Berlin

Day 10 (Wednesday 4th July)


It was still raining quite heavily but I braved it anyway, taking the subway to Zoo Gardens to check out the Photography Museum.

This is mostly in honour of Helmut Newton, but there was also a fascinating travelling exhibition called Humanism in China that featured over 1000 photos by 250 Chinese photographers.

After the Photgraphy Museum I took the subway to Potsdamer Platz and walked up past the Jewish Memorial to the Brandenburg Gate.

From there I walked along the Unter den Linden before catching a train to Checpoint Charlie.

After spending some time there I took the subway again to Nordbahnhof where one of the last remaining sections of the wall has been turned into a memorial and exhibit.

I finished the day where I started at Potsdamer Platz where I made a dinner reservation for Thursday night. This is my first real extravagance of the trip - I am having dinner in a Michelin starred restaurant called Facil, which is going to cost my far more than I want to think about, but I'm a bit of a foodie so I'm really looking forward to it.

Day 11 (Thursday 5th July)

Caught the subway out to Schloss Charlottenberg, which was orignally built as a getaway for a noble woman, but she and her husband went on to become the first king and queen of Prussia and the original schloss was expanded into a palace. Like Schloss Nymphemburg in Munich it still has the huge grounds behind it, but the style is very different. The original palace and grounds were both Baroque in style, but some of the new building is Roccoco, and the gardens were transformed from the origianal very formal French style garden into a rambling English style park. However they were bombed during the war, and during the rebuilding part of the garden was restored according to the original French plans.

I had dinner at Facil (http://www.facil.de/) last night, which was simply superb. I was feeling guilty about spending so much on one meal - it cost 130 euros, which is about $200AUD - but I guess I spent that sort of money each time when I went sky diving, bungy jumping and abseiling in New Zealand, so why shouldn't I spend it on something else that is a once in a lifetime experience that I can't get at home? I had to laugh though - I'm staying in a cheap hotel for 40 euros a night, so the meal cost me more than my 3 nights in Berlin.

It was worth it. The meal is a 6 course fixed menu, to which they add two small apertifs and a basket with four different sorts of breads accompanied by two dips that were delicious. In the entire meal there was only one thing that wasn't pure magic, and that was just because it turns out I'm not a fan of fennel. There was a tuna entree, then foie gras, a cod dish, two beef dishes, a melon sorbet dessert, and their idea of an after dinner mint is more like a dessert selection for two. The wine waiter was also terrific, helping me to choose three different wines that accompanied the meal perfectly. I took some photos but it was with my little compact camera rather than the new SLR, so I won't be able to download them til I get home.

By the way, I've been resizing my pictures very small to put on the blog, but it turns out the blog site thumbnails your pictures anyway, and the version you see links to the original. So starting from these pictures of the Schloss you will be able to click on any of the pictures and it will bring up a larger version.