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August 13, 2005
Trip to Germany: Part 3
My solo adventures in Berlin ended on the afternoon of the second day. Some of Colm's friends, Phil, Alex, Peter, and Ann arrived then and we met up for dinner. Blog coverage of the trip improves dramatically from this point on, as Ann is an very entertaining blogger. Her account of events is at Travels With Grandma, which is her travel blog. She also has another blog called Of Marathons and Other High Intensity Endeavors, which is where she writes about everything else. Ann is a good writer with interesting things to say, so both blogs are worth reading.
We ate in a very nice restaurant, called Theodor Tucher, near Brandenburger Tor. This was a very nice restaurant, with a literary theme. The food was nice, the service was good, and the atmosphere was pleasant. It was expensive by Berlin standards but as an inhabitant of Dublin it felt reasonable to me. As you can see from the guests shown on the website, it is an up market venue.
The next day we went sightseeing. In the morning we all went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum. There is plenty to see there and it is worth the visit. However, it is very busy. I practically had to shuffle through the first third of the museum, like a worker from Metropolis, before the crowd opened out a bit to allow me to wander around the exhibits. In the afternoon the group split. Ann went searching for Goya, Turks and Punks. The rest of us went out of the city center to see Spandau Citadel. Ann had a lot more fun: Spandau was a washout. It rained. Very little was open at the citadel. There were no other tourists there that we could see. The few signposts that were there were only in German, apart from the one just outside the gate. It wasn't much fun so we quickly headed back to the city center.
We spent the the evening in Hackescher Markt. I was later told that this is the bohemian area of Berlin at the moment. It is a nice place with great restaurants. After food we retired to our respective accommodation in order to be well rested for the following days traveling.
Posted by JohnC at August 13, 2005 12:31 AM