A Night On The Town

Posted on by Jon

Well sadly I am back at home as I write this, but now I have time to sit down and finish this! Here’s what happened on our second to last visiting day in Berlin! Date: 12/7/2023. Many pictures in this post incoming!

The day started off with a trip a ways west to the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, to the famous baroque style Schloss Charlottenburg, built in the late 1600’s. It was commissioned by Sophie Charlotte of Hanover, first queen consort of Prussia. It’s a huge baroque palace, but unfortunately was heavily damaged during WW2, but has been reconstructed to its original appearance. Though in some rooms, it was unknown exactly what they looked like. Every room is incredibly well decorated, with much of the original furnishings and artworks, which were removed and stored away during the war. Attached to the palace was a whole nother more ‘modern’ wing in the rococo style, built in the 1800’s.

But of course, in addition to the palace, there was a lovely Christmas Market right out front in the main courtyard! We walked it for a bit both before and after the palace. We spent quite a while here, and soon headed back for the hotel. But soon after, I went out for an adventure of my own. Our hotel was near the iconic, famous and gigantic Brandenburg Gate. Unfotunately however, much of the gate was covered up with scaffolding and coverings due to vast amounts of brightly colored paint being splashed up and down the columns recently by climate activists.

Though I continued up north for the short walk to the equally iconic Reichstag building. It’s still there! But there was a bunch of construction going on out front. Then I walked back along and passed through the Brandenburg gate and simply had a nice, enjoyable long walk down Berlin’s famous Unter Den Linden street which is a nice long walk through the main city-center of Berlin, going into shops and visiting a few markets along the way. One market was the Gendarmenmarkt, another one of the markets that has a fee to enter. (I did not go in.)

Beyond that, at another palace not far beynd was the Wintermarkt Schlossplatz Berlin Mitte, another market in front of, and in the courtyard of a neat palace. Certainly not as big or as fancy as the other. Beyond that market, heading east is the also iconic Fernsehturm – the television tower, and Germany’s tallest building. But it was hidden in the fog and clouds. And at the base of this market was Berlin’s main and grand Christmas Market. It’s big and has just about everything, and is very pretty! I wandered around and saw most of it, and was awed. It was easily one of the most impressive we’d been to thus far! Finally, as it was getting pretty late, and it had been a very long walk, I took the Straßenbahn (street trains) back to our hotel at Potsdamer Platz.

Sadly there will be only one more day of adventure to post about after this, for this journey! But for now, here are the pictures!

One of the first sights to greet anyone stepping off the street trains into Berlin’s main Alexanderplatz. A slowly spinning world clock.
Some of the huts are the markets are fully indoors large dining areas.
One of the entrances to Schloss Charlottenburg Market.
The market is all around behind me, with a super-mini-market inside the gates.
The Porcelain room. You’ll never guess why it’s called this.
Notice the busts of figures on the wall holding even more porcelain.
Hello! What looked like a real stuffed dear staring down from the ceiling.
Inside the chapel.
The iconic Pickelhaube Helmet on display in a museum on second floor of the palace which displays many of the fine silver and furnishings.
A funerary parade helmet. Would not have been worn, but rather displayed on a pillow during the procession.
The crown jewels. Except the crown and others were not displayed.
A grand hall in a second wing of the palace built later than the original palace. This was from the 1700’s, in the rococo style.
Musicians playing carols at the Berlin Mall.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Just over 2,700 stones as a monument to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Back side of the Brandenburg gate, looking east and inward, toward the city center.
The Reichstag.
A nearby series of signs dedicated to victims of the Nazis, and heroes who worked to rescue victims.
Inside the Brandenburg gate. Covered in scaffolding thanks to the climate vandals.
The famed Adlon Hotel, where singer Michael Jackson once infamously dangled his baby over the balcony.
A street plackard with 3 of Hitler’s top leaders, that explains what happened in the offices nearby.
The exclusive pay to enter Christmas Market, at the famous Bebelplatz, formerly known as Openplatz, site of the horrific mass book burnings.
The Neue Wache. (New guard.)
You cannot enter it, but inside is a statue of a woman weeping over her dead child. A monument to victims of tyranny.
A building on Unter den Linden, drenched in blue lights.
The also iconic Berlin Cathedral. Is anything in Berlin NOT iconic?
Entrance of the cathedral. One of my first days in Germany I visited this cathedral and the great royal crypt underneath.
Old National Gallery. A major painting museum. Not sure why it looks like it’s morning/day time!
The Berlin Palace with market out front.
A few random bulbs that you can walk into and have benches in them!
Inside the palace court yard.
After that market, this is on the way to the main next market!
Welcome! Notice the iconic tower iconically disappearing in the iconic fog.
Statue of Neptune, with 4 women, each representing Prussia’s four main rivers. The Elbe, Rhine, Vistula and Oder. It’s hard to see in the picture, but there’s an ice skating rink set up that goes around the fountain!
Walking the market.
Berlin’s iconic city hall – the Rotes Rathaus.
Nativity scene.

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