Before joining the others for lunch, J and I popped back to the Gendarmenmarkt to have a peek around especially since I missed the first night when everyone else went. Ooooh what a quaint little market with medieval stalls and people cooking stuff the old way. Sausages over burning coals, pizza (erm clearly not German cuisine) in a woodfire oven. A must see if you are ever in Berlin over Christmas.
Berlin really is alive on Christmas Day. All the Christmas markets are open, public transport runs and people are everywhere. A stark contrast to ghost-town London, where EVERYTHING is shut including public transport!!!! It is unbelievable that such a large city doesn't even run a skeleton service on Christmas day, ultimately giving taxi drivers a licence to double their fees.
A variation of pizza cooked the German, wood-fired way.
Mmmmm warm Kinderpunsch (non alcoholic fruit punch). We opted for the no-booze given that it was the morning.
Lunch was booked at the Grand Hyatt as we had figured that many restaurants otherwise would be closed. As always, too much was eaten. One of the best drinks at Christmas is mulled wine, otherwise known as Glühwein in Germany. Mmmm warm, spicy alchohol goes down particularly well on a cold winter day. It was everywhere!!
(L-R, T-B) Yummy, yummy, warming, glowing Glühwein. My beef carpaccio. J's steak tartare.
Lil Miss J's scallops. Kt's goat cheese. Kt's tortellini.
Lil Miss J's halibut (I think). My duck breast - a bit dry. My dumplings.
Yeah, that's us at the Hyatt.
Afterwards, we made our way to the Reichstag (wow! so famous!) and lined up for about 40 minutes before being let in to the view the dome. There were a few casualties with half of us heading back to the hotel due to the freezing cold.
The queue into the Reichstag.
We were all so relieved to finally get to the front of the queue, away from the freezing cold and to go through the appropriate security checks. The bigger shock was upon exiting the elevator that brought us to the base of the dome and the realisation that the the dome was not an enclosed space!!!
The view into parliament from under the glass dome.
The dome from outside.
For dinner, we all made our way back to Gendarmenmarkt for more bratwurst, gluhwein and tidbits of all sorts.
On the right, my chopped up pancake (or Palatschinken if you prefer) with powdered sugar, warm vanilla custard and sour cherries again. You know, I'm starting to think these desserts might be healthy for me.
I went home full. Yes indeed I did.
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