This
Christmas we decided to relax: We met our relatives in longer period and left
the Christmas days just for us two and headed for Berlin. Our program was very
loose and I enjoyed the every moment no being in a hurry.
We flew
there on Christmas Eve and took a taxi to our hotel on Kastanie Alle. We have
reserved our Christmas dinner at a restaurant near Friedrichsstrasse: Sprout soup first and goose breast as a main
course. It tasted delicious. There are some things in German cuisine I don’t
like very much. One is the treating of potatoes: Why on earth should the potatoes
be altered to sticky goo!? Another thing is the frequent usage of different
cabbages: Four different ways in a dinner is just too much, however delicious
the different dishes might be.
Me with my Chritmas goose breast
Berlin was
really quiet as a big city and we walked through the almost empty streets in
moonlight to our hotel.
At our hotel bar
The Christmas day was for two things: We visited Potsdam and met our Berlin sisters. So in the morning we took a S-Bahn to Potsdam. The weather was warm (about 10 degrees Celcius) and it has obviously been warm for a while. So many plants have made a false conclusion that the spring has already come. For example cherry trees, roses, and rhododendron bushes were blooming.
Potsdam is
an old military and administrative town. The streets and houses along them told
me a story about wealthy and organized life in 18th century. The blocks
of flats from DDR period behind the scene
disturbed the illusion a bit.
We visited
the interesting castle Sanssouci. It was the place where Frederick the Great
(1712–86) lived his summer periods. He was known as a strict warrior king but
at his summer palace he led his stress free life. He had many highly civilized long
term guests, for example Voltaire and “servants” as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
and he played and composed music very skillfully. He didn’t live with his wife
(which he was made to marry by his father) and had no children. The guests were
only men what makes one wonder what was really going on. On the other hand the royal problems
with making babies seemed to be very common in these days, for example Swedish
Gustaf III and French Louis XVI.
The Christmas
day evening we took a S-Bahn to Nollendorf to Transsisters Berlin club. It was
at a tiny gay bar. There were about ten sisters and some of their spouses. We
had a nice chat with many of them. I’m rather lousy with German language but
fortunately my wife speaks it like a native.
With a Transsisters Maja in Nollendorf
In the
Boxing Day morning we went to the Church in a suburb of Berlin to listen to the
Choir where our friend sings. The music was a mass by a French baroque composer
Marc Antoine Charpantier. It was made on basis of Christmas carols and made as
such sounded more like hilarious court dance music than church music, composed
by coeval Germans.
After the
concert we had a long lasting lunch with lots of stories and sorts of German
food. In the evening we wondered along the Berlin streets and Christmas
markets.
At the Berlin Alexandeplatz
The shops were closed so we really had time to spend again. We had our
evening snack at a Rheinland style bar which had a name meaning it is an
embassy of Rheinland. It is very popular among the federal administrative who
moved from Bonn to Berlin when Berlin became the capital of Germany. And
indeed, the relaxing atmosphere in the restaurant really is like in Cologne.
No, the sausage is for us two....
By the river Spree
By the river Spree
On Sunday
after Christmas the shops were mostly closed so our trip was sort of
non-shopping trip. We travelled here and there in Berlin and finally took the
bus to Berlin Tegel airport - without any hurry and stress.
Holocaust memorial, Potsdammer Platz
Someone undressing the Brandenburger Tor Christmas tree
