Berlin family vacation

Since it has been a long winter it was time to get to a trip to South, though not too far South, there are riots there.

Berlin, what an excellent idea, it will be .... not warm there. Last February it was -20c, that's cold. Luckily this year it was not that cold, only around -6, but with the wind it meant that the weather was pretty winterly.

Anyhow the whole idea to go to Berlin was thanks to one Polly Jean, who doesn't ever seem to visit Finland. Well, she did, back in 1995, which I missed, not the year, but the gig in Tavastia, since I had not yet moved to Southern Finland, but lodged in the North and had no idea of this happening. Though I did miss the Radiohead in that tent that year too, but that was just because of my stupidness. Saw Stone Roses though, but I guess that was 1996?

Anyhow, noticed that PJ Harvey was giving two gigs in Berlin the Spring 2011, this happened back in November last year and I got this wild idea to go and witness the goddess herself live at a stage. Had no idea that PJ would eventually sign also to perform at Primavera, but then again I had no idea that I would go to Barcelona this year, our thoughts were to change the venue this year. Anyhow there it was, PJ Harvey in Berlin and when Air Berlin choose to sell tickets for 310€ for 3 there was no going back.

The hotel was way more difficult, since it seems that it is next to impossible to get a decent priced hotel room for 3 from Berlin, sure for 2 you can get with less than 100€, but for three it is around 150€. Thus chose to stay at the Radisson Blu, the one with the fish tank.

We flew in at around 3 pm local time. The hotel room was nice, facing towards the Berlin Dom. Went to the Sea Life first to get the ride with the lift inside the fish tank, which is nice, but what if one wants to go just for a lift ride, would that be possible -- it does not seem to, but I at the end I did not ask.

Currywurst was currywurst and picked Austrian Pinot Noir from Galleria. Let's see how that will land. All in all, a nice day sightseeing with visit to the Niklaiviertel, the GDRian implementation of medieval city, and having a stroll on the banks of Spree.

The next day brought the visit to the Berlin Zoo, for second time in my life. The place had probably changed a lot as had the Berlin itself, but I have only very limited memory of the place back in then. Remembered the Panda bear, though, I wonder if it is still the same -- probably not. I do not know how long do the Panda bears live, but it's been twenty years.

Anyhow, there was a bigger celebrity there to be seen. The Eisbär Knut!!!! You know the story? Well I do not bother to repeat it, google it for yourself.

Had to ask from local people to identify which one of the bears was the Knut and was told that Knut is da hinter, which I think is in the back in English. It might have been an abuse for all that I know. Anyhow there at the back was the Knut and some of his local fans, who were kind enough to let us know how they know it is the Knut, but unfortunately only in German, and thus I cannot really share that with you, but it was something about the head and the feet.

Last time it was lions to mate, now it was monkeys doing it, but apart from that most of the animals looked pretty bored. The aquarium was nice though, but I think had seen a bit too many fishes already.

Visit to KaDeWe was naturally the next step, being a u-bahn station away. Bought some German rotwein after asking for a good German rotwein. This one's called Meyer-Näkel and should now be really good, but let's see. Cost me 22€, thus will be the last bottle of German red wine ever if it does not live up to the expectation. The one they first offered from the same house was worth of 90€, a bit out of my league.

The evening was the gig at the Admiralspalast a one s-bahn station away from the hotel. I probably will write a separate review of that later on.

The last day. We had the plane at 3 pm, thus leaving us some time to visit somewhere before leaving to airport. We walked from the hotel to see the last bit of wall standing and got to see a brand new museum Topography of Terror about the Nazi horrors from 1933 to 1945 at the site of where the Gestapo HQ among other things was back then. Visit also at the Hitler and the Germans exhibition in the Deutsches Historisches museum on the way to the wall.

Very nice albeit a brief visit to Berlin. Nice city and will probably pop in a bit more often, due Air Berlin pricing and the shortness of the flight.