Museums in Berlin

There are many wonderful museums in Berlin.  We went to a few when we were here for a summer a few years ago.  We didn't get to any this summer as it was tourist season and rainy, which seemed like a terribly crowded time to try to go to a museum.  However, now that we are settled in we are ready to take advantage of the collections here in Berlin.

The nice thing about living here is that the year pass is so cheap.  A year museum pass to all Berlin state museums (which include the big ones I will mention below) is only 40 Euros (about $53).  This does not include special exhibits, but we found most of the special exhibits we cared about are private and wouldn't be covered by year pass plus (which is still only 80 Euros).  3 visits to the more expensive museums covers the cost of the year pass, so it is a good deal if you go to museums.  It is also nice because you can go for an hour and leave and not feel like you wasted your money.

Market Gate of Miletus

We used our new passes at the Neues Museum (the New Museum).  It was closed for renovation the last time we were here, so we had not been before.  The name New Museum is misleading however, as it includes the ancient Egyptian collection, the pre-history and early history collection, and the part of the collection of Classical Antiquities.  We took advantage of being able to return whenever we wanted and only explored the first floor.  It had lots of ancient Egyptian artifacts, which is my favorite thing to see at a museum.  The thing that struck us most so far about this museum is that it is not well organized.  It seemed that some artifacts didn't fit with others and the exhibits didn't really tell a story.  We enjoyed it never the less and look forward to seeing the rest of it.  I also look forward to the new exhibit they are putting together on how the war impacted the museum.  I know that many of the artifacts were taken and some are still in other countries or missing.  Others were destroyed.  It will be interesting to see.


We have also been to the Altes Museum (the Old Museum).  When we were there last it housed the famous bust of Nefertiti, which is now in the re-opened Neues Museum.  Because they had put a significant portion of the Egyptian collection here, I am anxious to go back and see what is there now that all of that is gone.

Section of the Gates of Ishtar

My favorite Berlin museum so far is the Pergamon Museum.  It is named for the Pergamon Altar, from Turkey, that is reconstructed inside the museum.  The altar is huge.  In fact this museum is gigantic!  It has several reconstructed parts of several story buildings.   The Market Gate of Miletus (also from Turkey), which is a two story tall stone temple-like front from 120 AD is there.  And my favorite thing to see is the Ishtar Gate, one of the city gates to ancient Babylon constructed in 575 BC.  This is one of the coolest things.  I just couldn't believe all of the color!  There are lots of other things to see here, but these are the highlights for sure.  I can't wait to see the things we missed last time and see some of the exhibits again.

The Germans did a lot of excavating throughout the world.  You can of course always argue about museums and their acquisitions and whether things should leave the country of origin or not.  However, if you are in Berlin, it is worth the trip to see the things that are here.

Turkish Breakfast

Brunch is big in Berlin, especially on Sundays and especially when the weather is nice. People go out and sit at a restaurant or cafe for hours! (And no one at the restaurant cares that you sit there all day even if you order nothing more.) We have definitely become big fans of this tradition. However, now that the sun goes down at 4, you don't necessarily want to be eating breakfast for all the hours the sun is out. We have discovered that really our favorite Berlin breakfast is Turkish breakfast. There are many Turkish immigrants in Berlin so there are lots of good Turkish options.

The reason to love Turkish breakfast is that it is somewhere between the more traditional Berlin breakfast and American breakfast. Berlin breakfast is as you would expect for Continental breakfast: meat and cheese, fruits and vegetables, bread, and maybe a hard boiled egg. And butter. The slab of butter they give you for the bread is sometimes bigger than a slice of cheese! Imagine a large slice of brie.  Now imagine that it is butter. I don't know how a person could eat all of it. The Turkish breakfast we get has the meat and cheese (although Sucuk, garlic sausage that looks a bit like pepperoni, and wiechkäse, a Turkish table cheese), olives, and vegetables which is similar. However instead of bread, you get a Simit, a sesame ring. And the real winner is scrambled eggs! I don't know why I feel that a scrambled egg is more breakfasty than a hard boiled one, but it is. It really feels like I get to eat breakfast and lunch.

The cheese slab that stands alone, is really butter.

Our favorite place to go is called La Femme. We usually get the sampler platter seen here. It is always good. One of the things that makes it extra wonderful is that they make their own jam. Usually it is strawberry or berry of some sort, which I like. One time they made fig jam which was amazing! I am not ashamed to say I finished it with a spoon (why put that whole chunk of fruit on my bread?)

