2024 September #22: Berlin mitte

Today is the last day of September, Monday the 30th. We got around a fair amount today (although, checking the health app, we did about our average of 5.5 miles walking).

Yes, average 5.5 miles. That’s been great; I have to wear a belt cinched up to keep my pants from falling off.

So today we were mostly in the ‘mitte’ kietz, the center of Berlin. It is known for being sterile, lots of government buildings, but actually there is a lot mixed in, like in all of Berlin.

There’s an island in the Spree river that flows through Berlin (east to west), called Museum Island ‘cause it’s where a lot of the major museums are.

It was a nice day; we had lunch at an outdoor cafe on the bank of the river across from the island:

A short walk from there to Oranienburger street, the old Jewish quarter, home of the ‘new synagogue’, a spectacular but partially destroyed building left unrepaired as a monument, now a museum. No pics, sorry, we just passed by today, plan to go back later. Nice, interesting neighborhood:

A bit farther out to the north, spandauer vorstadt, found a nice cafe for coffee (me) and an Aperol spritz (Leslie - btw they are the in drink here & now can be seen everywhere on a nice day): “Strandbad Mitte”, meaning beach resort in mitte:

I don’t know whether it’s functional, but that’s the 1st cigarette machine I’ve seen in 50 years.

…a bit further on to the n & w, oranienburger vorstadt:

…back by the wall memorial on Bernauer Street:

…and finally over to Prenzlauer Berg, where we found the best coffee in Berlin: FirstCrack Roasters, on Raumerstr:

A nice platz near there: