Unter Den Linden Sights

By our fourth day, we felt ambitious enough for a stroll to Tiergarten, via Unter den Linden, three miles or so, there and back again, with assorted detours. Some sights along the way...

Street scene from Friedrichstrasse

The Friedrichstadt Palast...gorgeous art deco theater...

Side detail...

Along the river Spree, the famous TV tower rises from Bode Museum

Nearly empty boat tour

The Admirals Palast, another theater; Berlin architecture is already
exceeding our expectations

Doner kebap is really big here

Local fashion

More architecture to look into

William Tell's son slept here?

Another for my collection, Man-hole Covers of the World

Us, there

Reichstag

Strolling in Tiergarten

Ukrainian memorial before the heavily-guarded and cordoned-off

Russian embassy

Street scene

After a panna cotta interlude, we stopped in at the Ampelmann
store, which is, in fact, ground zero Berlin; Ampelmann is the
East Berlin traffic light figure that, in a fit of irrational nostalgia,
Berliners have adopted city-wide

Ampelmanning

Two Markets

Among the things we like best in Europe are the markets, especially in the cities. Berlin has many markets, and in our first few days we took in two: Boxhagener Platz and the Turkish market in Kreuzberg.

At "Boxi," mostly glass and vintage clothing

A gorgeous day, nonetheless

Fake leather-bound Time/Life series on the American
West; in Deutsch, of course

Cousin seen recently on Deep Creek, NC

Recycling vinyl for decorative purposes

The market wraps around a city park block, with playgrounds,
etc.

Outside the playground is the kids' market, where kids and their
moms sell used toys, clothes...

The area around Boxi, about 5km from the centrum,
is a restaurant paradise; this stretch of restaurants,
and nothing but restaurants, goes on for two solid
blocks here, both sides; must be pretty lively in the
evenings...

One doesn't expect to see much art nouveau nor art deco in post-
1945 Berlin; but here and there are interesting surprises...

En route to the Turkish market, kayak class on the canal

At the Turkish market, both sides of a long street on the canal

Not exactly the Grand Bazaar, but a fair representation of Turkish
culture and stuff, to us...clothes, jewelry, food, mostly Turkish

After WWII, Germany had a shortage of workers and so developed
a massive guest-worker program, many, if not most of which were
Turks; we had some prior experience of this, at a Mercedes-Benz
dealer near Gaziantep, whose manager was the son of one of those
guest workers...fluent German, Turkish, and English...and very
kind to American travelers needing an oil change...

The only thing missing was the tea delivery on trays to the merchants

Dress priced in Turkish lira

Lots of food at this market; the longest line, interestingly, was
at this Thai stall; we munched on strudel and baklava, however

True to form, there were many textile stands

A mountain of blueberries; and a very decent market, we thought,
not Belleville in Paris in terms of ethnicity and exotica; but still
worth a visit 

In Berlin

Our studio apartment is on Chausseestrasse, about a mile from Berlin ground zero, right at the Naturkundemuseum stop on both the tram and the underground. Our first few days were given to neighborhood explorations, shopping for groceries and staples, and also jet-lag recovery, but since then we have undertaken a few more adventurous trips, to a couple markets and to a museum of art nouveau and art deco decorative arts. And the obligatory walk to the Tiergarten Park, via Unter den Linden and the Brandenburg Gate. We are enjoying Berlin's very extensive public transportation system...trams, buses, both underground and surface trains...not as cheap as some cities, but certainly accessible, clean, efficient, etc., and they take you where you want to go.

Chausseestrasse looking up-town

And down-town; Chausseestrasse merges with Friedrichsstrasse
after a few blocks, crosses the river Spree, and then intersects with
Unter den Linden, Berlin's Champs-Elysees

Our apartment building...we're on the first floor, just above the
coffee shop; elevator to the underground is just across the street;
this is the former east Berlin, so everything, apart from a few
historic sites, is new, neat and shiny; and very up to date; except
our air conditioner, which will figure in the out-takes

The apartment complex is call Living 106

The complex consists of several buildings, and 78 units;
our building is the street frontage, but opens onto this
courtyard (auto parking in under the complex)

And then this one, surrounded by other complex buildings

The studio is reasonably large but just a long room divided by
furniture and a screen; here is the dining/office from the living
area

Kitchen, reception (even has a dishwasher)

Living area/media room

Bedroom; the bathroom beyond even has a combination washer/
dryer: luxury! With euro/dollar parity, $87/night

An older-looking building a block away

A few doors down the street is the Ballhaus Berlin, a
former cabaret of some note (I watched Cabaret on the flight
over); featured flirting via table telephone, as in the movie

Thus; famous regulars have included Bertold Brecht,
David Bowie, and Quentin Tarantino

Interim Update #1,270

In the course of selling and unloading Le Sport, we managed to pack also for our two-month trip back to Europe, which will include three 3-week-long stays in Berlin, then Prague, and then Vienna. It helped that we are really into a minimalist mode for travel, 2 small backpacks and two roller-boards. Period. Anyhow, we are now in our central Berlin apartment, a studio, jet-lagged, but happy to be back.

Coincidentally, our departure occurred on the 14th anniversary of our original retirement departure, from Missoula, August 31st, 2008. A day later, we were en route from San Francisco to Tokyo and then Beijing. 5,110 days on the road now as we arrived in Berlin. We were a bit better organized and prepared this time.

BTW, this is our third visit to Berlin since retiring...for our 2009 and 2012 posts, just enter "Berlin" in the search box at the right.

Traditional departure shot

Departing from Nerk

Our Berlin apartment, pretty central, walkable to most of the
things we like