the main road. The buses are respectful of the…somewhat less confident…riders and we make it without major incident to the beginning of the park area surrounding the lake. OMG: gorgeous!!

We end up at the restaurant that the guy at the bike hire shop had told us about and it’s delightful: a beer garden and restaurant right on the lake front in the sunshine, what could be better? Well apparently every man and his dog had the same idea and the place was packed. The bike parking area was full to overloading, spilling padlocked bikes both ways along the side of the paths for a good number of metres.

We go in, try to get served and see the frazzled looks on the waitstaff’s faces and realise that a) we’d be looking at an extensive wait and b) riding back after a stein or two and a full belly probably wouldn’t be the safest, so we head off back along the lakefront, expecting to find a restaurant on the way back.

We’re both getting a little hungry when we hit a residential area and decide instead of heading to where our hire shop guy had mentioned something about Tom Hanks, we’d take a bit of a shortcut back to town. Again our route is well served for bicycles with a dedicated bike lane and suitably respectful co-travellers and before long we find ourselves at a likely looking restaurant. We make inquiries inside but it seems that even with out the difficulties of language, that they are not serving food anymore.

Muttering darkly to myself we head back on to the road, pausing briefly at a service station for something to get us through to our next meal. We then head back sedately to the bike hire shop and drop off the bikes, quite happy about how our little jaunt went.

After a quick train ride back to Berlin, we head back to the 25hours Bikini Hotel in time to watch the sunset from the restaurant on the rooftop.

In the morning we check out and then head to the central train station. Ange is heading to Warsaw for the next leg in the trip while I’m heading to the airport for a few days work in London.

Would I Go Back?

The history of Berlin in the 20th Century is the history of the world in that same period. No other city has been the focus of so many momentous occasions in the 20th century – WWI, WWII, the Cold War. But we’d only just scratched the surface. There are so many museums it’s hard to know which cover which material and which of the myriad of museums covering the same subject you should visit. So I’m quite happy with our effort – we looked at a selection of museums and learnt a lot, without repeating ourselves or feeling that we were wasting our time.

Having said that, there were aspects we couldn’t get to: the Stasi (secret police during the Cold War) was one area I wouldn’t have minded learning more about for example. Next time!

The post Summer 2017 – Berlin appeared first on etrip.tips.

After paying for our meal at the Reichstag Dome we head down to the Starbucks beside the Brandenburg Gate and wait for our free walking tour of Berlin to begin.

It’s a lively scene, with crowds coming for the tours, to see the Gate or to drum up customers for their horse drawn carriages, ye-olde-motor-cars or pedal driven tuk-tuks.

Alex “Zabi” Zabilowicz

There are sufficient people waiting for the English tour to split the group into three and each group gets their own tour guide. Ours introduces himself as Alex Zabilowicz. He smiles wryly and allows that we might prefer to call him by his childhood nickname of Zabi. He has a Polish/German father, and an English mother. He admits to speaking English and German (I also notice that the Spanish flag is on his tour-guide credentials) and describes himself as a mongrel. He did German History at school in England, has lived in numerous cities around Germany and now is a tour guide.

We start off discussing the Brandenburg Gate, and how Parisser Square got its name, and then head to to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews. It’s disappointing how many people are disrespectful of the monument – climbing on the slabs, laughing and running. From an artistic perspective, once you get over the obvious funereal aspects of the grey slabs, I appreciate how, from the outside, the top of the complex seems quite uniform, but when you’re actually inside it the undulations and contours of the path mean that what happens in the depths of the complex is hidden from outside observation. A very fitting metaphor for the circumstances the Jewish people found themselves in.

We continue on to the site of Hitler’s Bunker, a rather non-descript carpark for the Soviet-era apartment blocks nearby. A glimpse into the last days of the Third Reich is provided and a brief discussion of some conspiracy theories regarding what else may have happened to Hitler after the war.

