Das Bode Museum

Its amazing what you notice when you have the chance to wander alone.

 

Personally, I’d look way more excited about being a saint. 

“Blessed are the what?” she says. Lady has no idea how she got here. 

This one just walked into the wrong room.  

The Bode Museum, like many of the buildings on Museuminsel, is very beautiful. If you go, take a moment to walk onto the gallery looking down into the main foyer. The collection is primarily sculpture, but there are some paintings. Mostly in the form of alter pieces.

Die Römanische Reise

We swapped the chill of Berlin for the sun of a slightly-less chilly Rome. It was our longest and best trip thanks to a combination of timing and finally deciding a nice hotel is worth it. Although we sublet in Berlin, I’m …

I-ke-Su, Wilmersdorf

We’ve been trying new places all over Berlin and I-ke-Su, on Uhlandstraße in Wilmersdorf, is going to become a regular on our list of go-to restaurants.

I-ke-Su is a kai tan sushi restaurant, the kind of place where the rolls are pulled around the restaurant on a conveyer belt and you grab what you like. I-ke-Su takes the concept to a delightfully kitschy place by using a tiny stream with wooden boats.

Sorry for the blur. Those boats were moving at a nice clip!

The best part, from a family perspective, is the decor. In addition to the boats, the entire bar area is surrounded by a salt-water aquarium. S was especially charmed by the itty-bitty starfish clinging to the glass directly in front of her. What’s more – we got her to try a bit of a cooked salmon roll even though there was sauce touching the fish!

A major victory on more than one count!

You can find I-ke-Su at Uhlandstr. 157  by taking the U9 or U3 to Spichernstr.

Dokmai, Steglitz

We were in need of a change of culinary pace. More specifically, we needed a Thai restaurant. Now you may see in my archives that we have a neighborhood Thai place, but no more. Sadly, Sarod’s changed management and isn’t up to what it used to be.

And that’s why we had to go to Steglitz. I can’t tell you much else about Steglitz, since my experiences there are limited to walking from the S-Bahn to my new favorite Thai restaurant. I can’t take credit for the find, however, that was entirely Jon. It was his idea to look up the nearest Thai restaurant to the Thai embassy and voila! There’s was Dokmai.

The restaurant is small and the service is friendly. We’ve been twice and both times I ordered the basic – but telling! – Pad Thai. Its perfect; its tasty, and what’s more, it was exactly the same on both visits!

This spicy, basil chicken was delicious, too. Can you see the peppercorns? So good.

Don’t mind the schlep? Find Dokmai Muthesiusstraße 38 by taking the S1 or U9 to Rathaus Steglitz.

 

 

a musical weekend

I might have stretched S a little thin with two classical music performances over the weekend. How could we pass up a Bach-marathon, or a family showing of “Die Zauberflöte?” You may be thinking: “quite easily.” I certainly got one …

Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt in der Kulturbrauerei

Last week, we fell in love with Finland (or at the very least, Finland’s way with salmon and cardamom), and on Friday, we followed it up with a general Scandinavian affair at the Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt. This market is much larger …

Deutsches Technikmuseum, Kreuzberg

The Deutsches Technikmuseum is the place to be for all things mechanical.   We spent a few hours there. Jon and S moving from exhibit to exhibit with interest, and me dragging my feet behind them. It isn’t that the …

Finnischer Weihnachtsmarkt

“You have Lachs in your hair,” said my husband as he gingerly picked a bit of salmon off of me and flicked it to the ground.  I didn’t care; after three years in the US we were finally back at …

Staaken!

We went to Staaken!

Staaken was a border crossing between the former East and West Germany. To make matter confusing, the western part of Staaken (bordering Brandenburg) was in the DDR while the eastern part (bordering Berlin) was in the British-controlled west. Today Staaken is a suburb of Spandau, which itself is a suburb of Berlin. That is, unless you ask a Spandauer.

 

 

 

Thüringen: Zweiter Teil

The next morning we headed to Weimar. As I mentioned in the first part of my Thüringen travel posts, Weimar was the home of Goethe and Schiller. It is also the home of a lovely Goethe and Schiller statue: We …