#I would love to go to Berlin again soon. And sans soucis. 😌

[museenkuss]

Ciaoo im going to Berlin and I was wondering if you have any spots you recommend? Literally anything! I've never been before!! Love your blog <3

Hey, Lovely!! That sounds wonderful, I’m really happy for you :’) I’m not from Berlin, so I can unfortunately only give you rather general tips, from one tourist to another. Which is to say — when I go on holidays, I usually visit museums and bookstores. Now —

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Museums:

On the Museumsinsel (Isle of Museums) located in the Spree in the centre of Berlin, you can find five different museums in walking distance from each other. As far as I remember there’s a ticket that’ll grant you entry into all museums on the isle for a set amount of time (a day, a weekend, a week etc), which comes in handy (although you’ll definitely need more than one day to see all of them). 


In general, there are a lot of museums in Berlin, but I’ll just mention four that came to my mind immediately:

The Bode Museum is located right by the water. Architecturally speaking a beautiful museum, not too big, with a nice selection of paintings and statues. 13th to 18th century, as far as I know. I remember retables, religious art in general, classicism and renaissance pieces. But most of all I remember buying a little notebook (to take notes on the works of art I liked, which I can only recommend) in the museum’s shop and wandering through quiet halls, intricate marble floors and tall windows, and enjoying a few hours to myself, with myself, for myself.

The Pergamon Museum is probably the most well-known museum on the list. It holds both the Pergamon altar and the Ishtar gate, additional to Middle Eastern and Islamic art. However, parts of the museum are closed due to renovation (and have been when I was there last, and will be till 2023. :( ! ) — still, I definitely recommend checking out which parts are open and what you can see, because both the gate and the altar are an experience.

The Altes Museum is, for one, a very beautiful classicist building. Apart from that, it holds antique works of art, including my beloved Kylix depicting Achilles bandaging Patroclus. I also really enjoyed the Pantheon-style small round hall with the twelve olympians!

The Alte Nationalgalerie was designed to resemble a temple and build at the turn of the century. It holds both paintings and statues. The Sleeping Beauty statue is housed there, as well as The Witch by Carl Cauer, which I like a lot. There’s some Caspar David Friedrich, once again classicism and romanticism, some impressionism. When I was there last, Anselm Feuerbach’s Das Gastmahl nach Platon (The Symposium after Plato) really captured by interest. It’s hung somewhat awkwardly over the stairs near the top floors but I loved the flower-

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By the Museumsinsel, you can also find the Buchhandlung Walther König, a bookstore that specialises in art books. They have, as far as I recall, a lot of english books, and it’s just a very nice place to wander around in, with floor to ceiling shelves crammed with books. Walther König have a few stores in Germany, but the one I’m thinking of (I looked it up, Burgstraße 27) was surprisingly big. Very nice to get lost in, if you’re interested in art and art books.

Apart from that, there’s Dussmann, a bookstore with a rather large english selection and the usual planners, journals, mugs etc. I had a lot of fun in there, especially because the store only closes at 11pm, which meant that after a day at the museum, I could have dinner and still swing by a bookstore (which is honestly the ideal day for me).

Looking online, I also found Shakespeare&Sons, another english bookstore, but I have to admit that I haven’t been there last time. considering the photos I saw, I really regret that, it looks gorgeous.

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As I said, I’m unfortunately not native to Berlin, so I really can just expose my very selective view on cities (where’s the art? where are the books?). I’d really recommend looking up those “explore by foot“ type guides, I’m sure there’s something of the sort for Berlin and in my experience, it’s most fun to just walk around and look at the buildings, parks and sights you come across.

Berlin of course has the Wall, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Bundestag, the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Television Tower, all places that are fun to experience on foot. Apart from that, there are the Hakesche Höfe, a courtyard complex that’s really fun to wander through. I remember most of the stores to be mainly the tourist attraction type, but the location is very nice — art nouveau facades and little spots of greenery.

There’s a lot of Bears to be seen as far as I recall (the coat of arms, plastic bear statue, memorabilia kind). Maybe try some Currywurst, if you eat meat? Every time I go to Berlin, I’m tempted, and I haven’t eaten meat in a good few years. (And if you ever find yourself without something to do, you could always consider taking a day-trip to Potsdam to look at Friedrich the Great’s summer castle Sans Soucis)

(Also, this is just a tiny side note but I never know where to shop for food when I’m travelling and somehow, that’s something most guides don’t think to tell you. So! Penny, Aldi and Lidl are all on the cheap side. Rewe and Tegut are the most common stores apart from that. You can find newspapers and magazines there, too, as well as sandwiches and other prepacked lunches, fresh produce etc. Alnatura is the biggest chain store of organic food, but the other stores usually have their own organic options. They’re market bio :)! In Rewe, Tegut and Alnatura, you should also find aisles for gluten free/lactose free products. Rossmann and dm are drug stores where you can buy band-aids, shampoo, period products, make up, skincare, over the counter pain meds, shaving cream etc etc etc)

~🐻~ Sweetheart, I hope you have a wonderful time in Berlin!!! Hopefully the weather will be nice, and hopefully the people will be even nicer 🥰!!

#This made me very nostalgic #I would love to go to Berlin again soon. And sans soucis. 😌 #I could really use some ‘no sorrows’ Time in a beautiful garden right now. #Anon