The warm weather came back to Berlin this week making outdoor activities so much more enjoyable. For most of the week the temperatures were in the 20’s Celsius [80’s Fahrenheit]. Logan enjoyed some outdoor park time and some water pad time at his favourite parks. On Friday we got a chance to go back to the farmer’s market next to Chad’s office and have some yummy “Zeitraum” which literally means “Time in Space.” This sandwich doesn’t disappoint. It’s got roast-beef, grilled veggies, homemade sauce and it’s served on think bread that has an egg in the middle - all cooked on the grill.

With the weather cooperating and a reason to exercise after Friday’s lunch, we headed on the bikes Saturday morning to explore more of the Spree and see what lays South East of Berlin in Kreuzberg. About 10K (6ish miles) down the Spree is a broader part of the river that provides some weekend warriors the ability to entertain in water sport activities. Plenty of people have boats docked here and there are waterpolo courts and canoeing available for the public. Doreen had discovered this wonderful restaurant on the river and so we set as plan to head there for lunch. This modern beer garden is perched on the bank next to the jetty and has a wonderful menu of modern twists on classic local treats. Logan got to play with some stackable bricks, see the boats and we got to enjoy some time outside.

On Sunday we wanted to have a longer ride so we set out earlier and headed West to explore Grunewald, a forest in-between a few lake that was once the hunting grounds for royal family. The ride through the forest was beautiful and it had countless trails for mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding. Our first stop was Jagdschloss Grunewald, a hunting lodge inside of Grunewald forest that dates back to 1542. It was originally built as a Renaissance palace by Elector Joachim II. All of the Prussian kings used this as a staging ground for their hunts. Over the years Fredrick the Great, Wilhelm II, and prince Carl of Prussia famously added to the the summer cottage. In 1932 it was turned into a museum and was spared from the destruction in WWII. At the end of the war it was the first museum to be reopened and has been open ever since.

After we toured the grounds and Logan pet all the dogs (a lot of locals walk their dogs around the lake), we headed to our lunch destination in Dahlem. This lovely beer garden is situated in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem, a posh area with nice homes and well manicured gardens. The US Consulate is located a few miles down and a lot of US based businesses are present in this part of town - we even ran into the most German looking McDonalds we’d ever seen.

After lunch we headed back home. On our way was a famous building, the Rathaus Schöneberg. Built in 1911-1914, this building is the city hall for the town of Templehof-Schöneberg and was the state senate from 1949-1990. In the battle of Berlin the building was severely damaged and needed a ton of repairs due to allied bombings - the Nazis had a series of murals painted on the walls in 1938 that they cared about protecting. In 1950 the US donated the Freedom Bell for the recently renovated tower which hangs and rings to this day. Probably the most memorable thing that ever happened at this location was the famous speech JFK delivered, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” On June 26, 1963, Kennedy stood on the steps of the Rathaus Schöneberg and gave a rousing speech that was heard around the world. Many people believe this speech was a key escalation point in the Cold War. Just 3 years before the Paris talks between Khruschev and Eisenhower broke down and just over 2 years before was the Bay of Pigs invasion (April 1961). Some modern historians point to this timeline as the reason Russia installed the wall in August of 1961 as support for their new communist allies, North Vietnam (1957) and Cuba (1959). As we pointed out in our post “No Mans Land,” The wall wasn’t really fortified until the later part of the 60s. In part that had a lot to do with Kennedy’s speech. Just after June 1963 the wall started to get reenforced, the spy trade picked up and Berlin became the battle ground for the CIA and the KGB. The irony of the speech however is that Kennedy believed he was telling the audience he was with them by saying the now infamous words “Ich bin ein Berliner,” but what he didn’t know what that he told the crowd that he was a jelly donut (a Berliner is a famous jelly donut). To this day the people of Berlin haven’t forgotten the accidentally funny slip.

We had a good week and we can’t wait for the next one. 

Until Next Time,

The McNeills