My favourite winter memory of Berlin!
The last month it has finally begun to get cold here in Berlin. After the longest and hottest summer on record it somehow felt like winter would never come. But […]
Berlin is a city which is forever changing, evolving and reinventing itself. This blog is where we’re able to share some more intimate moments of how it is to be in Berlin, our emotional connection to the stories you’ll find here, and to give you a glimpse of ‘behind the scenes’ in this remarkable city. We love writing these snippets, so we hope you love reading them!
The last month it has finally begun to get cold here in Berlin. After the longest and hottest summer on record it somehow felt like winter would never come. But […]
So. The national holiday of re-unified Germany is October 3rd. A little shy of a year after the Berlin Wall ‘fell’, the country voted to ‘re-unify’. This year will mark […]
As defined by the Oxford Dictionary: Gentrification: verb (gentrifies, gentrifying, gentrified) [with object] renovate and improve (a house or district) so that it conforms to middle-class taste. (usually as adjective […]
Fun tour guide fact: Berlin has more bridges than Venice. It’s true. Berlin has a huge network of canals dating back to the pre-train era when the easiest way to […]
A rare Sunday. A day off in summer, and all to myself without family or other obligations. The day stretched out ahead of me like an invitation. It was a […]
One of the things I love about Berlin is that this city can still surprise me. Even after years of working as a private guide I still discover new things […]
There’s a kids nursery rhyme in German which says “ Hoppe hoppe Reiter, wenn er fällt den schreit er, Fällt er in dem Graben, Fressen ihm den Raben, Fällt er […]
In Berlin if you brave using the excellent subway system during your visit – you may very well see teeny tiny houses and gardens
If you’d visited Berlin whilst the Wall was still up, say in the 1980’s and you’d applied for a day visa to visit the East and crossed at the Friedrichstrasse […]
Every October, Berliners start to sigh and moan about the summer being well and truly over. The days get noticeably shorter and we all dread the turning back of the […]
So in September, a new space opened in Berlin, called Urban Nation. They call themselves a Museum of Urban Contemporary Art and have had a long and labyrinthian journey to […]
It’s the time of year again when the air turns crisp, the leaves begin to yellow and I begin to especially treasure every day of sun and blue skies. Especially […]
I’ve spent the last 12 summers in Berlin. My first one I thought was fairly dodgy, fairly bleak and grey and rainy, but then I’d just moved from sunny Australia […]
It was a gorgeous sunny day. One of those rare days at the beginning of the season where you can just feel summer is on it’s way.
Spring is sprung once more and along with the flowers and buds and copious quantities of mud, there comes something else which I had never seen before moving to Germany.
What to do when you’re asked to provide a private tour of Berlin for one of the most experienced travel journalists in Australia?
The Oderberger Stadtbad Imagine Berlin at the turn of the 20th Century. It was big, dirty, teeming metropolis. The population tripled in 30 years.
If you enjoy a cocktail now and again, this post is a must-read in your pre-trip planning for Berlin. Life is too short for bad cocktails!
Usually this time of year I write about Glühwein and Christmas markets and fur boots and pocket warmers. This year is completely different.
Summer is over, and the quieter season begins. So curl up on the couch with some reading, grab a cup of tea and enjoy the colder months.
Teufelsberg. The Devils Mountain. The name conjures all sorts of images – usually dark, deserted and dangerous. Perhaps haunted…
Let’s be honest, it wasn’t a great summer in Berlin this year. It wasn’t awful exactly, but it was colder and wetter than ideal. But the reward comes now. Thankfully.
A short bus ride from Berlin city lies a charming oasis of green and quiet where Peacocks roam free and Prussian kings live on in memory.
Every two years, something extraordinary happens in Berlin in summer. A collective fever takes over and symptoms spring up all over the city. Football.
Spring in Berlin brings to mind many things. Rebirth, hope, renewal. All of a sudden the trees have leaves again. Seemingly overnight.
Aah, my yearly ode to the miracle of spring in Berlin. The grey winter seems to drag on forever, grey and rainy and then suddenly, it’s over.
The Bayern Quarter is an unassuming neighbourhood, most known for JFK’s iconic 1963 speech where he proudly declared he was a jam donut.
Espionage. Code words, secret meetings, hidden agendas, danger. It sounds like a James Bond movie, but is something which in Berlin was very real.
The Berliner Dom is a rather unique piece of architecture in Berlin. Its impressive curved dome soars above the former Royal quarter of Berlin.
Wow, another year over, another one begins. Resolutions are made (and let’s face it, quickly broken) and the season turns towards slowly longer days. And colder days.
Walk through the former National Socialist government district in Berlin on a private tour with me, and a lot of what I do is explain what no longer exists.
Going on holiday is wonderful. I love it. I used to be a constant traveller, somewhat of a nomad, forever changing cities, countries, people and places. But not any more.
Mauer Park fleamarket is a Berlin institution. But there is another reason to go to Mauerpark on a Sunday, which has nothing to do with the markets themselves.
The European forest, what a wonderful creature! A living being – breathing, growing, changing, dying, decaying as we watch. Berlin has amazing natural spaces.
Whether you call it street art, urban art, graffiti or vandalism, the act of painting/glueing/drawing on buildings and other public spaces in Berlin has decades of long and colourful history.
Stasi. A word of power in East Germany. The Stasi were a formidable force of the Cold War, and some argue the most effective counter espionage system in European history.
Aaah Potsdam, the chosen summer residence (and sometime full time residence) of various Prussian kings and German emperors. The jewel in the Prussian summer crown.
Spargelzeit. Aparagus Time. I think this is my favourite time of year in Berlin. If you’ve not eaten white asparagus German style yet, you must come taste it for yourself!
In Potsdam there are so many palaces, gardens, follies and gazebos it’s hard to know where to begin. But with a private guide at your side you have a headstart.
One of the best things about a holiday away is coming home to Berlin. I just touched down back in Berlin after a long, well earned Australian family break. Berlin.
If you’re wandering through part of Berlin’s Mitte district, down a little street near the Friedrichstadtpalast theatre, you will come across an extraordinary sight.
Walking into the enormous Weissensee Cemetery is like stepping into another world, in many ways stepping back in time.
December rolls round again. The days get colder. Significantly colder. And darker – sunset is around 4pm so the nights feel loooong.
It’s the first week of November and things are positively buzzing in Berlin – because on the weekend it will be 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Autumn in Berlin. Red and gold leaves. This has without a doubt become my favourite season in the ten years I’ve been guiding in this city.
Let me state openly – I am no sports fan. I have never attended a live sport event, and avoid watching them on TV. It’s just not my thing.