On our second day in Berlin, we discovered the full wonders of our lovely little hotel. I wish I’d taken more pictures of it because it was really very cute. They had little Christmas decorations here and there and it had a very warm but uncluttered feeling. The bed was super comfortable and had one of those lovely personal duvets that I’ve once or twice experienced elsewhere in Europe. The breakfast room there is bright and orderly. Gosh, writing about it I wish I was there! They had yummy yogurt and cheeses and rolls and cereals, tomatoes and fruit, and some meats for the carnivores. It was a fairly typical European spread–very nice.

Once we had enough caffeine to pull ourselves away from all that, we embarked on our first S/U-Bahn journey (I can’t remember which) to check out some antique markets at Friedrichstrasse. This was our first foray into the Eastern part of Berlin, and we did notice some subtle differences (though that might just be because of the nice section we were staying in–it’s hard to know how representative that is of the Western side of the city). There were a lot of lovely things at the antique markets, but much of it was more along the lines of fine antiques that we could probably neither afford nor fit in our suitcases. It was neat to see everything, though. We saw a lot of cool old furniture and lamps and clocks–arts and crafts things as well as sleeker stuff from the 1930s.

Antiques at Friedrichstrasse. These are actually some of the newer items we saw.

After cruising through the antique stalls, we ended up heading westward on the Unter den Linden, a wide avenue that cuts east to west through the city, crossing under the Brandenburg Gate and turning into the Strasse des 17 Juni., which bisects the Tiergarten. We stumbled upon Berlin on Ice, a public ice rink that’s open from the end of November through early January where, besides skating, they apparently hold a number of other holiday events. Here’s a picture from their site:

We followed the people wandering away from Berlin on Ice and found ourselves at another big Christmas market at Gendarmenmarkt. This one was very pretty. I don’t remember this one having rides, except maybe a carousel, so it was a little less carnival-like than some of the others, but it was still very nice. We wandered the stalls for quite a while and sampled some drinks and these yummy little spiced dough things that were really tasty. Though I just got a nice pair of slippers for Christmas, I was unable to resist the fluffy wool footies I found in one of the stalls. As soon as I saw them I had to try them on, and as soon as I tried them on I had to have them. It was hysterical, really. I sort of wish I had a picture of when I tried them on. I think the people running the booth thought I was a little nutty, but dang!–those things were fluffy! (They still are, though they’ve been smushed down a bit from wear.) So, these are my new “woolies.”

We shared a yummy little pizza at an Italian place inside the market, where we huddled under a heat lamp and grinned goonishly at each other across the tablecloth. I remember the place had these cute red felt drapes over the chairs–very Christmas-y.

Ezzie at the pizza place, under the heat lamp.

After lunch we wandered around a bit more and went into a little indoor tent that was full of more stalls. There were lots of artisans in there. One was selling loads of carved ornaments and decorations. That’s another thing that’s very big there, as far I could tell–hand-carved things made of wood. In the “it’s a small world” department, there were also a couple of people there making letterpressed business cards.

An indoor stall selling lots of things made of wood.

Then it was time to head over to The Filmmuseum at the Sony Center. Unfortunately, the guidebook I was using said that the museum was open until 8PM and closed on Mondays. When we got there, the museum was about to close, but the woman we spoke with told us that it IS in fact open on Mondays. So, we planned to return the next day. There was still time, though, to go to the museum shop, which was full of lots of interesting goodies, promising much fun in the museum. I bought the exhibition poster for the current exhibit titled Sound – Film – Music, 1929-1933. The poster was cheap–7 euros, or about $11. It’s based on this photograph. Doesn’t this actress look like Claudette Colbert?

The Sony Center is this big commercial complex at Potsdamer Platz, a huge commercial intersection that’s been totally rebuilt since the war. Ez wrote about it on his blog. There was a sort of little Christmas market at the Sony Center, too, with curling (I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before in person) and a big Christmas tree made of Legos.

The little Christmas markets at the Sony Center.

I think it was on this day that we wandered over to even more Christmas markets at Potsdamer Platz–they call it Winter World because there’s ice skating and a big toboggan run. It’s smaller and more touristy (due to it’s location) than some of the other markets we visited.

I think after that we headed back to our neighborhood in search of food and warmth–not necessarily in that order. We ended up going to a rather tasty Italian restaurant (Italian is an easy choice for the veggie traveler) in our neighborhood called Ristorante Tre. I’m fairly certain it was run by bona fide Italians and everything I had was very tasty. (If you check the menu at their site, I had the spaghetti mafioso. NUM!)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Blather, art, christmas, dining, wide world of vacation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.