Street Art Tour


Trish, our guide



Today  (Thursday) we explored a different side of Berlin….the street art/graffiti and the backstreets….we took the Real Berlin Experience run by the Alternative Berlin tour company  …..We had a really knowledgeable, passionate guide, Trish, who kept us entertained with stories and information about the “alternative & underground” neighbourhoods and art scene in in Mitte and Kruezeberg….it was actually a lot of the places that Curtis told us to visit and would have taken us to if he had been with us. The Tacheles, a large building, that houses studios with many artist, was one of the places that she took us and a place Curt wanted us to visit. The house has been threatened with eviction for the last few years. We all made purchases and hope to go back.

We stopped for lunch near by at DaDa Falafel for lunch….great food but we seemed to have lost one of our tour group…she just never came back.! Then we got on the U train and headed to the Kreuzberg area……a Turkish area of Berlin. Trish gave us a little history of the area and then we walked to park where there was squat houses or communes, that have been around since the wall came down in 1989 and  Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethany a beautiful old building that houses a exibit area for local artists.  

Trish showed us a tree house that had been build right near where the wall used to stand.....during the Cold War a man made it out of scrape wood that he found and was inspected every few months as they suspected him of subversive activities.  He has made a great community garden around the house and when the wall came down the mayor gave the man the land that the tree house was standing and the gardens.   Trish  left us off right down the street from the East Side Gallery where we visited the other day…..and it was right in fron of a beach bar, YAMM ….we stopped here for a much needed rest and some beverages. 　

The tour started at 12:00 and ended near 5.…and our next stop was at the Reichstag where were had an appointment at 8:00.…so we wandered towards the Brandenburg gate area where we found a nice restaurant on the river for dinner and were at the Reichstag about 7:45. It was a pleasantly warm clear evening.

The Reichstag is seat of the German government…..on the top of the old building they have built a beautiful glass dome, where the public can walk up on ramps that circle to the top. The views were beautiful and we were wishing that we had made the appointment a little later so we could stay up til dark……the attraction stays open until midnight (last appointment at 11:00!) But all of a sudden there was a large…a very large group of high school age kids arriving at the top just after we got seated and were relaxing, enjoying the views. We decided to come down and head for home. !

We arrived home, got the washing machine going and then exhaused,collapsed. Another full day.
　
Friday Wandering and Geocaching

Friday we walked into Hermsdorf for coffee and breakfast….Lots of kids on field trips this morning….two classes arrived at the ice cream store that adjoins the restaurant, at 10:30am!!!

Then back to the house to regroup and get to the train station for a day of wandering the streets that we visited yesterday on our tour. Going in and out of the stores….I found a Christmas store and bought a wonderful decoration for my tree. We stopped late in the afternoon for a great Mexican lunch…..then more walking and wandering into wonderful little  courtyards with stores, homes and gardens, and finding geocaches…we found 5 (didn’t find 3).…it’s hard to find the caches when you can’t read the German cache page and hint! Cam and Cassidy were really good about looking….they couldn’t figure out why I gave up so quickly on some…I just didn’t want to bore them….but it looks like they were enjoying….so on we went and found 5 caches....

We walked until after 9, going past places we visited earlier in the week, getting home about 10:00pm then putting the frozen pizzas for a late dinner.  Very very tired!