My daughter Suzy lives in Berlin, which is very handy for me, as there is always an excuse to visit. The fact that she is a great organiser is an added advantage, and her well-planned itinerary usually starts at a local wine bar, the perfect landing pad after a late flight.
Berlin is a surprising city, especially if, like me, your preconceptions of it are of gritty, graffiti-enhanced walls, fairly ugly communist-era architecture and a wild and free all-night club scene. Those are there alright, but there’s so much else besides. Berlin throws up new and unique experiences every time I visit.
It is a city with a very interesting, complicated and often tragic past, which is not what I’m writing about here, but it is well-documented in the many excellent museums, installations and events throughout the city. This is about Berlin today, a creative, diverse, inclusive, quirky, fun, friendly and exciting place in which to spend time, whatever you’re into. Oh, and really great food and wine.
Berlin is one of Europe’s greenest cities, with a myriad of parks and open spaces. An old, disused airport? That’s turned into the Tempelhofer Feld skateboard park. A closed-down train station is repurposed as the family-friendly Park am Gleisdreieckan, with rolling lawns and an outdoor dance floor. We watched the iconic 1927 parable ‘Metropolis’ in the outdoor cinema in Volkspark in the Freidrichshein district. A live pianist provided the atmospheric soundtrack, and a kiosk sold beer and pretzels.
Beside a half-sunken boat on the Spree river (which transforms into a club at weekends), is Badeschiff. Accessed through what looks like empty buildings, in an old bus depot, you arrive at a man-made sandy beach, deckchairs, beach bar and pool built out into the river. (Suzy points out though, that they are not vacant. It’s all used for events and workshop spaces and studios. It’s hard to find abandoned space in the centre of Berlin that isn’t being used by artists).
It’s the most extraordinary perspective of the heart of the city, swimming in this blue patch of water, at a junction between river and canal. This is one of my favourite places to spend a sunny afternoon, cold beer in hand.
Just outside the pool area, in the Kreutzberg district, you can choose to eat Lebanese, Georgian, Turkish, Vietnamese – there’s an endless list of ethnic food options all over the city.
Berlin also has a fantastic contemporary food scene, and I’ve added some of my favourites below, along with cocktail bars and wine bars I love to visit, having been scoped out by the diligent daughter.
Berlin Is a treasure trove of vintage clothes and homewares. It’s probably a blessing that I usually only have the airline 10kg, as I could furnish my house with the mid-century gems found everywhere here. Clothes are another matter, easily squished into the suitcase, and I have trawled the €2 bargain basements, spendy designer joints, and wildly inventive upcycling workshops.
Fleamarkets always feature on Berlin weekends. Regular shops close on Sundays, and flea markets pop up in the city’s streets and parks. Mauerpark, for example, offers an enormous collection of bric-a-brac, clothes, furniture, food, music and general Sunday chilling-out. The other weekend activity is of course, clubbing. This is not restricted to the early hours – many clubs open from Friday night till Monday morning straight, so you can go for an evening dance and still be in bed by 10 o’clock. Most clubs also have open-air dance floors for summertime dancing in the sun, giving a mini festival experience.
For a light taste of club life, I love Krunkerkranich, an open air bar/restaurant/club on the top floor of a shopping centre. It’s great fun to bring someone there for the first time, take the lift, and emerge into a lush rooftop garden with pumping tunes and a 360 degree view of the city.
On another scale, Donau 115 is a tiny jazz bar in Neukölln, where you’ll sometimes hear Scottish trad played by local and visiting musicians.
Coffee is an essential Berlin experience. There are heaps of coffee roasters, and really good coffee is available on every street. It’s hard to pinpoint the style of decor in these cafés, but it is distinctly ‘Berlin’ – lots of 1950s relics, industrial chic, upcycling and street art. The vibe is casual and friendly, with a regular crowd, each neighbourhood being like a small town. Nob Murphy’s, the café where my daughter works is my morning hang-out when I’m visiting, sitting on pallet furniture on the street, supping great coffee, borrowing bikes from neighbours and making plans for the day.
Those plans involve cycling everywhere, as Berlin is very flat and has plenty of cycle paths. If we had more time, a trip by train and bike to one of the many lakes surrounding the city would have been on the agenda, but that’s grand, that’ll be on Suzy’s itinerary for my next visit.
Details:
• Volkspark Friedrichshain (Berlin’s oldest park/outdoor cinema)
• Tempelhofer Feld – large outdoor space for skateboarding, cycling or just catching the sunset
• Park am Gleisdreieck – 30 acres of outdoor urban space
• Badeschiff – outdoor pool and beach bar
• Restaurants and wine bars:
– Michelberger Hotel – very cool decor with great restaurant and tasty snacks, close to Warschauer Str. train station, great location for accessing the rest of the city.
– JaJa Wein Bar – describes itself as ‘Naked wine and seasonal food’ – excellent food and wine.
– Ezsra Bistro – ‘farm and forests to table’ philosophy, low-tech wines
– Vin Aqua Vin – wine shop and wine bar with dark wood, mismatched furniture and stay all evening vibe
– Nathanja and Heinrich – really excellent cocktails, great street terrace
– Klunkerkranich – exuberant rooftop bar
– Balance Wine Bar – Italian wine bar, delicious arancini, our local, where Daniele guided us around the wines of Italy.
– Donau 115 – higgledy-piggledy jazz bar, great music, great drinks.
– Bob Murphy’s coffee shop – great coffee, great staff, great neighbourhood vibe