We then head towards the Topography of Terror Museum, passing the stationery balloon, the Trabant Museum and a Currywurst Hut. If the weather was more clement I would imagine there would be more hawkers attempting to sell balloon rides or a rental of one of the iconic Trabant cars.

We pause across the road from the Topography of Terror Museum and Berlin Wall Memorial – it’s time for a break, and I tick off another of the three iconic things I’m wanting to try in Berlin – the local donut. When JFK gave his iconic speech he expressed solidarity with the Berlin people by saying “Ich bin ein Berliner” inadvertently stating that he was a donut.

After the cafe has an opportunity to serve assorted currywursts, berliners and coffees, we head off back towards the centre of town to Checkpoint Charlie. Unemployed actors dressed in American Army uniforms man the historic gate between East and West while the shopping precinct presses ever closer around it, attracted by the unending supply of tourists and their money.

We end the tour at Gendarmenmarkt, a square bookended by matching French and German churches, and in the unending cycle of continental Europe one-upmanship, the German one is a metre larger! Zabi is good value, hanging around to help navigate back to respective hotels and generally answering questions about Berlin. We’re aware we’ve only gone lightly over Berlin but we’ve gotten a feel for where things are and can spend the rest of our visit fleshing out the details.

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Location

There are at least two Berlins. One of them that we’d spent a couple of days walking around: Historic Berlin; museums and monuments to events of the last century. The Berlin of the Dead. But the Berlin of the Living is clustered around the Zoo of all places – a vibrant and lively city centre revolving around the Bikini – a shopping centre so named because the upper and lower balconies resemble the famous swimwear. And right in the centre of this urban centre is the 25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin.

Facilities

You begin to suspect there’s something special about the Bikini from the atrium where you catch the lifts. Bicycles hanging from the ceiling compete for attention with a Trabant thats been converted into a planter box, but as soon as you step into the lift heading for reception, that’s the clue to throw out expectations and just enjoy the experience.

First of all the lift is very dark (a little embarrassing as we almost walk into someone getting off). Second of all there’s funky animations playing on the screens as you ascend – think contemporary Salvador Dali and you won’t be too far off the style.

As you get off the lift and approach the reception area you notice little things – hammocks and seats overlooking the zoo so you can chill and relax while reading a book. Workspaces with computers so you can check emails, a high chair/life guard chair so that you can… yeah I never figure that one out, but it’s a funky design-y feature. This is a hotel which has decided the normal is mundane and have added design twists to everything, in the name of a better and more memorable experience.

The hotel also includes a sauna and a top floor bar (Monkey Bar) and restaurant (Neni), which we visit for dinner and breakfast.

Room

When we head to our room there’s a continual wow factor as we discover another element or realise the full impact of what we’ve seen. As you come out of the lift on your room’s floor you see a mountain bike bolted to the wall above the stairs. Then you turn to enter the corridor to your room and there are neon signs with the room numbers outside every room.

You enter the room – we’re lucky enough to enjoy a ‘Jungle Room’ – and floor to ceiling windows, which encompass one end of the room, allow you a panoramic zoo view. The double glazing works really well and it’s only when we open the window that we can hear the hooting of the monkeys (or it might have been the laughing of the hyenas – my skills at discerning animals by their calls is pretty much zero).

The next wow moment for me at least is with the hammock. Allowing you to lay back and gently rock back and forth as you take in the view, the hammock is sturdy and takes my 115kg frame with ease.

I have previously written about the Four Points in Shanghai which had the bathroom viewable from the bedroom, but the Bikini goes one step further. The sink is in the room and the shower partially exposed to the main room! We can’t quite figure out how to get the light in the shower to work and find out later it’s not our fault – the bulb had blown, and the switch we were trying to use was the right one.

Two nice touches were the little booklet with recommendations of places to eat and things to do in the neighbourhood, written by staff members, and the little booklet of “do not disturb” signs so that you could select the one that conveyed the nuanced message you wished to send to house-keeping. They even had one in New Zealand English: “your turn to clean, bro'”.

