SQ A380 to FRA, AB to TXL, and Berlin Christmas Markets after the Terror Attack

[yflyer]

A foggy morning in Frankfurt as I prepared to board my Air Berlin flight.



The Air Berlin A320 taking us to Berlin was at a remote gate. We were bussed there, and boarded via the front stairs.



As we taxied to the runway, I saw a new Lufthansa 747-8i in retro colours, complete with black nose cone and blue cheat line. A beautiful aircraft which I hope to fly one day.



The one hour flight to Berlin was a smooth one...we landed at Berlin Tegel, a small and old airport still being used while they debug the new airport, which is not yet open.

[yflyer]

My hotel in Berlin was the Mercure Berlin City West...a value hotel in a commercial part of the city not far from the Airport, and a convenient 25-30 min taxi ride to the Brandenburg Gate and the city center.



I talked to the taxi driver as he drove me to the hotel, and a topic that was unavoidable was the Christmas market truck ramming. He thought it was a terrible and senseless thing to have happened. "Yesterday the Christmas markets were closed as a day of mourning, but they have reopened today" he said.

I later learnt that there were many Christmas Markets in Berlin, up to 60 markets in fact. The market in central Berlin, where the terror attack took place, Breitscheidplatz, remained closed, but the others had now reopened, with more security.

As part of our trip to Berlin, our client and partner had planned for us all to visit the Christmas market that evening, and that looked to be going ahead.

We would be visiting one of the larger and more well known markets, the Christmas Market at Charlottenburg Palace, not far from the Mercure.

[yflyer]

The rooms at the Mercure were clean and pleasant...









Not a posh hotel by any means, but the rate offered was very good value, and it was close to our client's office.

Berlin is a compact city, so the hotel's location wasn't bad for sightseeing either, although if I was here on holiday, I would probably want to stay somewhere more central.

[yflyer]

It was now around lunchtime...I had a very small window of opportunity to head out for a run through Berlin.

The friendly receptionist at the hotel helped me book a taxi into the city, where I would do my best to see some of the sights of Berlin on foot...

The taxi drove me through Berlin's Tiergarten, a large park in the center of the city, past the Victory Monument (Built to commemorate a Prussian victory in 1873...)...



...to the starting point of my run, the Philharmonie, which is the concert hall and home base of the famed Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.



From there, I began my run, first heading through part of the Tiergarten, a huge park in central Berlin...



This was still a cold winter's day in December, and the air was chilly...



I jogged slowly past the Reichstag, the new German Parliament Building, rebuilt after German reunification to incorporate a glass and mirrored dome/cupola and skylights, by Norman Foster.



...before heading to the Brandenburg Gate, which looked magnificent in the afternoon sun...



These days, you can pass freely through, and under, the gate...I can only imagine the days before 1989, when the Brandenburg Gate used to form part of the wall dividing East and West Berlin...

[yflyer]

From there, I continued my run to Checkpoint Charlie, the famous (or infamous) checkpoint between East and West Berlin in the days of the Cold War.



With a large Christmas Tree in front, and McDonalds arches not far in the distance, it is not quite as intimidating now...

The signs leading up to checkpoint have been preserved...





The men in army uniforms at the checkpoint were apparently not real soldiers, but actors who charged a small fee to pose for photos.



And there is a shop...



...and a museum, which tells the often sad and tragic history of the Wall and the checkpoint.



I would have loved to head inside, but I simply didn't have enough time on this trip. I continued my run...

[yflyer]

Not far away, a different kind of museum...



...celebrating that iconic street food dish in Berlin, Currywurst...

I continued past the Mall of Berlin...



And ended my run at Leipziger Platz...



..where I caught a taxi back to the Mercure.

A total distance of just 4km that day, but that was all the time I had...the Reichstag is at the 1km mark on the route, with the Brandenburg Gate at about the 1.5km mark, and Checkpoint Charlie at the 3km mark on the route below...



A couple of conference calls in the hotel later, it was time to head out for dinner and then to the Christmas Market at Schloss Charlottenburg...

To be continued!

[yflyer]

That evening, after a business dinner, we headed to the Christmas Market at Schloss Charlottenburg...



This was one of the larger and more well known Christmas markets in Germany. In a normal run-up to Christmas, this place would be packed with visitors and revellers soaking in the Christmas atmosphere...but that evening, the crowds were comparatively light...



"I think some people are staying home this evening...in previous years you would not have room to walk...", my friend said.

Indeed, the atmosphere was a little subdued. One had to feel for the business owners at the various traditional shops and F&B outlets in the market.

There was some added security presence at the market, more to reassure visitors than anything else, but the mood was calm and relaxed.

[yflyer]

The market itself was a wonderful array of small, brightly lit stalls, serving up traditional Christmas F&B, as well as gifts and souvenirs...



Traditional Christmas Nativity Scene...



We roamed the aisles, lit with festive decorations...



...in search of various treats...



...from Christmas cake and pastries...



to delicious looking cuts of ham...



...and cheese...



Many stalls showcased traditional Christmas gifts and handicraft.

[yflyer]

A must-have in the Christmas market was the Gluhwein, which was traditional mulled wine...



Gluhwein was served hot, in ceramic shoe-shape mugs...



After drinking the gluhwein, you could return the ceramic shoe mug to get back EUR 3, or you could keep the mug and take it home as a souvenir...



...this was the perfect drink for a cold winter's night...

[yflyer]

The events of 19 December were not forgotten, and you had the feeling that everyone at the market was just a little more alert and conscious of their surroundings.

But in a way, everyone in the market was making their own little statement: that life would go on, and that those who spread fear and hate could not and would not win.

