Berlin with Biggi !!!

Before I left St. Thomas, I found out that my good friend Biggi Dodson was going to be in Germany while I was going to be in Europe !  Getting together was a must.  Biggi would be traveling to her hometown of Dusseldorf and then onto Berlin, which is where we met. 

Sadly, I must admit, that I never had an overwhelming desire to visit Berlin, but was delightfully surprised.  On the 5 hour drive from Kolding, I volunteered to drive for a bit, which necessitated a quick reminder of Manual Transmission driving.  It had only been 6 years & it was like riding a bike... until we accidentally got to Berlin before pulling over to switch drivers & I remembered that I have forgotten how to slow down!  Clutch, brake, gears, gas?!  AHHHH!  Thank god there wasn’t much traffic & we did some practicing on the freeway before we got off!  :) We stayed in a little place called Alex Hotel that was perfectly located & had a complimentary, delicious breakfast!

Our first stop was the Berlin TV Tower, which was highly recommended!  We were informed that after buying the tickets, there would be an hour & 45 minute wait, but we could leave & come back during this time.  They didn’t tell us that it would take an hour of waiting in line to buy the tickets.   Ugh.  We decided to walk around a bit during our 1 hour & 45 minute wait, during which, my shoe fell apart, thanks to the humidity & mold of St. Thomas.  We looked for glue or shoes: we found rude German shoe sellers & a new pair of KangaRoos!   Velcro pocket & all!  

Donning my new ‘Roos, we went back to the TV tower, expecting to zip to the top, catch the view & meet up with Biggi & the kids.  Oh, no, no.  We waited another 10minutes to get to the security check-point, 10 minutes to enter the gate to get to the elevator line, 20 minutes in line to the elevator. After 3 hours+, when we finally got to the top, we decided that we were NEVER GOING TO LEAVE!  Cause this view HAS to be worth the wait!    

It was a beautiful view and looked quite interesting!   There wee signs all over describing what we were seeing, however, they were in GERMAN!!!  Sweet!  :( So we walked around, took some pics, and promptly went to the bar to get a drink :) 

After our anti-climactic 3 hour+ Berlin TV Tower extravaganza, we went to the Dali exhibit!  NO WAIT!  It was a great showcase of hundreds of prints, drawings & movies.

That night we walked to Cafe Seeblick, the cafe that Biggi used to work at when she lived in Berlin.  It was quite helpful that Sune had taken German in grade school, so we could decipher some things & the waitress was awesome & pulled out her iPhone to help translate, but Thank God we are both adventurous, love food, and not picky eaters because we thought we ordered chicken & beef, got chicken & fish :) Oh well!  It was delicious either way!  

The next day we discovered Tacheles.  This is truly an amazing gem of Berlin.  It is a 9000 square meter art center that is known for its murals & graffiti.  It was built in 1907, originally as a department store, served as a Nazi prison, cinema & was taken over by artists in 1990.  It was scheduled to be demolished & was reevaluated to later become a historical landmark & “center of development and realization of individual ways of thinking, of the creative contamination of art and living as well as the testing of artistically and urban ideas.”

We spent about 2 hours here, visiting artists in their workspaces, roaming the sculpture garden & intently gazing at the walls covered in graffiti.  See more at - http://super.tacheles.de/cms/

Next up, we got a little bit of conventional German culture. We went to the Reichstag Building, hung out in the sun on the lawn for a half hour later, it started raining, walked 10 minutes to the Brandenburger Tor & it was sunny again. The German weather could not make up its mind!  

 

And, for the piece de resistance of Berlin = Biggi!  We met Biggi & her friend at a bar & had beers & then onto The Currywurst!  This is a Berlin favorite, basically a pork hot dog with a curry ketchup over it, served with fires!  Yummmy!  

Lastly, White Trash bar, where we watched a great band, from none other than Denmark!  We dancing the night away and were quite hung over the next day, 'nuff said!  What happens in Berlin stays in Berlin :)

It was truly surreal seeing Biggi in Berlin, even though it was for a short time, it was priceless!