Food

After a day of cycling in the spring sunshine in Potsdam, we return in time to catch the sunset from the rooftop restaurant.

Before heading over to see if they could fit us in without a reservation, we decide to take a swing through the Monkey Bar. In the corner a DJ plays music which isn’t overbearing and the place is full of hip young Berliners quietly conversing and waiting for the sunset.

The bar faces the northwest, and the balconies on the two sun-facing sides are full. It’s a relaxed and cool vibe – it’s a pity we’re only here for one night as it would be a cool place for a few drinks. We end up at the restaurant, Neni, and manage to get a seat.

Neni

The clientele in the restaurant is slightly older, but we’re lucky enough to sit next to a pair of millennials from the UK, one of which discusses the most mundane topics at a piercing volume while the other struggles to get a word in edgewise. I guess that’s the price of attracting the cool crowd to the bar!

We end up learning how to tune them out and enjoy our dinner – Ange has the Korean fried chicken and I have the almond chicken with sweet chili sauce. We wash it down with a bottle of home made lemonade which reminds me of something I can’t put my finger on. Ange takes a sip and nails it – it’s like a mojito, she says. Without the tequila.

We decide to stay for dessert and split a double scoop of the ice cream. Feeling adventurous we allow our waitress to choose the flavours. Which kind of backfires when we get one delicately flavoured scoop of caramel and one of a coconut vanilla, which I don’t fancy but Ange likes. Hard to complain about that though!

Our neighbours step up the intimacy of their conversation, without lowering the volume, so we settle the bill and head back to our room before they get too graphic.

Breakfast

The next morning we’re back. I had briefly considered getting up at sunrise to take advantage of the dawn light – Neni faces the south-east so presumably would catch the sun coming up over the zoo, but I succumb to the comfort of the bed and we head up a little later instead.

The light streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows when we do get up there has me reaching for my sunglasses and I’m glad we hadn’t had a heavy night the night before – that much sunlight would be murder with a hangover. The breakfast would certainly take the edge off though: the German’s definitely know how to do the first meal of the day!

The hot foods are served in Le Creuset casserole dishes and in addition to the usual suspects of scrambled eggs, mushroom, tomatoes and bacon are poached eggs, homemade tomato sauce, stewed apples and rice pudding. But like everything Bikini-related it’s the little things that provoke a smile – in my case it’s the honey still in the comb. I love the fact you can peer into the kitchen as well and watch the chef preparing the food.

Pros & Cons

Would I Go Back?

In a heartbeat. The views, from the room, from the restaurant – even from the sauna are lovely, the staff really seem to care and the decor exudes design excellence. We loved it.

25 Hour Hotels supported our Summer 2017: UNESCO tour by providing a complimentary stay. All opinions remain our own.

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Location

We wanted to stay somewhere which was a little quieter and less hectic than the centre of town – with excellent public transport in Berlin you can be anywhere in the city in a very short period of time, so staying slightly further out where locals lived was a good choice.

Hotel Otto is located near the Berlin Institute of Technology, but more importantly is a ten minute stroll to the shopping centres and night life near the Zoo, and ten minutes walk from the Story of Berlin – a very cool museum with a nuclear bunker tour. Paradoxically, despite being so close to these attractions, the street that Hotel Otto is on is very quiet and leafy.

Room

We check in and head up to investigate the room. We face out over the carpark, away from the street which means we have zero street noise. There’s a nice noticeboard just inside the door itemising the upcoming events which is a welcome touch and the toiletries are all FairTrade and ethically produced which is always appreciated. We also get a free bottle of water. My favourite design element are the angle-poise lamps which add a funky feel to the room.

The bed is two singles pushed together and we just have time marvel at the walk in wardrobe before heading out and taking in some of the museums in Berlin.

