#and also marillenknödel and kaiserschmarrn

[abba-enthusiast]

Hot European city summer of walking 20k+ steps everyday and eating €1,19 Reiswaffeln for dinner

[anonsally]

Day 8 of German vacation: last day in Berlin

Today was not quite as full a day. 

We were tired, and had errands to run in the morning. Among other things, we bought stamps for our postcards and I returned to the café owned by @llamapunk’s friend. The ice cream was delicious (only 4 flavors; I tasted the chocolate with brownies mixed in, and the vanilla), and I got two shortbread cookies with dried strawberries in them to take with me.

It was a wet and overcast day, so we ate our lunch (sandwiches) in the hotel and then finally set off around 2:15. We returned to the Holocaust Memorial, which was more somber on a grey day, but there were still a lot of teenagers running around. 

We then walked through the Tiergarten park to Potsdamerplatz, where we admired the Philharmonie concert hall (which is yellow!) and then went to the Daimler Contemporary, an art gallery owned by the luxury car company. We had to ring a bell to be let into the building, and take the elevator up to the fourth floor, but the gallery had free admission and an interesting variety of German and Japanese artists. I particularly liked Hiroe Saeki’s intricate drawings, Menja Stevenson’s photography and prints, and a digitally modified video by Ryosuke Imamura. It was very quiet--we were the only visitors at that particular moment, maybe because it’s not that easy to find.

We then took a bus back to the neighborhood of our hotel. We were a little too late to visit the Käthe Kollwitz Museum, which is a shame. We window-shopped in art galleries until it was time for our dinner reservation at an organic Austrian restaurant. It was fantastic--though we could only eat there because Wife decided she was willing to suffer the consequences of eating gluten for one delicious meal. She made the most of it by having no main course, but two gluteny desserts! (Austria is, of course, known for its desserts.) The Kässpätzle (a sort of pan-fried pasta with cheese and fried onions; it’s also part of Bavarian cuisine) was delicious, and came with a great cucumber salad. I also had some of each of Wife’s desserts. The Kaiserschmarrn is a cake cooked in a pan, cut into little pieces, dusted with powdered sugar, and served with plum compote. The Marillenknödel are apricot dumplings--basically, an apricot stuffed with sugar and covered in a batter made with mild fresh cheese, and then simmered and rolled in sweetened breadcrumbs (and in this case, chopped pistachios). And then our bill came with two little bite-sized pieces of Linzer torte. All of the food was amazing! 

Then we came home to the hotel. I am more than halfway packed; we plan to leave at 11am tomorrow to catch our train. It’s been exhausting, but fun--and I do feel like I have seen a lot of Berlin in this week. In fact, I had made a list of about 28 things I was interested in doing, and we managed to do all but 4 of them, 3 of which were Berlin Wall-related (and we actually did do the more essential Berlin Wall things), so really it was just the Käthe Kollwitz Museum that I’m sorry to have missed. Well, okay, I also wish we could’ve gone to the Alte Nationalgalerie, but it was closed due to the air conditioning system breaking down. 

Next stop: Hamburg!