Another place that we like to go is a cafe on Hauptstrasse between Kleistpark and Akazienstrasse which is convenient as it is near a Turkish grocery store where we can pick up the things we like to have around at home: garlic sausage, cheese, loose tea, and some cheap and wonderful fresh dates. What I find most interesting about the food at this place is their one dish that has eggs cooked over hard with the garlic sausage cooked into it. They must put some slices of sausage in the pan before they break the eggs over it. I have not really seen eggs and sausage cooked this way, but I really like it.

When we were going back to the US for two weeks we needed to have Turkish breakfast before we left and as soon as we returned. We will need to improve our Turkish cooking skills for when we leave Berlin, because we will not be able to go long without it!

The Brezel Bar

Bringing work home is never fun.  But if there is a fun place that you can go and work on it, it is not so bad.  There are lots of cafes in Berlin that make this possible.  Our favorite one in Berlin is the Brezel Bar (or Pretzel Bar).  This is a cafe that combines some of the best things:  fresh pretzels, chocolate, hot beverages, and free wifi.

The space itself is nice and comfortable.  There is always an art exhibition on the walls that changes every so often.  It is not the largest cafe, but if you have a seat, there is usually enough room to do work.

The food though is the winner here.  Sometimes we go for breakfast and stay and work some.  My favorite options include the Muh (like Moo), that is mostly dairy (lots of cheese), an egg, and some vegetables and fruits, and the Wurst Plate which is the white sausage plate.  The sausage is good, but the mustard is amazing!  The breakfasts also include bread of some sort.  Out of pretzel dough they make pretzels (of course) but also croissants, breadsticks, and rolls.  The rolls are my favorite because it is like have a large fluffly pretzel with lots of the pretzel middle.  If we go for just a snack, there are many varieties of pretzels:  regular, cheese covered, sunflower seed topped, chocolate covered (yes, chocolate drizzled soft pretzels!).  This is about the only cafe that we have had snacks at where I have yet to try their cakes.  And if you go for lunch, you can get the funniest sandwich you will see:  a large pretzel sliced in half with your sandwich makings inside.

This is an extra crazy pretzel.  (There is a half of pretzel bottom under there.)

A perfect day is to go here with a book you are reading for fun and to hang out, read, and snack!

A Berlin New Year's Eve

The fireworks began early in the day.  A Boom! here and a Bang! there.  We didn't see anything until the sun went down, which was at about 4pm.  Then every once in a while we would see a firework light up the sky.

Later we went to a party at the apartment of two friends of ours.  There we learned that it is tradition in Germany to watch "Dinner for One," a 16 minute skit.  No one knew exactly how it started, but it is played on the TV stations throughout the day.  The odd thing about this skit is that it is all in English except for the introduction.  Friends told us that even people who don't really speak English will watch this every year.  It is better to watch the skit than for me to explain it.  I found it here:

http://www.archive.org/details/DinnerForOne_559

As midnight approached the fireworks became more and more frequent.  At midnight the streets were full of fireworks being set off in every direction.  It was almost dangerous to be outside as fireworks whizzed by trees, cars, and people outside.  Some of the fireworks were huge and went pretty high.  Others were more loud than anything.  It lasted for almost an hour before dying back down to the more occasional fireworks.  Growing up in a state where it was illegal to set off fireworks made this German tradition seem more foreign perhaps than people would think from other places in the US.

There is also a fun German tradition of telling your fortune for the new year.  First you melt down a piece of metal over a candle and then to drop it in cold water to re-solidify.  Then you decide what the shape most looks like.  The kit you can buy today then tells you your fortune based on the shape that it became.  It is very hard to tell what most of the metal shapes are, so it is a nice way for you to help your fortune a bit (and for your friends to make it worse)!

A fun night for sure!  I hope you enjoyed yours as well!

Weihnachtsmärkte part 2

First I will say that if you already noticed the difference in the titles of part 1 and 2 (not the numbers) you are one who pays attention to details.  In the first one, I took the word for Christmas market and added an s to make it plural.  Of course the word is German and doesn't work that way.  So now it is correct.

After our first forays into the world of Weihnachtsmärkte, we went to the bigger more commercial ones at Gendarmenmarkt (a square), Schloss Charlottenburg (a castle), and on Kurfürstendamm (a street with lots of shopping).