When we need a break we rush back in time to head up to the free afternoon tea on the restaurant floor. We’ve missed the rush and still have a choice between a slice of chocolate or lemon cake to accompany our selection from a bewildering array of teas.

We both select the chocolate brownie cake which is, as you’d expect, delicious. We’re tempted to try the lemon cake as well, but have to make tracks to ensure we get to the Story of Berlin in time to get on the last Bunker Tour.

Surrounds

On the way back from the museum we keep an eye out for a restaurant selling German cuisine which is surprisingly difficult. The museum was in a particularly touristy area so there are plenty to choose from there, but we want to eat closer to the hotel.

There are ample Italian and Indian restaurants and some Spanish tapas and even a French bistro style eateries nearby, but nothing totally German. We settle instead to eat at Pasta & Basta, a small Italian restaurant directly opposite the hotel. I have the fresh home made gnocchi, Ange gets the cannelloni and enjoy the convivial atmosphere. It feels equal parts cosy and homely, and the food is good too! We end up splitting a pannacotta for dessert.

Breakfast

We’d been told that the hotel prided itself on its breakfast, and it certainly delivered! My favourite part are the crepes: there’s a pre-folded crepe with yoghurt and strawberries or a plain one with a choice of syrups. There’s also an extensive selection of breads, along with the gourmet jams which you can also buy to take home.

There’s enough healthy choices also – fruit salads, watermelon and salmon. In addition I head back for some of the hot servings of scrambled eggs and sausage which are more my scene, and I finish with the pièce de résistance, a slice of cheesecake. Yup, cheesecake for breakfast! A nice touch is a little sign saying that if you have any nutritional requirements, to let them know – presumably they would have some gluten free offerings out the back

Pros and Cons

Would I go back?

Definitely – It really is such a great location and the breakfast and afternoon tea are such thoughtful touches.

Hotel Otto supported our Summer 2017: UNESCO tour by providing a complimentary stay. All opinions remain our own.

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Location

We got off the metro at Fredrickstrasse and found the right exit (towards Unter der Linden) and came out of the underground blinking in the grey light. I knew we were close and said let’s just start walking down the road until we see the hotel and just happened to glance to the left as I said it. There was the NH Collection Berlin Mitte Friedrichstrasse – right beside the exit.

The Room

It was about 10am, so we knew we were early and the plan was just to drop off our bags and head out to explore. We get to reception and there’s a little queue of people checking out, so we watch the staff in action. They’re very friendly and professional and it’s not long before we’re head of the queue. We enquire as to whether the room is ready and not only is it ready, but to our delight they had upgraded us to a corner suite!

Taking careful note of the listed internet instructions and location of the restaurant for breakfast, we headed up to the room. I must admit I was quite stunned: the room had a waiting room-like lounge with a couch that folded out to a second bed, and a huge mirror that was taller than me and three times as wide. This was also where the tea and coffee facilities were (yes, a kettle in the room on the continent!) as well the minibar and second TV.

But the best part was around the corner into the main area of the room. That’s when I noticed the high ceilings and the floor to ceiling windows. The view was of the street out front of the hotel, along a gap between buildings to the river and of the Fredrickstrasse rail station and the corridor between that and the hotel. The windows are quadruple glazed and the most we could hear of the street noise was an almost imperceptible low rumble when a train went by. Until some buskers set up right outside the hotel and started singing! Nothing could protect us from that!

The singer had set up on a pedestrian arcade which had four or five restaurants nestled under the rail tracks, right out the side door of the hotel, so we were spoiled for choice for food options.

I idly wondered whether the pedestrians below could see us and so we pulled the curtains and waved at them. None of them waved back or looked up. We decided that the windows must be mirrored or something, and went back to investigating the room.

The bed was firm and had the independent duvets which I was slowly getting used to. The desk alongside had plenty of power points and was surprisingly comfortable to work at. The bathroom had a heated towel rail, dual shower heads (one “rainforest” and one “standard”) and the hotel’s name brand toiletries.

