Berlin April 14-17

Over the long Easter weekend, we decided to make a visit to Berlin.  Berlin has been on our list since we moved to Europe, and we finally fit it in the schedule.  We arrived late Friday night and needed dinner.  We headed to the local Burgermeister for a burger.  It is simple greasy burger menu served to loud rock music. We were the only patrons not wearing black.  It was probably the best burger we have had in Europe and a real slice of the counter culture vibe in Berlin.

Saturday we started with a free walking tour (Sandemans). We had a very knowledgable guide.  The stop at the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe was especially memorable.  After the tour finished, we headed to Markthalle Neun for lunch.   The market was a fun up-scale street food market hall with great craft beer to boot.  After lunch we trekked over to the East Side Gallery. This is the longest intact section of the Berlin Wall.  It is still painted with some of the original graffiti or renewed versions of the originals.  It was one of our favorite stops for the weekend and it was amazing to see the history.  For dinner, we headed to Prater, a classic German Biergarten.  Of course, the weather wasn't warm enough for sitting in the garten but the beer and food were excellent.

Brandenburg Gate

Markthalle

An old East German Trabant

East Side Gallery

Memorial to murdered Jews of Europe

The biggest schnitzel

Sunday we had a great breakfast at Barcomi and then poked around the Berliner Fernsehturm (space needle-type tower) and Alexanderplatz.  We headed back over to Brandenburg Tor, the Reichstag building, tier garden and memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe to take the sites we saw on the tour in at a more leisurely pace.  Apparently, the doner kebab was invented in Berlin, so we tried the supposed best one in town for lunch. We waited nearly an hour in line to get our hands on a doner at Mustafas and it was worth it!  We for sure consider it the best doner we have had!

The Reichstag building (Parliament)

Obligatory photo of Checkpoint Charlie

After our huge and long awaited lunch, we headed to Templhof airport.  The airport is now closed, but the land has been turned into a park since 2008.  It was kind of creepy to see an old huge abandoned airport, but fun to walk around the old runways.

On our last day, we tried to head over to the famed Bikini Berlin shopping building but it was closed.  Although we obviously couldn't see much inside,  it looks like a cool use of renewed urban space. Plus you can enjoy a free view of the baboon pin at the zoo from the terrace!  Then on to lunch for a good traditional meal at Schwarwaldstuben before having to head to the airport to return to Belgium.

Berlin frustrated us at times with rainy/cold weather and a lot of shops being closed for the holiday weekend.  However, despite all that we really enjoyed our stay in this historically interesting and now very hip city. We are thinking of making a return trip when the weather is better!

Spring 2017

As a catch up, below are a few fun events from this Spring from in and around Antwerp.

Ghent Urban Trail10k - Molly did a 10k race through the city of Ghent as a warm up for the Antwerp 10 mile race she ran later in the Spring.  She ran in Ghent with our friends Emily and Luke and finished on the famous Velodrome!

Pre race photo

Running through a nightclub!

End of the race in the Velodrome

Our photographer and personal cheerleader showed up

Post race beers!

Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlanderen) - This annual professional bike race starts in a different location every year, but always ends in the same village.  This year the start was in Antwerp, so we watched the riders take off, then headed down to Oude Kwaremont.  The course has the riders pass this old town 3 times on cobblestone paths.  It was a great day for cycling and spectating.  We were able to get closer to the cyclists each time they past.  A Belgian pulled ahead in the final moments to win, so it was an exciting conclusion to a fun day.

Jammed in the car on the way to Oude Kwaremont

Antwerp 10 miles - Molly ran the race with the Avery team this year.  She shaved a whole 4 minutes off our time from last year!  It was a tough race but she finished and might run again this year... ;)

Tapes Runners ready to race

Racing for the finish