Out and about in Berlin

The weather forecast wasn't great today - rain all day - and indeed we woke to rain.  But it stopped and we bought fresh croissants from our local bakery for breakfast.

Fueled up and with hopeful eyes on the sky, we headed to the East Side Gallery.  It is a long section of the Berlin Wall which artists painted following the fall of the wall, becoming an impromptu outdoor gallery.  Like much of the wall and the divided Berlin, preserving that history was not an immediate priority, in fact much has had to be reconstructed for tourism.  The gallery has sort of survived.  Parts have been restored, parts painted over and parts heavily covered in graffiti.  I don't think there is a real plan for it yet, but I hope they develop one because parts of it are spectacular.

The rain held off till we had nearly finished the walk and was kind enough to finish by the time we got to our next destination.  We headed to Museum Island and visited the Nueue Museum (the new museum which is actually a couple of hundred years old).  It contains some impressive things, Nefratiri's bust and the jewels and other treasures (well what remains after the Soviets looted) discovered by Heirich Schliemann at Troy.  These were quite exciting for me as my third grade teacher had told us about them and I've been interested ever since.

Following tradition, it was now time for food.  We had yet to eat a donner kabab - apparently the idea of wrapping the meat and salad in bread is a Berlin invention - so we sought one out.  We choose a popular looking place and I have to say it was pretty tasty (but not very photogenic).

After that we headed to a place I had read about.  Buchwald Konditorei und Cafe is located on the edge of the Tiergarten - take the S-bahn line 5 or 7 to Bellveue, when you leave the station turn left and walk a short distance up the river.  It is on the corner by the bridge with bears on it.  The reason I've given directions is that it was awesome.  We had two fantastic cakes and I had the most amazing iced-chocolate made with chocolate milk and chocolate ice-cream flecked with flakes of dark chocolate topped with whipped cream.  It may have contained a week's worth of calories but it was so worth it.  And there is a good chance we will be back tomorrow before we leave.

The rain had the excellent timing to again come down while we were in the cafe, so we could walk quietly back to the S-bahn, we were way to full for any fast movements and head back to the apartment.  We need to pack (and eat a dinner of vegetables) because tomorrow we travel to our final destination, Copenhagen.