The Weihnachtsmarkt at Gendarmenmarkt cost 1 euro to get in, but was beautiful and had live music.  The structures they built for the market looked like white mountains all lit up.  The buildings surrounding market also made a nice backdrop.  This is the market where we did most of our Christmas shopping.

The Weihnachtsmarkt at the Schloss was huge!  It was also beautiful with wooden structures and a giant wooden carousel like the one my family always puts out at Christmas.  After dark, they also lit up the castle in alternating colors and sometimes just made it look like snow was blowing across the walls.

We had gone to Kurfürstendamm to go shopping when we wandered upon this market.  It was a nice surprise.  It meant fun food and drinks and fun things to look at.  This market had a giant metal Christmas tree with random toys hanging from it that every so often came alive.  Music started and then flames came from the end of the tree branches in time to the music.  It was bizarre, but fun.

All of the markets had wonderful food and hot drinks like the markets I mentioned previously.  At these we did try a few new things as well.  I had my first ever roasted chestnut.  I don't know what I thought they would taste like, but they didn't taste like I would have imagined.  However, they were good!  And the stands that sell it are so clever:  they give you a bag with two pockets, one filled with full chestnuts and the other to put the shells in.  We tried Wassail, a hot mulled cider, which was one of my favorites.  The one thing that I already wish I could have another of is Viking Handbrot (handbread).  The one we had was a  sandwich roll size bread stuffed with cheese and mushrooms topped with sour cream (or maybe quark) and fried onions.  It was warm and gooey and wonderful.

Just thinkng about the food makes me wish that at least some of the markets were open all winter!


I would say that in general, Berlin is not the best place to visit in the winter.  The sun sets around 4pm right now, so you lose a lot of time to walk around in the daylight and see things.  However, the Christmas markets make it worth a trip in December.

Weihnachtsmarkts part I

The Christmas season in Germany is the season for Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmarkts).  Tons of them pop up in Berlin, some of them for just a weekend and some of them starting at the beginning of Advent and continuing through the beginning of January.  Like most things Christmas-y there is a range of how commercial, how tacky, and how traditional the markets are.  So far we have been to two different markets.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we celebrated the holiday, so Sunday was fair game to start going to the Christmas markets.  The first one we went to was at a Swedish church near Berliner Strasse.  It was only open for the 1st weekend in Advent, so we took the opportunity to go.  It was a nice small market in the open courtyard of the church and also in the school that is associated with it.  We tasted our first glühwein (German mulled wine).  It turned out to be more Glogg than glühwein. Glogg is the Swedish version, with different mulling spices, and with nuts and raisins in the wine.  I didn't love the wine, but the nuts and raisins were good. We watched as a girl's choir walked with lighted candles and sang traditional Swedish songs (we assume they are traditional Christmas songs).  As they celebrate the Feast of St. Lucia in Sweden, they had the lead girl dressed as St. Lucia with the traditional crown of candles on her head.  We wandered through the stalls where they sold imported Swedish food, Christmas cards and ornaments, knitted things, and other crafts.  We didn't end up buying anything, but it was fun anyway. 

Last weekend we went to the Alt Rixdorf Weihnachtsmarkt.  We have heard that this is the nicest one, although we will have to keep going to others to truly decide.  What makes this market unique is that they use lanterns to light the stalls at night.  Also, the stands are run by not-for-profits and charities.  We went twice to this one, once at night and once during the day in hopes that was a bit less crowded to see more of the things for sale.  The less-crowded part didn't work out, but it was nice both times.  This market was bigger than the Swedish one and was in a large square called Richardsplatz.  We tried glühwein again, the more German version with no nuts and raisins.  It was generally less spiced as well, which I liked.  You could also get shots of liquor in it if you wanted.  I also tried Eierpunsch (egg liquor punch) and Kakoa (a chocolate-y drink) with amaretto, both of which were okay.  All of these were nice and warm.  We also had Feuerfleisch, which is a grilled beef sandwich, and a Blütengemüse, which is a big patty of fried vegetables.  It looks a bit like funnel cake, but with veggies.  Both were amazing!  The stalls besides food had everything from crafts, to candy, to cookies, to mistletoe.  In the middle of the market there was a big stage set up and bands played Christmas music.  On Sunday St. Niklas was there giving small treats to children (see picture below) and Santa Claus was there as we think of him in the US to take pictures with.  We have only been to two Weihnachtsmarkts, but this is my favorite so far.

