Berlin... again

It's May in Germany (and everywhere else in the world, actually), which means that nobody works very hard. We had May 1st off for Labor Day, then the 9th and 10th off for Ascension, and this Monday was the Pentecost holiday. So even though we'd just been out of town, Brian and I decided to go back to one of our favorite cities - Berlin.

We'd been there before but never in warm weather, never along the river, never in a hotel so colorful it was like staying in a box of Froot Loops. When we checked in, they asked if it was ok to put us in a pink and yellow room. I of course said yes.

The lobby

The outside of the hotel Nhow, from the River Spree. The hanging bridge reminds me of the Guthrie Theater in Mpls.

Chunks of the Berlin Wall were decorations on the sidewalk along the hotel patio

Basically, we wandered much of the weekend. On Saturday the weather was gross and grim and appropriate for a long walking quest in search of Karl Marx Allee and other socialist architecture.
Karl Marx Allee was built in the 1950s and early 60s, and originally named Stalinallee. It's remarkable because it was a huge boulevard with fancy "wedding cake style" buildings. Even though these buildings looked luxurious, they were built to house common workers.

On Karl Marx Allee

On Karl Marx Allee

We went back to the Cuban bar where we'd had such a great night in February of 2012. While it wasn't quite the same, I still enjoyed a delicious mojito while Brian bought a Cuban cigar from behind the bar and smoked it in the cellar. We also talked to the bartenders (in Spanish) about baseball and where to go when we visit Cuba. I don't know when that trip will happen, but we are going to go since it's not really illegal from here and since the Castros won't be around forever.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, and we took the "bridge tour" - a boat ride over the Spree river and the canals around Berlin, going under something like 65 bridges. Sure, it was touristy but we had nowhere else to be except on a boat in the sun for almost four hours. And we were tourists. It also gave us a new perspective on this city where the old and ornate and new and raw and decaying somehow fit together. Grafitti doesn't look ugly there and construction is just part of the landscape.

The Technical Museum, with a "raisin bomber" from the Berlin Airlift

"vote for the minimum wage" mural

I know we will go back to Berlin again at some point. There are a lot of neighborhoods to explore, and a lot of its stories to uncover. Though when we do return, I want to stay in the Froot Loop hotel, and I will probably ask for a green and purple room.