The main room also had a couple of chairs and a table, but the whole room just exuded a relaxed airy feel – the classic white colour scheme and high ceilings really saw to that. We paused briefly for a refreshing cup of tea and then headed down and out to explore Berlin.

We tried connecting to the wifi using the credentials given at reception but they didn’t work – it was easy enough to enter the room number and name to get connected though, so I wasn’t sure if those credentials were for higher up in the hotel, or what the story was.

When we had arrived they had mentioned that we were eligible for one free item of clothing to be pressed (something I’ve always been appreciative of when travelling for work), so I took down my dress shirt with instructions it had to be ready before checkout the next day. We then headed out for sight seeing.

Just to check we crossed the road and looked up at our room, expecting not to be able to see in. But no, we can see everything: I make a mental note to keep the robe on after showering!

On Our Return

About five or six hours later we came back to the room and the shirt was sitting on the coat hook in the ante-room, freshly pressed. We decided to grab a sauna and then have dinner – we’d had a long day walking around Berlin so wanted to sweat out the muscle soreness.

Sauna

The Wellness centre boasted an old school sauna and solarium, a shower room and foot warmer. The best part for me was a “How to Sauna” infographic in two languages with a couple of very noticeable differences – the English version gives a 8-10 minute warm up and the German one a 10-15 minute one. There’s also a fridge of drinks to stay hydrated and big fluffy towels to accompany our robes and slippers. As usual, one size fits all slippers don’t fit my enormous feet, so I make do with bare feet. Not complaining though!

I must admit we don’t follow the instructions for the sauna, and head straight into the sauna and flick the egg timer over to see if we can manage 15 minutes in the 50C heat. As sweat drips off me I wonder if we are only getting a certain percentage of the benefit – I imagine sauna aficionados would be shaking their head at us as we only just manage the 15 minutes and then wash the sweat off in the shower room.

Food

Dinner

We’re naturally well rested after the sauna and don’t feel like going out so we peruse the room service menu. The burgers stand out as being exceptional value – at a price point which surprises me for the class of hotel. Ange gets one too and when they arrive I’m pleasantly surprised. The meat patty is large and threatens to overpower the delicate balance, but the fried onions are a lovely touch and it’s very juicy!

As we get started on our shared dessert, we hear the buskers return for a repeat performance. Sometime later the act changes from a three piece (good singer on guitar and two other guys on bongos) to a solo female singer accompanying herself on guitar.

The guy could sing but the girl sacrifices technique for volume and ends up screeching her country covers into a disinterested street. The best part of it is by 8pm they’ve all packed up and gone, leaving the only noise the soft rumble of the regional trains.

Breakfast

We hit the restaurant for breakfast and are very pleasantly surprised at the scale of the effort. There are a range of fruit juices, accompanied by shot glasses of invigorating fruit combinations. There are cold cuts of meat, a myriad of cereals and assorted toppings. A freshly baked collection of breads, buns and loafs plus butters and spreads to go with them. A whole gluten free section beckons. And that doesn’t even mention the hot foods plus the onsite chef preparing your omelette exactly as you like it.

Shower

Ange knocked on the door – what are you doing?! I had discovered a magical setting on the shower head in the shower and must have let my delight show at having heated fingers of high pressure water massage my shoulders, neck and back. There was a little button on the shower head which clicked through the settings, allowing more or less water through the outer holes and the remainder through the central ones. One setting even had the central flow moving in patterns making for a lovely back rub. Heaven! The video below shows cycling through the settings but I had turned the pressure right down for the purposes of actually seeing the differences on the video.

Pros and Cons

Would I Return?

Yes. A thousand times yes. The hotel is close enough to everything to make it a great base for shopping, business or sight seeing, and has all the facilities you’d expect from a luxury hotel in the centre of town.

