THE LAST STOP (THIS TIME)

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This morning we checked out of Hotel Orion, a bit of currency translation issues regarding the price but it all worked out, and then off to the last train ride of this trip. It was a quick metro trip to the station and we got there in plenty of time. Only to discover that our train had been delayed by 45 minutes. We don’t know why it was late, it just was, and it seemed that all International trains were delayed today. It is actually fairly rare, in our experience, for trains in Europe not to run on time (ok Italy can be a major exception) but it arrived and off we went to Berlin.

The train ride was uneventful, except that the porter was 12 (well probably early 20’s) and don’t tell Jerry, I think he might have flirted with me, but then that could be my exhausted state of mind as well. The view was actually very nice, we spent about one third of the trip in the Czech Republic and the rest in Germany. Mostly just green pasture and forest. At one point we did run in to a pretty big lightning and hail storm.

We arrived in the main station in Berlin about an hour behind schedule. The train station is massive 5 levels, u bahn and trains on the underground level, and trains, s bahns and everything else on all other levels. We did a pretty good job of navigating our way to the S-bahn (intercity regional railway that runs above ground U-bahn is underground) and to our hotel. It was unusually crowded and we would later find out why. When we got to the stop to get to our hotel we could barely navigate the platform and I will say I think it is the first time I have ever had to wait to get on an escalator. In any event we found the hotel without much trouble.

We are staying at the Lux 11 a self proclaimed fashion hotel, not that I have seen that many fashionable guest yet. The more interesting part of the storey is that the building use to be the East German KGB headquarters. We are in Mitte, which is the former East Berlin, now it is the fashionable district to be in. When we checked in we had to wait a few minutes as our room wasn’t quite ready, this gave Jerry time to give the front desk our list of dinner reservations we needed. You would be surprised how hard it is to find a traditional German restaurant in this city.

After a bit we got our room keys and went up to the room. It is a nice room with a kitchen and pretty big for European standards, I had bid on a larger room with a balcony but there weren’t any available. After we did a bit of unpacking we went back down stairs to head out for a hop on hop off overview of the city, it is included with our Berlin Pass. We also checked on the status of our reservations, to our dismay, she was unable to get us in to any of them on any night or at any time. Fortunately we had backups and gave that list to her as we headed out for a bit of sighting seeing. What we didn’t realize is that it was already 4 and the tour stopped at 5, so instead we searched for an ATM. This section of Mitte is backed, and immense. There were people everywhere but all the stores seemed to be closed; only restaurants and bars were open. It took us about 20 minutes to find an ATM and it was in a room with about 20 other ATMs no bank, just a bank of ATMS.

After getting our first batch of Euros we set off to find a wine store, well that proved to be fruitless, so we just kept walking around and happened upon an interesting restaurant. They were only open for dinner and were just beginning their setup, we took a look at the menu and it looked pretty good, Jerry stuck his head in to ask if reservations were needed, they were so he made one for us tonight. This turned out to be a good thing, because when we got back to the hotel, the woman informed us she was only able to get us two reservations one for tonight and tomorrow night. We asked her if she could change the one for tonight to Saturday, since we had already found a place for tonight, that worked out fine. She had also made a massage appointment for me for Saturday afternoon at their sister hotel a few blocks away. Jerry will be at the Bauhaus museum while I am at the spa. The final stop before retiring to our room before dinner was in search of a wine store. Oh by the way, the reason it is so hard to get reservations and that everything is closed is that today is a double holiday, some religious thing and fathers day. The German’s celebrate father’s day by all the men just drinking until they can’t stand. This is pretty evident as the men are getting drunker and louder by the second at the moment.

Anyway, we found a wine store but they had a very small selection of German wines, we did manage to get a Trocken red and a Trocken Riesling. Both are pretty could for everyday wines.

Jerry is in the shower getting ready for dinner, fortunatley the restaurant is only a couple blocks away, as my feet really need a significant break. Speaking of which we had one packet of Epson salt so I filled the sink up and soaked my feet for 30 minutes while Jerry was out smoking and I had a nice class of wine, they already fee so better. I have AJ to thank for that trick we I used last year on our French tour.

Well until after dinner that is pretty much it for now.

Dinner

First, let me say the Berlin doesn’t seem to be much of a city that is proud of their own cuisine. Finding a traditional German restaurant is pretty difficult. I understand that it is an international city and I am sure that Germans don’t want to eat German food every day of their life, but I don’t understand this or any other cities obsession with Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza and Gyros. In any event the place we found earlier in the day did serve goof German food.

We ate at Lebensmittle in Mitte; we are not the only traveler to have happened upon this restaurant, it had several reviews on Trip Advisor and other travel sites, found all this out after the we had already found the place. Which is a good thing, because if we would have read the reviews before going, we might not have gone. And the reviews were simply wrong. The portions were generous and the prices reasonable, considering we are in a major world city. The entire meal with wine and dessert was under 85 Euros. The restaurant itself was really charming, it appeared to have been a store at one time, they had a scale (now used for a cash register) and the shelving spoke to general store or some other type of food store.

There was seating outside and inside, we sat inside only because it looked like it might rain. The place was a good mix of locals and tourists and the waiters (all two of them) spoke English. In fact, the entire restaurant which probably sat about 75 at capacity was run by 4 people, two up front two in the kitchen. I am not sure whey American restaurants think they need 20 people to run it. Oh, I forgot, American’s can’t wait for anything and just want to eat and get out, not enjoy the experience of actually dining and spending time with friends.

Jerry had a really excellent roast pork loin in beer sauce with sauerkraut and dumplings. I was back to Weiner Schnitzel; it was one of the best on the trip. What was really good was the white asparagus that was served with it. We finished with a rhubarb apple strudel and vanilla ice cream.

That was pretty much it for the first day, other than a bit of wine before bed.

Today’s Food

Lunch on the Train – Ham sandwich (we were hungry and we didn’t want to go to the dining car so just took what they had on the service tray in first class)

Dinner at Lebensmittle in Mitte – Jerry: Thick cut roast pork loin in beer sauce with dumpling and sauerkraut. Chris: Spargel mit Wiener Schnitzel and roasted potatoes. We split the rhubarb apple strudel and had a bottle of Red Max (German Trocken red wine.)

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Photos

Lux 11 Hotel
Our room

View from our Room
This is a major symbol of berlin, pretty sad

Comments

[Shari]

Yum
Rhubarb apple strudel sounds like a fantastic dessert fantasy. Whenever I read your posts, I'm always hungry afterwards. Fortunately (or perhaps, unfortunately) I'm never hungry for anything I can get in the metropolis of St. Helens.