Last minute exploring




Our last day in Berlin was a long day of walking before a late flight home at about 9pm. But before we could even contemplate pounding the pavements we had to start with a hearty breakfast, in by far my favourite breakfast spot!

I almost feel like I shouldn't share this place because I like it so much I want to make sure I'll be able to get a space next time, but Antipodes does by far the best coffee I've had in Berlin (possibly ever), some of the best service I've ever come across, and the cakes? I can't even describe how good. And so, for the third day in a row, we pulled up a seat at a brightly painted table with beautiful fresh flowers, ordered a flat white and my favourite breakfast on the menu.


The place is small, delightfully bright even on the dreariest days and always has an array of incredible home baked cakes on offer.


We'd finished our coffees before our breakfast even arrived, and so ordered a second, while the scent of bacon filled the air. And soon our plates of rather substantial breakfast arrived.

 

Don't be fooled by all that green. Underneath hides beautiful soft wholemeal muffins, with lashings of cream cheese, the crispiest of bacon, heaps of avocado and a pile of leaves all drizzled in olive oil. It's filling, tasty, and yet feels so deliciously healthy that you definitely should allow yourself some cake for what I like to call 'breakfast dessert'.

We tried a few - the banana and raspberry bread is so soft and fluffy (and tasty) it's almost too difficult to share, the carrot cake is some of the best I've ever had and served with yoghurt and fruit is the perfect example of cake for breakfast, and the chocolate and peanut cookies are as crumbly and devilish as they sound. But by far our favourite were the butterscotch blondies - just. too. good.


If you don't feel like cake at breakfast ask for them to take out and have them when you need some sustenance (you can thank me later). Everything is home baked so they will have different options at different times but I doubt there'd be anything that wouldn't be delicious.

Thoroughly fed and watered (and needing to walk off the cake) we headed out for more adventures. We walked a ridiculous distance, heading down towards Tempelhof, and stopping off at one of the weirdest sights of the trip. Known as Schwerbelastungskorper (or Heavy load bearing body to me and you), this was a leftover relic from the days of the Third Reich, and was a test site for what would have been one of the biggest structures in Berlin.


It may just look like a giant concrete cylinder and well, that's exactly what it is, but the history that goes with it is both fascinating and frightening all at once. This was a test for just one of four feet of a gigantic arch that would stand at one end of a huge road which would have ran through the centre of Berlin and framing an even bigger domed hall at the other end - had the Third Reich been successful. I know, crazy. And seeing it in person, it just seems even more crazy.




Berlin is full of strange relics from this time, and so we headed off from here to find another one - the old airport at Tempelhof.



We found the front and were enthusing about how much bigger it was than we thought, but the more we explored, the bigger it was!






Now, the grounds are used as a park and recreational space. It was warm on the day we were there but overcast, and there were still tons of people riding bikes and playing games. On sunny days it gets really busy, and there is even space for BBQ's. If you take my advice hire a bike and explore, reading the information points as you go, it's really interesting to read about the history and demise of the airport (if that's your sort of thing). Otherwise it's just a massive park to use on nice days.

As I've said before, the whole city is so full of history, and every corner seems to have a relic of a moment in time.

There is so much to explore that it is well worth taking time to plan out, and although we walked everywhere the metro is so easy to use (just make sure you validate your tickets in the little machines before use) that you could easily see so much of the city even over the course of a weekend.

We rounded off our trip with some shopping - Mitte has a range of high street brands and independent shops.

Even when shopping it's easy to wander in to odd little courtyards and interesting spaces.




 
And with that, we made our way to the airport to enjoy a last beer before our flight home.


We flew with Easyjet (the flights are ridiculously reasonable), and stayed at the Park Inn by Radisson right on Alexanderplatz (the location is as good as you can get, and the hotel is fine, with a fairly good gym, but we literally only used it for sleeping and showering so I couldn't tell you about anything else, and I'm sure there are loads of great places to stay).  All in all, Berlin is well worth a visit, whether you're intent on a history buff's tour of the city or a shopping and eating type of break.

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