Berlin // December 2016

So I planned on doing a post on Berlin at the end of last year - but unfortunately that didn't work out. So several months later here we are. For my birthday (in July) Nathan bought me a trip to Berlin for the Christmas Markets. So after waiting for 5 months, the trip finally came.

It was an early start on the Friday morning (a week before Christmas) so we were treated to a beautiful sunrise from the sky.

We arrived at our accommodation before lunchtime. After locating our AirBnb, we were welcomed by our host and given a tour of her flat and we were introduced to her grey cat named Clooney (after George Clooney). We then made our way outdoors to explore in the sunshine (very deceiving as it was freezing). We were staying close to the Reistag so we made our way there first before going to the Brandenburg Gate and we had the best weather for it.

The Memorial for the Murdered Jews was close by, so we walked there and decided to go into the museum to learn more about the history of it all and it was pretty overwhelming but well worth the visit just to get a better understanding.

After plenty of walking, we were good and ready for some grub. We decided to make our way to one of the famous Christmas markets and see what food was on offer. It was FREEZINGG, so we didn't fancy eating outdoors, so we picked a restaurant within the Weihnachts Zauber Gendarmenmarkt. There were plenty of options of traditional German food and we were joined by Nath's friends from home Nick and John.

It was so pretty and festive and the food was lovely too. We ended up having a few drinks and by the time we finished up it was dark, so we decided to sample the delights of the market, meaning some Gluwein (mulled wine) and in these sorts of surroundings we were not disappointed.

We then enjoyed the sights again by dark, before heading to the home of Lowenbrau for a traditional stein and obviously even if I don't fully like beer, when in Rome... Also a stein is actually bigger than my head and it took me well over an hour to drink and I don't even think I finished it.

On Saturday we woke up to an even colder day and it wasn't even sunny, so we made sure we were more prepared that Friday and wore pretty much every layers that we brought with us and my goodness we were glad we did. We had to stop after about 15 minutes of walking to warm up with hot chocolate and some amazing sandwiches. After getting some warm on the bones we headed back out and made our way to Berlin Wall and the museum next to it. It was so interesting to hear all the different stories about both those that survived and those that didn't and as you can imagine it was emotional.

We then walked through another area of Berlin which we can't remember the name of and stopped in a cute little corner pub for yet another Gluwein before exploring another street market. I'm not sure I'd ever get bored of markets and the cool thing was the ones in Berlin were all so unique.

We had a booking at the Fernsehturm de Berlin (aka Television Tower) at 2pm, so we made our way there to see sky scraper views on the city, however as you can see in the photos the weather wasn't in our favour. However we had booked in any way so we had no choice, here are a couple of photos for you to enjoy of the fab views.

Due to disappointing views we made our way to yet another Christmas market nearby, before heading back for an early shower before my birthday dinner.

Pre-dinner, we headed to the cutest little bar opposite our AirBnb which had a completely French vibe where we had some champagne to celebrate by birthday 5 months earlier. 

Nathan had pre-booked a surprise restaurant for my birtthday, which we had to get a taxi to as it was out of town. But it's safe to say I was not disappointed, he completely spoilt me with a a Michelin Starred one called Bieberbau, he's a keeper.

We started with an appetiser of sparkling chardonnay with blackberries and a seaweed crisp with caviar.

Followed by another appetiser of baked fish with chives with anchovies and fried capers and some bread; sourdough, four corn, baguette with onions and then curry and apple and dried tomato butter.

At this point I was so into my food that I stopped writing down what we were eating so I'm just having a guess here. The below is our first official course, mine is the one further away which was chocolate, falafel, feta, raspberries, parsley and sesame seeds and it was insane!! Nath had something along the lines of fois gras, blackberries, duck and some toast.

For our second course I had was cod (I think) with parsley sauce and scallop in squid ink tortellini and it was beautifully cooked and it just fell apart.

Nathan had a dish that looked like soup, but was parsnip foam with cereal and pancetta and luckily he let me try a bit, as it was sooooo tasty.

For the third course, I had a risky move which was cattle neck with fondant potatoes, stuffed olives, basil and brussel spouts rolled with something tasty. Overall the side bits were nice, but I wasn't too sure out the meat.

Nathan's however was the king of all the courses, he had venison with hazlenuts and I can't remember what else but it was devine, so insanely good. 

We then had plenty of desert and by the end we were well and truly full with delicious food and I was totally ready for some sleep and here's pick of my cute boyfriend.

On the Sunday, we enjoyed a slight lie in before heading out to explore Checkpoint Charlie and ended up meeting a couple from Scotland who were there around 18 years previous so it was really interesting to find out what they had experienced. We then decided to head to a shopping mall to see whether we could pick up any last minute Christmas presents and I ended up finding myself a new coat.

For an early dinner before our flight home, we headed back to our favourite market for a dinner and had our final traditional German meal. With our tiredness kicking in we made our way to the airport, however with luck not in our favour our flight home ended up getting cancelled. We were put in hotel for the night and had to book new flights home for the Monday as there were no flights back to London that night. The earliest flight home was via Oslo, why not? We managed to have breakfast in Berlin, lunch in Oslo and dinner at home! What an end to the holiday!!

Until next time Germany, we will be back.

Next stop; South Africa for Christmas

xoxo