New Years Day saw a late start to our activities. The sun doesn’t rise until about 8:15am over here so places are not operational until later anyway. The Brandenburg Gate was on the agenda so we walked to the Ubahn station. While roaming around, there was debris from spent fireworks scattered everywhere.

The Bear is the animal emblem for Berlin. It is a pun on the city’s name – ‘little bear’ in German is Bärlein.

We navigated the Ubahn and Sbahn to arrive at our destination.We started at Rathaus Neuköln (Townhall) station. The train was clean and they have screens in each carriage that informs passengers about upcoming stops plus a screen displaying the latest news.

The Brandenburg Tor train station has an exit near the Russian embassy. It is an imposing building with many people congregating outside. One young man was seen to be doing the one finger salute into the air to express his opinion of the embassy. A tribute to Ukraine has also been set up on the land strip in the middle of Unter den Linden Strasse (Grand boulevard lined with Linden trees), attracting much interest.

The Brandenburg gate was obscured by a stage and cordoned off so workers could break down the structures. The place was teeming with tourists as expected.

I wore a high neck T-shirt under a light dress, 120 denier stockings and my green skirt. No scarf or gloves needed. Always take a warm coat in case there is a cold breeze. The expected temperature for today was cloudy and a high of 15C.

The Hotel Adlon is next to the USA embassy. It is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his son from the window.

We wanted to see if we could get a meal here but they were only accepting reservations. So further down the road we found the Lebensart restaurant and sat inside. It was busy but the wait staff were efficient and friendly. I chose the Currywurst which was served with chips and Scott ordered the Club Sandwich. Chosen beverages were beer and gluwein. An Apple strudel was also consumed.

The area attracts a lot of tourists so this area is maintained and kept clean.

A popular ice cream in Germany is called ‘Spaghetti Eis’. It basically is ice cream forced through small holes to form ‘spaghetti’ which is then topped with berry sauce to represent Bolognaise pasta.

The Ampelmann is an icon of Berlin. When the wall came down in 1989, the city was reunited and one of the items that differed were the walking symbols on pedestrian crossings. The Ampelmann was the symbol used in East Berlin.

After our meal we continued on foot to FriedrIchstrasse. We walked past the Galeries Lafayette where the Accenture Berlin office is located. Further down the road is Checkpoint Charlie which used to be a Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Berlin. Of course the place is now surrounded by American fast food stores and souvenir shops. There was a tree decorated with Ukrainian flags erected beside the checkpoint.

It was evident that we were in the old east by the architecture in the area. We kept walking to Gendarmenmarkt which held the Christmas Markets but although they were lit up nicely, the markets were closed and being dismantled.

We continued onto Alexanderplatz which is where the Telekom tower is situated. There is an interesting clock sculpture that you can walk around and look at the location times around the world.

It was time for an early dinner before heading home. Scott took us to the Hofbrau Munchen Wirtshaus which is a Bavarian Inn serving Bavarian food. It is designed as one of the beer halls you would find in Munich during Oktoberfest. Scott chose the Goulash soup of beef with paprika, sour cream and fresh farmhouse bread. I enjoyed the Sausage plate with a dunkel beer. It was delicious and we had left overs to take home.

We travelled home on the Ubarn from Alexanderplatz and completed another day of a lot of walking.

Guten Nacht.