NH Collection supported our Summer 2017: UNESCO tour by providing a complimentary stay. All opinions remain our own.

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After exiting from the Märkisches Museum U-Bahn stop I walk a couple of steps and go into what I think is Derag Livinghotel Berlin-Mitte but which turns out to be the Derag Livinghotel Großer Kurfürst. Doh. Strangely enough they have my name in the system because they are both of the same brand. I am gently directed 10 metres across the road to the right hotel.

I am instantly struck by the olde worlde charm of the formal lobby of the Derag Livinghotel Berlin-Mitte with its dark wood reception desk and smartly uniformed receptionist.

There are cute letterboxes holding solid looking metal keys. After we confirm Chris is arriving later that evening and needs to fill in his details, I head upstairs to Room 462 to unpack a little and chill out.

Upon entering the hallway of the 4th floor I’m overwhelmed by classical musical coming out of the Bose ceiling speaker. It’s…er…slightly loud but maybe because I’m jet lagged everything’s seeming slightly loud. The hallway is hung with large portraits of official looking people and olde worlde sketches of towns.

Room

The room itself was probably top notch in the 80s and is still perfectly fine, clean tidy well presented. The bathroom has a bath tub which is a nice touch.

Most importantly is what makes it a Livinghotel – a kitchenette with a stove top, microwave, kettle, fridge. Very compact but very serviceable. There is also a minibar with two free beers and two glass bottles of water.

The bed is the continental double of two singles pushed together with two duvets. The pillows each have a small packet of Haribo gummy bears instead of the traditional chocolates.

Food

I decide to go to the Alnatura Super Natur Markt round the corner from the hotel in Alte Jakobstrasse to grab some snacks and something for dinner. It looks very healthy from the Google map description and, sure enough, it has a wide selection of fruits, veggies, grains, dairy products, meats and organic products to satisfy my inner health nut which is crying out for sustenance after 54 hours of airport and airplane food.

I stock up on healthy fare (which is carted back to the hotel in sustainable paper sacks). Before heading up to the room I ask if the music can be turned down a little (I’ve decided it’s not just my jet lag it is really quite loud!). I also ask if I can borrow some cutlery for my food since there was a placard in the kitchenette that says to ask at reception if you need some. I’m directed next door to the restaurant for it but the waiters look blank when I ask for a knife, a fork and two spoons.

No, no, they say, they cannot, it is against restaurant policy. But I’ve just been told to ask you for it I say. Who by? they enquire. Reception, I reply. They tell me the restaurant is not actually linked to the hotel even though there is a door leading to it from the lobby. It’s all a bit confusing. I’m accompanied back to reception by a waiter who has a discussion with the receptionist in German. She dismisses him abruptly and tells me to wait there. She disappears out the back and returns with the required cutlery.

I thank her and head back to the room none the wiser about the restaurant. During the time I’ve been away it’s become a lot colder so I turn up the heating on the radiator. The room isn’t chilly but it could do with a boost. When Chris arrives several hours later it’s still pretty much the same temperature. At the beginning of Spring it’s adequate but I think the single radiator would struggle in the dead of winter.

But we have a decent enough sleep, eat our healthy yoghurts forgoing the extra charge for the breakfast buffet and check out easily enough with no dramas.

Pros and Cons

Would I Go Back?

I’m not sure I would go back, there were a few kerfuffles which slightly marred a perfect experience for me like the loud music and the cutlery confusion. But overall it was pleasant for a one night stay.

The post Review: Derag Livinghotel Berlin-Mitte appeared first on etrip.tips.

I confidently strode to the departures area of KLIA2 and checked the departures board for my 8pm flight. No sign of it, it was only showing AirAsia flights. Very odd. I checked again. Nope. I felt a slight panic arise. I looked at my printed itinerary, oh right, I needed to be at the main KLIA terminal, not KLIA2. No worries, I’d catch the KLIA Express.

