A Perfect Snowy Day in Berlin

It has been snowing for 2 days now and there are real, big flakes flying around everywhere. Something about me: I absolutely LOVE snow. When its snowing verything gets so peaceful and quiet and though I know that it causes traffic-troubles... I still love snow.

Yesterday we decided to do a little daytrip, rather, half-day trip to one of Berlin's southwestern parts called Grünewald. (Grünewald = green forest) I read on the internet that this quarter has a historical past of hunts and kings, not mentioning the beautiful, old mansions located here.


The S-Bahn (Berlin's fast city train service) took us from the central Zoologischer Garten to the station Grünewald in about 10 minutes. We followed the people with ski equipments and after just a few minutes of walking we found ourselves at the beginning of this beautiful, snowy forest "promenade" lined all the way with tall trees. We were only planning on walking but many people came with their kids, dogs, sleighs...


We walked a long way into the forest in the continuous snowfall and saw mainly pine trees with reddish trunks - unfortunately no squirrels this time.


The scent of the cold, snowy forest brought back intense memories from my childhood when my father used to take us sleigh-riding with my little sister back in my hometown, Debrecen. And of course, the touch of my wet gloves after snowballs was familiar, too :-)


It was well after lunchtime that Pisti suggested we go to this little Mexican restaurant we have discovered back in December. The place is colorful, cheap, they always play really good music and the food is excellent! It is near Alexanderplatz, in a narrow street - I am only showing you some pictures as starters (Vorspeise) since I am planning a separate post for the restaurant soon.


After lunch we wandered into a Starbucks for some hot chocolates and accidentally discovered one of those "squares" or "courts" that are so typical of European big cities. These "courts" are surrounded by tall historic buildings which give all of them a unique feeling every time you happen to walk in... the colors, the walls, windows and bricks all uncover little secrets to the curious visitors :-)


The place we discovered was called Hakescher Hof and there is a cinema and a small theater hidden in it - just what I love about these :-)

Our last point of interest for the day was the DDR Museum which presents a hands-on historical experience of the once socialist part of Germany (called Deutsche Demokratische Republik). For us it was really a thought-provoking, weird situation to see "socialism in a museum" given that we come from a former socialist country... Almost all aspects of life presented in this museum were parts of our lives in Hungary, as well, and some of them... well... are still present: the huge concrete blocks of apartments, the interior designs and furniture can still be seen; and the clothes, pieces of everday lives of people - we know them just too well :-)

It was also kind of funny to see tourists examining the emblematic car of the DDR called Trabant as a piece of the exhibition: we used to ride in these cars a lot! :-) A bit of nostaliga? Maybe.

The parts of the museum depicting the state police ("Stasi", short for: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit) and their secret operations, the formation and working of the Berlin Wall and the beginnings of the punk movement in Berlin were all thoroughly and interestingly presented, besides the many other great topics, as well. I recommend the DDR Museum for anyone interested in a special time-travel experience.


On our way home we walked along the banks of the Spree river, watching the snowflakes whirl above the Dome in the twilight. I am telling you: I love snow. It was a beautiful, beautiful snowy day in Berlin.