Sony Center

Berlin III

Our third day started pretty relaxed at 9.30am. We walked over to the  nearby Imperial Palace Charlottenburg where we participated in an audio tour which lasted around 90 minutes. Afterwards we strolled through the thoroughly maintained gardens which we exited at the northern end and continued our journey from the train station “Jungfernheide”.

Charlottenburg Palace
Charlottenburg Palace

On our way to the KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens, Department Store of The West), we took a picture of an Ampelmännchen (little traffic light man), which is an iconic ambassador of Berlin! It became the symbol for the Ostalgie.

Me representing a red "Ampelmännchen" (© Elisabeth Girkinger)
Me representing a red “Ampelmännchen” (© Elisabeth Girkinger)

Unfortunately, the KaDeWe was closed because of the public holiday Pfingstmontag. To the very disappointment of my female co-travelers we just took a few more photos. Anyway… after a decent lunch and some ice cream at the Sony Center, which was just a few stops down the road with the subway, nobody cared anymore :). Luckily, there was a hotspot! I was so glad to have access to the world wide web!

Christina, Elisabeth and The DDR Museum
Christina, Elisabeth and The DDR Museum

After this quite extensive break (because of the hotspot), we visited the DDR Museum which is next to the cathedral. Although it presents serious matter its concept is very entertaining and engaging; it’s fun to visit. After spending about one and a half hour there, we walked along the Spree, Monbijoustraße and Oranienburger Straße to the Hackeschen Höfe (Wikipedia, German available only; official site). After visiting the courtyards full of local shops and boutiques we had coffee at the Ampelmann Café and– luckily again–internet access!

Sony Center and BahnTower at Night
Sony Center and BahnTower at Night

After a short refreshing break back at our hotel we went back to the Sony Center and had dinner together at the Australian restaurant Corroboree. Afterwards we enjoyed a cocktail across the square at Alex. Peter and I had just enough time to capture the impressions with our cameras before we caught the last subway back to our hotel. Elisabeth, Peter and I went out again to have beer and wine at the pub next door where Peter and I were yesterday. It ended up being a very long night…

2 thoughts on “Berlin III”

  1. It is quite hilarious reading now how much burden it was almost six years ago being hooked on internet access. I carried a quite heavy laptop and was dependent on Wi-Fi. The first generation iPhone was available for not yet a full year back then. I got my first smartphone in December 2011 and upgraded to an iPhone 5 with an LTE plan in 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(1st_generation)

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