After purchasing a ticket I went down to the platform. The next train was in 20 minutes. Ok, that was pushing it a bit, it was approaching 6pm, by the time the train arrived and I got to the terminal it would be heading towards 7. I still had to check in my baggage so I thought a taxi would be the next best option.

I went back upstairs and tried to find a taxi, eventually I found them but they wouldn’t accept cash, so I had to line up to get a voucher. All this added extra minutes that I didn’t really have. The stress was also compounded by the taxi driver who I left with who was not very reassuring with his “KLIA is a very big airport, I hope you don’t miss your flight”.

But he obligingly put the pedal to the metal and we sped along. He jokingly passed comment on a taxi who had crashed on the side of the road “He was very fast, but not safe, don’t worry I’m fast but also safe”. I hoped this was true for the fact that neither of us were wearing seat belts.

At KLIA I checked in, there were no other passengers in sight and headed off to the Departures gates. I felt calmer. But I was pulled up short at customs which had a sizeable queue of people and only two officials looking at passports. The panic set in again, it looked like we were going to be here for hours. But a couple behind me were chilled out and said they reckoned 15 minutes. They were right.

So after all that I was at the Departure gate with time to spare, and the flight was half an hour late boarding anyway. No need to stress at all really. But I was glad I’d caught a taxi anyway instead of waiting for the train.

We flew 1.5 hours to Ho Chi Minh City where we transited for two hours, then changed onto a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for the 12 hour flight to Frankfurt. After flying the first leg with AirAsia the Dreamliner was bliss.

Although I was in economy I had comfortable seating, soft blankets, pillows, movies, and the added luxury of the Empty Seat option which consisted of two empty seats next to me which I’d reserved via Optiontown for USD$33.

They let you know up to three hours before you fly if you’ve been successful with the Empty Seat option, if not, they give you a refund.

I also got a chance to try out the Dreamliner’s dimming window which replaces traditional shutters. You push the bottom half of the button to make it darker and the top half to make it lighter. However, as we flew during nighttime and arrived early morning I didn’t really get to see it in action like this video demonstrates.

Even though I personally was happy about the empty seats next to me, it seemed others were a bit nonplussed as to why they were empty when the rest of the plane was full.

A group of Germans on the other side of the aisle were quite packed in, to the point where a lady extracted herself from a middle seat of three and plopped herself down in one of my empty ones. “No one is sitting here?” she asked. “Um actually yes, I’ve reserved them”.

She looked a bit put out and went back to her own seat. I felt a bit bad about it but after flying 12 hours from Auckland and a 15 hour transit in KL with only four hours sleep I was looking forward to lying down. Plus I had paid for them.

Anyway, immediately after take off I put the arm rests up, got my blanket (of which I had three), piled up my three pillows and stretched out for the next few hours. Food arrived shortly after take off, and again just before landing. No complaints there, it was pretty good as airline food goes.

I did get a bit hungry four hours from landing so I went up the back and asked for a snack which they were happy to provide in the form of 2 minute noodles.

We arrived at Frankfurt safely with no dramas and I felt surprisingly rested. I’d be happy to fly with Vietnam Airlines again on a Dreamliner 787-9, especially if I had the Empty Seat option. It just gives you a lot more comfort and space which you need on a long haul flight but be warned if you go for the upgrade, you may get some envious looks.

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It’s a bold statement, artwork by an artist named Susanne Kunjappu-Jellinek designed to make us remember the tragedy that once blighted this place. For each rose represents a life extinguished, the life of someone for whom remaining in East Berlin just wasn’t an option, the life of someone who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the futility of political division.

Today, Berlin’s East Side Gallery exudes no menace. In the bright August sunshine, almost twenty-five years after the wall fell, a souvenir shop advertises that for a euro, you can have your passport stamped to commemorate the event that set Germany on the road to recovery.

Inside, those tempted by the gaudy offerings are watched intently lest they sneak a photograph instead of a purchase. The surveillance is too much for me, and I head back outside. Perhaps that’s the point.

