Last year I was very spoiled. Not only did I get a daytrip to Milan for my birthday from Paul, my mom and her hub also gave me a mother-daughter getaway to Berlin! We went last December, so we could catch some of those wonderful Christmas markets <3. I'd never been to Berlin before, so my mom thought it was a good idea to take me there. Everyone always tells me I would love Berlin, so I was suuuuper excited to go! We "only" went for two days, but you know me - I make those two days worthwhile!
We arrived before noon and surprisingly were able to check in our hotel already. Up first: a Christmas market. Haha! We went to a couple of them actually, they're pretty much everywhere in Berlin (pretty much everywhere in Germany too, hahaha). I'll spare you all the other christmassy pictures, because.. it's February. But let me tell you that those christmas markets are amaaaaazing!!!
We walked to the Berliner Dom, but decided to have lunch at HEat restaurant at the Radisson first. The huge aquarium in the atrium suprised me a little!
We sat down right next to the Spree river and had the best view of the Dom!
I had the tandoori chicken tikka, and didn't expect too much of it - but it was so good! The restaurant has an open kitchen, so I could see they used a real tandoor oven to make it. The chicken was so juicy and tender and the naan bread and sauces were so tasty. It was also very filling, I couldn't eat it all, haha. My mom had a "simple" pesto spaghetti with sun dried tomatoes, but she really enjoyed that as well. Prices were reasonable!!
We then stayed at Alexanderplatz for some hardcore shopping, mostly at TK Maxx (why is it TK in Europe and TJ in the US by the way?) haha. I was particularly happy with this blue dress that got me a lot of compliments over Christmas ;D I also bought allllllll the Ciaté nail polish. Hah.
I then took my mom for a shopping break and some damn good chocolate at the Chocolate Café at Fassbender and Rausch.
At almost 100 years old, Fassbender & Rausch is a well established institution. They know their chocolate. At the Charlottenstraße they have a shop and a chocolate café upstairs. You can actually have dinner at the café, and they have all these chocolate inspired dishes, but we were here for one thing only.. The chocolate cakes! They all looked so pretty and sophisticated.
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On the left is my "Maroni Mousse Sinfonie": chestnut mousse with kirsch, sponge cake and meringues. It wasn't too sweet,and the dark chocolate so rich! A perfect little cake for the winter season. My mom had the "Mandel Nuss Karamell Sinfonie": almonds, caramel mousse and sponge cake. Also very good! Even though it had caramel in it, this wasn't too sweet either (my mom and I both don't like it when cakes are too sweet). They were 5,90 a piece, but I thought they were worth it!
We couldn't leave without buying some more chocolate. The shop downstairs is beautiful.They had all these Berlin landmarks made out of chocolate, and a bubbling vulcano, also made out of chocolate. Very impressive! I bought some chocolate sticks (Venezuela, 43% cocoa), because it was the cheapest I could find at €3,25 for 4 sticks of chocolate (40 grams each), haha. They also sell those sticks as "cigars" in these aweeeesome cigar boxes, but they were mad expensive. Oh, and at the cash register I figured out that if you like their Facebook page, you got some free chocolate! So I did that and got a free chocolate stick (Peru, 60% cocoa) haha. What can I say, I am Dutch and the Dutch like their free stuff :P I also got two free mini sticks, another Venezuela and one Trinidad that was 80% cocoa. Trinidad was extremely good.
Went to see the pretty Sony Center, and did some more shopping at the nearby Arkaden mall. Christmas was coming up after all O:)
All that shopping makes you thirsty, so we headed to the Fragrances bar at the Ritz for some special pre-dinner drinks.
You enter this hall, and everything is black and the light is dimmed. A friendly waiter greets you and explains the concept of this mysterious looking cocktail bar: Every cocktail is inspired by and based on a fragrance!
What you see right here is actually their cocktail menu! You're able to smell all the fragrances and their seperate ingredients. You can also see what main liquor is used, 'But,' warns the waiter, 'choose the cocktail because you like the fragrance. Don't choose the cocktail based on the liquor. A cocktail might contain mainly gin but not taste like gin, because they taste like the fragrance'.
They have SO many cocktails to choose from (they have another room with more cocktail options). I think I smelled all the fragrances. I always always always have a hard time deciding when I'm in a restaurant or something, so this was pretty challenging for me haha. After making a selection of three fragrances, I finally decided on the "sensual" and "elegant" Black Saffron cocktail, based on the fragrance by the Swedish Byredo.
Served in a black champagne glass, with a crispy (?!) raspberry on top. It was such a refined cocktail, subtle, delicate, and definitely tasted like the fragrance. Delicious Leblon cachaça with hints of raspberry, violets and rose. My mother had a cocktail based on a Guerlain fragrance, and it tasted like chocolate. Which was crazy and really good. I loved all the attention to detail here at Fragrances, even the glasses are amazing. Some cocktails are served in a little house, and one cocktail even has cotton candy on top (I did not like that perfume though)! We also got a huge bowl of salted popcorn. At €16 a cocktail it's a little bit of a splurge, but the whole experience alone is worth it. ,
By now we were pretty hungry, so we walked a couple of blocks to Gendarmerie. It's a very cosy restaurant, and very crowded although by now it was 21:30.
I went for the pan fried Wiener schnitzel (of course..) - it was almost as good as the one I had in Vienna! It was accompanied by a warm potato salad, which was a little tart but very tasty.
Crispy and wafer thin, as it should be!
My mom had the calf's liver and mashed potato. I don't like liver, but tried it anyway (because you should always try everything!) just in case. I'm sad to inform you that liver is still not my kind of thing, but my mom seemed to like it ;)
So that pretty much sums up our first day in Berlin! The next day we did a little more sightseeing, a little less shopping. But there was also shopping. Haha.
So that pretty much sums up our first day in Berlin! The next day we did a little more sightseeing, a little less shopping. But there was also shopping. Haha.