[yflyer]

As a rule, I exclude topics related to work in these trip reports, but I will make an exception in this post.

The reason? In Berlin, one of the offices I visited was a shared office complex in Siemensstadt in Berlin, which is considered a Berlin monument in the area of industrial design. The Wernerwerk industrial complex, built around the 1920's, featured the first high rise factory in Europe, and the other buildings in the complex shared an imposing, industrial design style that was both awe-inspiring and functional.



The office building itself itself featured wide staircases, high ceilings, and spacious rooms -- in many ways a more comfortable work environment that the cubicles that many office workers are subjected to these days. A very nice building to work in.

And the real find within the building that delighted me was a fully functioning Paternoster Lift.

I had heard about this type of lift before, but never imagined that I would see one in operation, let alone ride in one. First invented by a Liverpool-based engineer in 1868, there are maybe a couple of examples left in the UK. There are apparently quite a number still operating in Germany, although at one stage the authorities were considering shutting them down, for reasons which would be come clear once you learn how they operate!



Essentially, the lifts are open, doorless elevators with multiple cabins, which operate in in a loop like a ferris wheel, with one going up, and the other going down...



They don't stop moving...you step in when the cabin is level with your floor, and get off when the lift reaches your floor, all the time ensuring you don't decapitate yourself or have your limbs amputated if you misjudge your step...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/QlrQUZhiMtU

The lifts don't move fast, so it is actually not difficult...getting on and off our superfast MRT escalators in Singapore probably takes the same amount of physical dexterity. But timing is important...

And while there is no reason why you should do this, you can also do a round trip and loop right round the top (or bottom) and, after a brief period of potentially terrifying darkness, come out the other side...

Needless to say, my inner geek/child got the better of me and I did do a round trip, to the amusement of both colleagues and client...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_L_WBBGPLRg

"I knew you were going to try that", one of them said, chuckling.

[yflyer]

The next day, the 22nd of December, we had a full day of meetings in the office and wrapped up our work by 5pm.

What next? I had earlier suggested to my US based colleague that we should catch one of the world's best orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, who were playing one of their regular subscription concerts that evening.

We had booked tickets online in advance, weeks before the trip, and today was the day of the concert.

For a quick pre-concert dinner, we headed to another mandatory tourist stop in Berlin, KaDeWe, a massive department store in Berlin with a wide range of shopping and eating options.

We got there by taxi, driving through night time Berlin, which was lit up for Christmas.



On the way there, we passed the Kaiser Wilhem Memorial Church, first built in the late 1800's, but damaged in allied bombing raids during WWII in 1943, and rebuilt in the early 60's.



This was very close to the Christmas Market where the terrorist truck ramming took place, but just 3 days later, it seemed, at least on the surface, that things were back to normal.

The taxi dropped us off at KaDeWe, and we headed up the escalators, past floor after floor of department store departments to the supermarket, deli and food court section on one of the upper floors...



This level in KaDeWe was a food lover's dream...produce from Germany and around the world, beautifully laid out in the store for you to buy and take home, or eat on the spot.



I could have spent a long time here...







I could have spent hours here browsing the selection, but we had a concert to catch...

[yflyer]

We decided on dinner at one of the gourmet food court outlets...at a counter specialising in seafood bouillabaise...



Fresh tasting seafood in a thick tomato-based broth, together with a glass of champagne...



A quick, and very satisfying pre-concert meal...

[yflyer]

We caught another taxi to the Philharmonie...with its distinctive yellow roof brightly illuminated in the night sky...an instantly recognizable venue for fans of classical music all over the world.



The interior of this concert hall, which was built between 1960 and 1963, was no less stunning...



...with the concert hall itself seating more than 2400 concertgoers all round the orchestra...



That evening, conduct Sir Simon Rattle conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Act 1 of Wagner's Opera, The Valkyrie...

This work is probably most famous in pop culture for the "Ride of the Valkyries", which was incorporated into the soundtrack of the film Apocalypse Now, in an iconic movie scene with US Army helicopters over Vietnam, but that was in Act 3, not Act 1 which they were performing that night.



The concert performance of Act 1 that evening was remarkable, not least because of the contribution of acclaimed Wagnerian bass Sir John Tomlinson, whose deep voice resonated seemingly effortlessly through the large hall. This was a concert performance, with just singers and orchestra, without the props, costumes and acting of a fully staged opera, but that was all that was needed for a musically satisfying evening.



The concert began with another achingly beautiful Wagner composition: Siegfried Idyll, which my colleague, who was musically inclined and played part time in his own band, but was new to classical music and opera, described as "like being in a dream"...

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has come to Singapore to play at the Esplanade Concert Hall in the past, but ticket prices were very high. It is, after all, not cheap to fly these world class musicians around the globe to play. Especially since the last time round, in 2010 they had a chartered Lufthansa 747-400 all to themselves for the 18 day Asian tour. A much better idea to fly to Berlin to hear them play on their home turf instead!

If visiting Berlin, I would recommend attending a BPO concert in the Philharmonie even if you are not a die hard classical music fan, just to experience the sights and sounds of a hundred talented musicians making music as one in a unique concert hall.

[yflyer]

The next day, the last of the trip, I checked out before sunrise for an early morning Air Berlin flight to Dusseldorf, where I would connect to SQ's A350 service back to Singapore.

Berlin Tegel is a very small and compact airport...



And right after check in, the security and airside holding room were just on the opposite side of the wall from the check-in area...hardly any walking necessary...



The holding room was quite self contained, with a shop selling gifts as well as F&B in case anyone felt like breakfast right in the gate area itself...