We’d read about a famous stationary shop near Uhlandstrasse metro station. Helene wanted to buy a notebook and pen.
When we got there, the shop was disappointing. Apart from the prices, there was not much choice. We postponed the stationary purchase for later on.
Hansaviertel is an area that was almost completely destroyed during World War II. In 1952, many architects were invited to a competition to re-design the area. From 1957, the area was redeveloped according to their designs as a social housing project. Some of the housing was done by the people behind Bauhaus, such as Walter Gropius. All the buildings, however, were modernist, the architects all being advocates of the “Neues Bauen” (“New Building”) school of architecture. The buildings contrasted starkly with the uniform architecture in the eastern part of the city at the time.
We spent much of the morning walking around the area. The Hansaviertel website has a virtual guide, which helped orient us.
The first building we saw was an unlikely looking church. It was being shut when we got to it. The person invited us to look inside before he locked up, which was kind of him.
There were a few tour groups walking around at the same time, hearing about the area’s history.
There was a library, which was closed, but there was plenty to see before we had a break in a friendly cafe on the development.
After a refreshing lemon drink, we walked along the river. A young girl, with her family, asked us where we were from. On hearing our accent, she said she wanted an accent like ours!
When we got to the Brandenberg Gate, one of a group of vegan activists approached me to tell about veganism. We had a chat and I asked him which vegan restaurants in Berlin he recommended.
Having failed to buy stationary this morning, we went to a large bookstore, Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus. This shop had everything, including a cafe we went to.
There was a curious poster directing us to the section on international books. It had Johnny Rotten and Maradona either side of the name of one of Sex Pistols’ albums (God Save the Queen)! The colour scheme was from another Sex Pistols’ album (or maybe the German version had a different cover).
The last place I wanted to visit was Hackesche Höfe. This is a shopping area with interconnected Art Nouveau courtyards and independent boutiques. There’s an online guide for each courtyard. We counted six, HOF I to HOF VI
Our final stop was a recommendation from our guidebook: the ORA Restaurant & Wine Bar. When we got out of the closest metro station, the area looked a bit dodgy. But that was just the area around the station and the walk to the ornate bar was fine.
