I Write About Books and Things: Berlin, Day 1 - 14/11/19

Berlin is a place I've wanted to visit for a long time. I always found German an interesting language and Berlin has history like nowhere else. As this happened to be exactly 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, I decided to take the plunge and have a solo trip with some of my leftover holiday time from work.
As always, the trip starts with a flight, and an early one at that. The good thing with Europe from the UK is that you can find yourself there and settled by mid-afternoon, but not always in a mood to be up for doing things.

This was my reading material! Belonging is a scrapbook graphic novel about a
German looking for answers about her family in WW2, The Book Thief is an old favourite
of mine, Why We Took The Car is a translated book (something I am always trying to read more of)
and Alone in Berlin has been on my shelves for a long time!

The flight was so early that I bought myself a small breakfast in the airport, something called a breakfast bowl from BarBurrito, and a coffee from Costa. The airport was Gatwick, which isn't quite as large as Heathrow but still gives me that exciting airport feeling of going off on an adventure.

Excuse presentation, but it did hit that early morning spot! Sausage, bacon, beans and
scrambled egg with hot sauce.

And then we were off! Honestly, the flight felt like it had barely taken off when it was time to land. I landed in Schoenefeld, picked up my public transport ticket and made my way to the hotel. The public transport ticket I had was the Berlin WelcomeCard, and I highly recommend it as it gave me access to all public transport within the city and discounts on sightseeing and museums. It came in handy straight away as I used the trains to find my way to my hotel. I would have to use public transport during my trip, so it made sense to start figuring it out. I love it when you start to see a new city for the first time in this way.

I took the train to Tiergarten, then walked the rest of the way to my hotel. It was quite an interesting location, next to an international school of applied sciences and through many motor industries.

Hotel room - as you can see, clean and functional. The hotel was called the Novum Hotel Berlin Central
and it's definitely one I'll remember if I go back to Berlin.

And this was the view out of the window!

I'd like to talk about Stolpersteine, and as this was the first time I noticed them, I'll bring them up here. Stolpersteine ("stumbling stone") are a way to commemorate victims of the Holocaust and other Nazi policies. They are small brass plaques, mostly placed outside of someone's last known place of residence, but sometimes another relevant location is chosen. They give a sense of the scale of the Holocaust, since there are so many of them. Berlin never allows you to forget its history.

I know from past experiences not to overdo things on the first day, so I took some time to chill out in the room, read some books and contact family, before heading out to find an early dinner before an early night. There was a bus stop at the top of the road, and I planned to try it out to see if it would be more efficient than heading to Tiergarten. I took the 245, which dropped me at the Hauptbahnhof (the Central Station for Berlin) and from there it was relatively easy to get anywhere else in the city. Once I figured out the public transport, at least, which was easier said than done.

It was a huge station - this really isn't doing it any justice, more like a shopping mall which
happens to have many trains coming in and out of it.

I headed to Potsdamerplatz, on the recommendation of a friend. She had suggested a place called the Big Dog Berlin, and I was so tired at that point that I just wanted somewhere I could go in, grab a meal, and eat, before going back to the hotel to sleep.