It’s a fascinating city, a world away from the chocolate box villages of Bavaria and the vineyards of the Rhine and Mosel. Berlin is edgy, gritty, tarnished by graffiti. But it has attitude in spades and after several visits, I’ve never felt unsafe as a solo female traveller.

This time, my base is the Adina, an apartment hotel in the Mitte district. Despite its proximity to the city’s main station and passing trams, its side street location ensures it is as quiet as it is comfortable. After arriving early in the morning on the sleeper train from Munich, I’m refreshed and raring to go, but I’ll welcome the efficient double glazing later.

Where to start? There are so many sights on my wish list it’s hard to know where to begin, so I plunge in with the Fernsehturm, ascending the city’s TV tower to get my bearings. Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag follow before I decide I’ve seen more than enough sights for one day. The nearby Tiergarten provides a more than adequate patch of grass to savour an ice cream; Berlin’s huge green lungs were once used for hunting before becoming its best-known city park.

Later, I’m feeling peckish again and the restaurant I’ve picked for dinner is Cafe Einstein. I’ve chosen it solely on the basis that Einstein is my dog’s name, but it turns out the place has a bit of a story. Located on Kurfürstenstraße, its antique wooden panelling and attentive wait staff hark back to bygone days.

Housed in an 1878 villa that allegedly once belonged to Josef Goebbels, this Viennese-style cafe is known for its strudel. That’s a fact that didn’t escape film director Quentin Tarantino, who chose Cafe Einstein to double as the Parisian Chez Maurice in Inglourious Basterds – you might remember the scene where cinema owner Shosanna eats the stuff with Goebbels himself?

The Viennese connection is obvious in the dishes presented on its evening menu, and I feast on delicious schnitzel, saving room of course for a generous helping of strudel. It’s a good job there’s a U-Bahn stop just up the road for it would be a long walk back across the Tiergarten if I was relying solely on my feet to carry me.

Potsdam

Much as I’m enjoying the German capital, I’m keen to take the short train ride to one of the region’s prettiest little towns: Potsdam. Its Schloss Cecilienhof was the setting for Churchill, Truman and Stalin’s historic conference at the end of the Second World War in which they decided the fate of a defeated Germany.

What I find, however, is a veritable United Nations. The closest district to the station is the Hollandisches Viertel. The work of Dutch architect Johann Boumann in the 18th century, I could easily be in Amsterdam as I potter around the many streets lined with Flemish-style antique shops.

A short walk and I’m in Russia, or to be precise, the Kolonie Alexandrowka. Log-clad cottages wouldn’t be out of place in Siberia, save for the lack of tumbledown quality. Festooned with pink and purple begonias, there’s no doubt we’re in Germany, but I learn that the alien building style was a deliberate attempt to attract migrants.

As with the Dutch quarter, the craftsmanship and skill of these foreign artisans was highly prized and actively sought by the Prussian kings of the time. Up the hill, a path takes me to the woods and I find myself looking at a fairy tale domed church in pastel pink enclosed by trees. It’s a shame it’s locked, with no caretaker around to let me in.

Potsdam’s main draw though is Sanssouci, the largest UNESCO World Heritage site in Germany. The grounds are delightful, hiding an 18th century Chinese tea house whose gilt statues flicker in the dappled sunshine.

I explore for so long I almost miss the Neues Palais. Built by Frederick the Great, he probably envisaged more of a wow factor than I got – with a dome covered in scaffolding and an events crew packing up a mountain of metal fencing, it’s not looking its best.

I duck back into the grounds in search of his summer palace, a stately home set next to a windmill. Some say it’s like a German Versailles and although that’s a bit of a stretch, it’s easy to see why it’s a fitting location for Frederick’s final resting place. It’s a good thing that Berlin’s nightlife is calling, or, like Frederick, I might never leave.

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