The Christmas markets are a really nice way to wander around in the cold.  It gets dark here by 4pm, but it doesn't matter so much when you go to a place that looks nicer in lights anyway.  I think they should probably keep them open longer through the winter to help people get out more.

Things I Always Took for Granted

Tis the season to be thankful for the things you have.  And I am very thankful for all the wonderful things in my life.

It is also the season for baking and making wonderful things in the kitchen.  And every time I cook I think about the things that I took for granted in the food world.  I will share them with you, so that you can be appropriately thankful for these things when you use them in the future.

1. Sticks of butter that mark tablespoons and cups.
    The butter here comes in blocks.  When I bake with my US recipes, I have to estimate how much butter I am using.  Luckily I have done a lot of baking in my life so I know what a tablespoon of butter looks like.  I convert all of the measurements to tablespoons and then measure them out by eye.  The butter here is also different.  I'm not sure how it's different, but when you melt it it doesn't look the same as I am used to.

2.  Food can be had no matter what season.
     Other than the time that I had an amazing plum recipe and could not find plums, I have had very little trouble finding produce I need at the stores in the US.  Now, it might be more expensive and may not taste as wonderful, but it does exist (except for some exotic things- plums apparently being in this category in VA.)  Here though most things exist only when they are in season.  Luckily they import more produce from Europe and Africa than they did even 10 years ago, so I think that the supply is better than in the past.  However, while making stuffing for Thanksgiving we could not get celery!  Celery.  What a silly thing not to have.  We made due with what they did have- celery root.  It is definitely more of a pain to cut, but it tastes similar.  And I can't say that I have ever used it before being in Berlin.
     While I am used to fruits and veggies being there all year, one of the nice things about Berlin is that people really appreciate the things that are in season.  They also don't eat tasteless fruits and veggies just to have them.  For example, in the spring when asparagus come out, it is celebrated.  When is the last time you celebrated asparagus?

3.  Don't mix up the baking powder and baking soda!
   In all of my baking years I have known that it is bad if you mix baking powder for baking soda or vice versa.  I always check many times both the recipe and the label to make sure that I do not get it wrong.  However, here there is something called backpulver.  It is a combination packet of baking powder and baking soda.  Mixed together!  Such that you cannot use one without the other.  I did find baking soda in the American food section in Karstadt, a big department store with a large grocery store in the basement level, but not baking powder.  In recipes I have gone between using backpulver (more than I would of either baking powder or soda because in the US we use double strength and this is single, but no defined amount more) or using baking powder for soda (1/3 of the amount) and omitting some of the salt.  I have actually done both of these for the same recipe and I haven't noticed that much of a difference.  Of course when my measurement of butter is a bit random, it could also be a difference with that.

4.  Staples for baking and cooking will be at every grocery store.
   Funny thing about this is that it has to be a staple in the place you are.  You won't see a store here without a selection of yogurt that outdoes the US as does the amount of sausages and salamis.  But don't try to get brown sugar or chocolate chips.  I was so excited to see brown sugar one day I bought two.  In my excitement I didn't realize until I got home that the sugar swished around.  It was raw sugar, hence brown.  When I've needed chocolate chips, I've bought chocolate bars and chopped them up.  The upside to this is that I buy better quality chocolate and it is so cheap!
You want easy to squeeze caramel sauce instead of the kind you need to use a spoon for?  Ha!  You have to melt the caramel first.  There are also no containers of pre-made frosting.  You have to buy glaze which you have to melt down.  Not a good snacking item to keep in the fridge.  (Okay, these may not be a staples, but I really wanted to make chocolate caramel sea salt cupcakes.)  Cornmeal and black beans are also not at our main grocery store and things we use a lot.  We have branched out and found places to get them, but it takes more effort.  And I have yet to see a whole turkey at the store.  I'm not even sure where our friend got one for Thanksgiving.  But I was grateful that she found one.


5.  Preservatives will make our food last.
  We have a general idea how long food will last.  Or so we thought.  Here they use less preservatives, which really is a good thing.  But we have had to readjust how much we buy and quickly we use things.  Some of this is made easier in that they sell things in smaller packages.  For example, flour comes in 1kg bags (2.2 pounds).  But not everything lasts until we are done with it.  A little thing of red pesto that would sit in our fridge for several months and be fine got moldy after about 2 weeks.  In the end, it will be healthier at least.



I like the challenges of cooking.  I like making new things and trying new ingredients.  Being in a place where things often seem the same, it is funny how different they are.  It does make cooking an adventure.