Last week Alan’s sister Amanda and her family came for a visit. It was an emotional reunion – she’s been
living in the USA since marrying her American husband Ron seventeen years ago
and the last time we saw her was in 2012, when their mother Shirley lost her
battle with breast cancer.
On Monday we got up at 5.30 to collect Amanda, Ron and their sons Matt and Cam from Tegel. As they were all tired from the long journey, the day was kept fairly low-key. In the evening we took some drinks and snacks to the
Mauerpark and sat watching the sunset before finishing up in the Prater beer
garden where Amanda got acquainted with the dubious delights of Berliner Weisse
and its sickly syrups.
The next day we took the inevitable tourist trail around the
Brandenburger Tor and Checkpoint Charlie et
al. It was stiflingly hot so before
long we left the crowds behind and sought refreshment at Aufsturz in
Oranienburger Strasse. After a couple of
beers, we wandered around the Hackesche Höfe and the streets of Mitte, which by
then were feeling rather atmospheric in a late afternoon thunderstorm.
On Wednesday we visited ‘Classic Remise’ http://www.remise.de/ in Moabit. I’m not into cars at all and I positively
loathe ‘Top Gear’ and its revolting presenters.
In fact, one of the great benefits of living in Berlin for me has been not
having to drive. However, with two
teenage boys and their car-mad dad to entertain, this was the perfect destination. It’s basically a specialist garage and repair
shop on a large scale. An impressive
collection of classic vehicles: cars, bikes and even the odd boat are garaged
here and visitors are free to pop in for a nose around; it even has a small restaurant. It’s a little off the beaten track – about a
twenty-minute walk from Beusselstrasse S-Bahn station – but worth the effort if
you’re a car enthusiast. Even I, with my
antipathy towards all things automotive, found one or two models to hanker
after, albeit in the Camper van rather than the Rolls Royce mould.
Just a few of the models to be seen
Entering the American Sector!
In the evening, we catered to the needs of the ‘dancing
queen’ of the family at Clärchen’s Ballhaus http://www.ballhaus.de/ in Mitte. This quirky, antique ballroom – shabbily grandiose and
complete with mirror ball, candle-lit tables and a gorgeous garden – draws
dancers of all abilities. Wednesday is ‘swing’
night and, after a short dance class which outlined the key steps, the floor
was packed. Some of the dancing was
mesmerising, some was just random shaking and jumping around, but all was
performed with enthusiastic joie de vivre. That day was the second anniversary of Shirley’s
death and, as she loved dancing, it was an appropriate setting in which to
remember her, so we raised our glasses in a toast before hitting the dance
floor.
It was a steamy night, and I spent more time
drinking wine than dancing. But Clärchen’s is a magical place; Amanda loved it, and I would recommend
an evening there to anyone visiting Berlin.
View of the dance floor
In full swing!
A quiet corner of the lovely garden
And another of the garden taken earlier
Things took a more sober turn the next day when we took the
train out to the former concentration camp at Sachsenhausen http://www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/ where, between 1936
and 1945, some 200,000 political prisoners were incarcerated. 30,000 died there due to malnutrition,
exhaustion, disease or execution. It’s a
large complex and there is so much information that it really needs more than
one visit to fully appreciate the story it has to tell.
The sickening 'Arbeit Macht Frei' slogan at the entrance to the camp
The prisoners' washing facilities
The execution trench - behind the wall at the back is the crematorium
Back in the city in the late afternoon, we went for a walk along
the East Side gallery and over the Spree into Kreuzberg and the
'Street Food Thursday' evening at Markthalle Neun http://www.markthalleneun.de/ With one of the party having a wheat
intolerance, we’d had to look for places which offered gluten free ingredients
or eclectic enough menus that we could all eat together. Markthalle Neun was ideal as it meant that we
could separate in search of whichever form of sustenance took our fancy (or
accommodated our requirements) and convene at the communal tables to eat. Finding one with room for us all was a task
as it was, as always, heaving but we managed and came to the table with an
assortment of food and drink. I had a
slice of potato and rosemary focaccia and a glass of Prosecco, Amanda had a
caprese salad and a ‘gin fizz’ which we all tasted and found to be frankly foul,
Alan had an IPA from the tiny brewery there and an assortment of specialities
from southern Germany, while wheat intolerant Ron had a glass of cider and a mezze
platter with olives and cheese. The boys
were happy to munch their way around several of the stalls.
By Friday we were all pretty tired so we spent the day
lakeside at the Weissensee. Dinner that
evening was at Alois S http://www.aloiss.de/ my favourite Spanish restaurant (I’m slightly addicted
to their mixed fish plate). There’s also a tapas
menu, which offers something for all dietary needs and wants. We hadn’t made a reservation and all of the
inside tables were booked, but it was a warm evening so we sat outside
under the trees.
On Saturday we picked up the pace again. In the morning I took Amanda for a stroll
around the market at Kollwitzplatz while Alan took Ron to the Berlin Wall
memorial in Bernauer Strasse (the boys had decided they wanted a lie-in). We met up at a coffee shop in Rykestrasse
then walked back through the Kulturbrauerei, taking in the ‘Everyday life in
the DDR’ exhibition there. Afterwards we
collected the boys and set off for Köpenick as our visitors had said they’d
like to see something old-fashioned and ‘villagey’. We had considered Potsdam and Spandau but
settled in the end on Köpenick as it’s less touristy than the other two (also
Alan wanted to show them the Stadion an der Alten Försterei). We wandered around the quiet streets of the
Altstadt and stopped for a drink at the Schlossplatz Brauerei. On such a hot afternoon, it was a relief to
sit in the little cobbled square, with its old-world buildings and trams
creaking by at what is, allegedly, the smallest brewery in Germany. After taking in the jolly scenes on the
waterways, we made our way westwards, to KaDeWe, where Ron indulged his
recently-acquired penchant for cigars at the humidor in the store’s food hall
and Amanda succumbed to the temptations of the Leysieffer Café.
The next day was very much a typical Berlin Sunday with a
leisurely buffet brunch at Frida Kahlo on Helmholzplatz followed by some serious chilling
while the boys had a kick about with a football. Amanda had announced her intention to sing at
the Bear Pit Karaoke in the Mauerpark but (probably for the best) she decided
instead to go with Ron to watch Berlin Adler, the American football team, at
the adjacent Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Sportpark.
This gave Alan the opportunity to repair to Schwalbe bar to watch Union’s
season opener, away to Karlsruher SC.
By the end of their visit, we were all tired and footsore
but had had a great week. With all of
the sightseeing, dancing, shopping, eating and drinking, swimming at the lake
and inspecting of classic motors, I hope we’d succeeded in finding something of
interest for each of them.
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