My first Canadian Visitors

Ok, you already know this is a lie. These were in fact my 3^rd Canadian visitors, however, they were the first ones I did anything touristy with! Unfortunately, my other guests arrived during chaotic times so I wasn’t able to sightsee. While we didn’t see much, it was a huge step forward in terms of exploring the city!

The two things in particular we did were in the west – the KaDeWe and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church – and in the east – the East Side Gallery.

The KaDeWe - short for Kaufhaus des Westens – Department Store of the West. It is apparently the second largest department store in Europe after Harrods in London though it is probably more famous as a symbol of economic power of the west during the time the city was divided. The street it sits on was known as the Champs-Élysées of Berlin. Today it is still a department store which includes an entire floor dedicated to food. This was our main reason for going – not only can you buy pretty much anything, including international products (of course at ten times the price) – there are a number of food counters to eat at. It was totally worth the visit!

We then strolled down towards the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which you are probably now familiar with as it was the site of the Christmas market terrorist attack in December. To me it is one of the coolest sites in Berlin and one of the few I distinctly remember from the first time I was here in 1999. It is a living contrast between modernism and history. The church was originally a neo-Romanesque church built between 1891 and 1895 and almost completely destroyed in World War II. What makes it so cool to me is that they left it as it stood at the end of the war. Instead of rebuilding the church, they built another one between 1959 and 1961 which is more modern looking and a completely different style. I actually didn't take many pictures but will add some in another post later on.

This is the modern side of the church taken during the light festival

Inside the original church

In the same area as these sites you will find the zoo (oldest in Germany, opened in 1844) which I have not been to and the aquarium which was built in 1913. One of the first G20 events I went to, actually pre-G20 since the Presidency only starts in December, included a dinner at the aquarium which allowed us to wander around the first floor.

Ok, now back to sightseeing – over to the east side of the city where we went to the East Side Gallery  http://www.eastsidegallery-berlin.com/ I think I have been to this site at least 6 times already – it’s outside and near an area that has a lot of bars so you kinda just end up there. I have to admit, this site really confused me for a long time because on the east side of the Spree river, you are actually in West Berlin. After 8 months, I think I have finally wrapped my head around where the border was. The Gallery consists of 105 paintings by artists from all over the world, painted in 1990 on the east side of the Berlin Wall. Some of the artists were invited back about 10 years ago to repaint their murals as they were damaged over time.

Of the 6 times I have been there, apparently I never took photos of the side done by artists so that will have to happen at a later date! In the meantime, here are some of the views of the Spree which seperated the two sides.

This was also the point where I introduced them to currywurst, the most popular dish in Berlin - there is even an entire museum dedicated to it. I am not going to explain it because if you come to visit me, you will be trying it ;) Later in the evening we had it at Currywurst36 which is one of the more famous, original, places.

We then roamed around Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg a little which is a pretty cool area to hang out, especially in the evening.