Plus: Is 9+ miles a death march?

The answer, of course, is a lot. This was our only full weekend in Berlin and we didn’t want to waste a minute of it. Guess what? We didn’t.

As per our usual, we mapped out a walking route that came out to a little less than 10 miles.

Death march? Nah, but close enough (I think she made sure each of the days were juuuuusssst less than 10 miles so I couldn’t whine that it was a death march. She is very tricky). Steven hadn’t seen the Brandenberg Gate and surrounding area, which I had seen on my photo tour, so we decided to take the U-Bahn (the underground/metro/subway) to Potsdammer Platz (mostly because we knew how to get there) and then start walking. We got to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (aka Holocaust Memorial) first. It is a series of different size stele laid out in a grid. Underneath, there is a museum that relates the history of the Holocaust. None of it is news to us, but it is particularly distressing given the state of the world now.

From there, we walked through the Brandenberg Gate and off to Checkpoint Charlie. We lasted about a nanosecond – it is very touristy and everyone has to pose in front of it. I guess it’s a must-see, but it’s not really our thing.

Every city has a food market/fancy food court and Berlin is no different. The Markthalle Neun is in Kreuzberg, a hip neighborhood we wanted to visit, so we made it our lunch stop. These places are fine, but they are crowded on weekends and there’s not a lot of seating, so we bought an apple strudel and baby babka (it was the size and shape of a muffin) and moved on to a Middle Eastern restaurant for lunch. Yum!

Next, we went to the East Side Gallery, which is the largest remaining section of the Wall and is used as a blank canvas for artists. There’s a well-known painting of Reagan and Gorbachev kissing, among other symbolic works. Such a strange thing to think that a wall enclosed people in the middle of what was a unified city and they could see the other side, but unless they were willing to risk death, they were stuck.

Enough of the depressing stuff! We headed to a teledisko booth, which is exactly what it sounds like. You put in 2 euros if you don’t want photos and 4 if you do. Then you pick a song, enter the booth and dance for 3 minutes. You can choose a disco ball, fog machine or strobe effects to add to the atmosphere. Completely silly and worth it (Alas, the video we took of us dancing is for some reason unavailable – wonder why???).

We had a reservation for a jazz show Saturday night, so we decided to head back to the apartment for a break before heading back out. The Zig Zag Jazz Club is about a 25-minute train ride from the apartment. They don’t have reserved seats, so it pays to get there early, which we did, and picked seats at the back that were up a couple of steps so we had a great view of the funk band, Booty Jive who are a tribute band to Maceo Parker. Notwithstanding their weird schtick about coming from the planet Bayou 7 (or something like that), the show was tons of fun. A young woman from Dresden sat next to us and we had an interesting conversation with her about jazz and her parents’ and grandparents’ life in East Germany. If she is reading this: Good luck with your singing and teaching career!

We opted for an Uber back since the train runs less frequently at night, although we felt completely safe to take the train if the schedule had worked.

Sunday

We decided to take it easy and not leave until after lunch. (Don’t worry, we still got our steps in.) We knew we couldn’t be here and not go to Museum Island, which is a campus of five art and culture museums housed in architecturally stunning buildings. Sometimes, we aim at a distant spot and then check to see where we can stop along the way. This time, we were passing close to Silent Heroes Memorial Center, which I wanted to go to because I thought it would be a little uplifting after the Holocaust Memorial and the Wall.

Boy was I wrong. Yes, many people tried to change the course of events or save their neighbors, but for the most part they were unsuccessful and ended up dead. We left there feeling pretty depressed.

We were able to shake it off and wander the museums for about an hour. We were kind of museumed out and had movie tickets for 6 p.m., so the hour was enough for us. I mostly wanted to see the buildings anyway, but while we were there, we figured we had to see the famous Nefertiti bust and we did. I tried to count it as Dead Person Bingo, but we decided it was only Dead Person Bingo adjacent.

From there, we went to Alexander Platz, which is a big tourist center with international stores and restaurants. We went there to see the World Time Clock, which was pretty cool and worth the five-minute detour. Plus, I would have been curious if I hadn’t seen Alexander Platz and it was almost on the way to the movie theater. … which we headed to next. We had some time, so we sat in a café and met two Irish baristas and I found out that they cheat and instead of a dirty chai latte, they make pumpkin spice. Oh well. I drank it anyway.

The Babylon theater, plays retrospectives, festivals and old films. There were Coen brothers films last week (we had to miss The Big Lebowski (deeply upsetting especially with all the strands in this old duder’s head these days)– that’s the one thing that stinks about Steven’s working on US time here, he’s busy in the evenings) and this week begins a Bong Joon Ho series. Our friend Paul, whose cat we watch in Paris (Bonjour Seuss!), recommended the 1927 silent film classic directed by Fritz Lang, Metropolis, which was accompanied by a live orchestra. We really enjoyed both the film and the music. In case you are wondering, there were English subtitles along with the German originals. The movie runs 2 ½ hours plus a 20-mimute intermission. I was worried I would be sleepy after another long day, but my worries were unfounded.

We did sleep well Sunday night.

Dead Person Bingo

Monday and Tuesday we went for shorter walks because work is a thing. Monday we found Marlene Dietrich in Städtischer Friedhof III, which means municipal cemetery 3, not a very exciting name, but it’s a small, pretty cemetery full of old trees. Dietrich was a German who renounced her citizenship during WWII and helped the U.S. with the war effort. Oh, and she was an actor and singer, too.

Tuesday, we walked to Alte St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof or Old St. Matthäus Churchyard to pay our respects to the authors who scared me when I was a child and prepared me for Stephen King: The Brothers Grimm. After all, we had visited Hans Christian Anderson in Copenhagen. Then, we tried to go to a noodle restaurant, but, to our chagrin, it’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we had Thai food instead. It’s a tough life.

We have four more days of wandering before we head to Valencia.