der erste Glühwein...und vieles mehr!

The last few days we have spent mostly in our neighborhood, Kreuzberg, so today I wanted to take Elisabeth into Mitte to see some of the sights. And hit up a few Christmas markets along the way. It's fun to have visitors because you get to do the touristy things you never do when you live in a place.  :)

First we went to Alexanderplatz, the main hub of East Berlin. We saw the Fernsehturm (the TV tower: you can't miss it...), the Rotes Rathaus (city hall), Weltzeituhr (world-time-clock). Then we walked through the Christmas market on Alex. Berlin has quite a few markets, and although they are all a bit carnivalesque, they are varying degrees of full-on fair. This one had an ice rink and a ferris wheel, and some kind of little train ride for children. They sell Wurst, crepes, sugared almonds, Belgian waffles, roasted chesnuts...and you can buy mulled wine, cider, eggnog...Also Christmas decorations, warm hats/socks/scarves.

From here we walked down past Marx and Engels (below left), past the Berliner Dom (below center), to the Nostalgischer Weihnachtsmarkt on Unter den Linden, Opernpalais.

Here we had our first Glühwein of the season! A little sweet, but warm and cozy. (Helped that they had heat lamps...) Elisabeth is so much fun to hang out with during the Christmas season, because she loves it. Decorations? Tree? Stars? She eats that up. Loves it. Can't get enough. Not even the cold gets to her--she loves this season. :)

From there we walked down to Gendarmenmarkt, which has a super classy Weihnachtsmarkt, that even charges admission. We are saving that one for another day. We just peeked inside and saw the pretty tree. From there we walked down Friedrichsstrasse to Unter den Linden, to Brandenburger Tor.

So here is proof we are in Berlin:

Then we walked by Potsdamer Platz, took the train to Wittenbergplatz, walked past the KaDeWe down to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche, through yet another Christmas market...where we had Wurst for dinner: a Berliner Currywurst, and a Knacker with Grünkohl. The night ended with us trying to see Swan Lake but it was sold out. But maybe that's for the best...

And now we're tired.
And really, it's only Day 3. It's like the 12 days of Christmas, except it's before Christmas, and it started with our birthday, and it's 17 days long. So it's actually better. But sorry dad, no partridges.