Some google searching (that I probably should have done a couple of days ago) told me that shops in Germany are only open until 2pm on Christmas Eve and then closed on Christmas day and Boxing Day. I wasn’t expecting the Boxing Day closure – I thought everyone in the world had Boxing Day sales. Thankfully restaurants and bars are mostly open on the evening of Christmas day and on Boxing Day.

What this meant of course is two things – 1. We had limited time to buy each other Christmas presents and 2. Given most of the little boutiques and independent shops around Prenzlauer Berg open at 12pm, there was little likelihood I would get to visit any of them. Knowing that only one of the presents I had in mind for Dan would likely be acquired in Prenzlauer Berg, I made the sensible decision to head into Alexanderplatz, the main shopping plaza around Mitte with Dan. (White Christmas – Bing Crosby – It wouldn’t be Christmas without Bing)

This was our first foray into the public transport system in Berlin which is an intricate web of U Bahn (train network with lots of stops) S Bahn (train network with fewer stops), trams and buses. Just imagine what a challenge it must have been 25 years ago to piece together the two separate city systems to form the new public transport system. A lot of the stations have the old station names on the wall in tiles and that often gives you some indication which network they were originally part of.  Some of the U Bahn infrastructure is underground but quite a lot of it runs a level above the street on an elevated rail track which you don’t really see in our part of the world. The U Bahn is by far the easiest way to get anywhere from our part of the city – it is about five minutes walk to the Eberswalde Strasse station. We grabbed a day ticket (about 6 Euros) in the belief that we might make it further than Alexanderplatz. Also, strangely, there are no return tickets here so a day pass is only marginally more expensive than two single tickets.

As I hadn’t ventured out for dinner the previous evening, I was pretty hungry and obviously needed strength to rise to the last minute shopping challenge. We spied a café as soon as we got out of the U Bahn station. Maybe it was their position right next to the station but in this tired looking café, we ate perhaps the most expensive bacon and eggs since we left Australia – and that includes Scandinavia. One piece of bacon, one piece of toast and scrambled eggs for two, an OJ, a diet coke and a regular cappuccino – 30 Euros!

We steeled ourselves for the inevitable onslaught of last minute shoppers but it didn’t come. We organized to meet at 12pm so that I could go back and have a look if any of the boutiques were open. That plan failed miserably. I ran around through malls and shopping strips putting together quite a swag for Dan. Some leather gloves from the Christmas Market (he has been sizing these up for weeks) a star wars T-Shirt and a Ben Sherman T-shirt (which got put down and not picked up again in a mad scramble to get wrapping paper or groceries later on) a small lego technic set and a pocket revel model kit of an X-wing fighter. Quite proud of myself as that was the first ever model kit I bought Dan. He is usually very particular about what kits he wants.  And last but not least an Ampelmann T-shirt. Ampelmann is the walk/don’t walk sign in the former East Germany. The little guy, who has a hat, is a cult figure here now. So much so that he has his own store.  And Dan had mused that it would be a cool thing to have – a T-shirt with the ampelmann, so that’s exactly what I bought (and a bag for me). There are also ampel girls. Not to be accused of inequality, some of the lights have an ampelwoman rather than man – she has a skirt and pigtails rather than a hat. (Mary’s Boy child – Boney M – I got re-introduced to Boney M by someone I spent a bit of time with about 15 years ago – while they are not a staple on my listening roster these days, their chorus of voices and rhythm is a perfect accompaniment to this particular carol).

Presents in hand, it was off to the supermarket to pick up some extra supplies, including pasta and sauce for Christmas Eve dinner as all the restaurants would be shut while German families had their Christmas  and some alcohol for Christmas lunch. I wandered about the supermarket looking at random things and buying much more food than we needed. Dan wanted to get just two things – Bratwurst to cook at home and an assortment of beers – In the supermarket, the large  (500ml I think) beers were less than a Euro. The curious thing here, despite the prevalence of alcohol and the low price, there doesn’t seem to be much of a problem with public drunkenness.

A short stop for wrapping paper and a candle and we headed back to the apartment about 15 or 20 minutes before 2pm. A number of the boutiques around were still open so after we had deposited the shopping, I went back out for a look around. Unfortunately by this time, they had all pulled down the shutters and closed up for the Christmas break.

We stayed in doors for the rest of the day too. It was cold and windy and Berlin is a bit like a ghost town on Christmas Eve. German Christmas starts with a family dinner and then the opening of presents before attending midnight mass for those who are that way inclined – sort of the reverse of an Australian Christmas. As a teenager, with a boyfriend from a German family this meant that I got two Christmases which was a pretty good way to go. We spent the afternoon decorating our newly acquired Christmas tree with the decorations we had acquired throughout our trip, including numerous toy soldiers, the now wilted balsa wood star, a porcelain angel from the silly castle, a couple of hand painted baubles, retro Porsche and Mercedes models from the museums we didn’t get to visit, a couple of lebekeuchen, a few other trinkets and of course the lego Santa. (Do They Know its Christmas – Band aid – As a child of the 80s it wouldn’t be Christmas for me without this track. It was during a period where I was already very politically aware and it had some of my favourite acts from that time on the roll call. I even have the original single in its pink paper sleeve at home.)

Then we just chilled for the day listening to Christmas carols on my awesome phone interspersed with the ringing of church bells around us. As German families nearby and our friends and family in Australia were winding up their Christmas, we were going to sleep to wait for Santa.

In the morning we did our traditional thing of ham cheese and pineapple croissants (although I had tea instead of coffee this year) and opened our presents. Dan loved all of his. I had only one but it was pretty spectacular – a beautiful Swarovski necklace. Not a glitzy dazzling bling piece like so many of their wares but a simple ellipse with purple and clear crystals and an olde worlde feel. We spent the morning chilling out in the apartment. We had been travelling at such a pace for the past few weeks that it was nice to just stop and relax. It felt a bit odd though. Our Christmases are usually filled with dashing somewhere with a big bag of presents – to my brother’s place for his kids, to Milton to see Dan’s family. This year, rather than a hectic Christmas we had a quiet one.

Our lunch – schinken, salami, cheese, olives, gherkins, a green salad, roast potatoes and carrots, red cabbage with apple, washed down with Dan’s selection of beers and the German sparkling Reisling Brut I had bought – put us in the usual post Christmas food coma so we had a bit of a lie down and Dan had a snooze while I finished the champagne and thought about what else we wanted to see in Berlin that didn’t require anything to be open.

After Dan woke from his snooze, we decided we probably should leave the apartment and undertook to find a Christmas market that we hadn’t yet visited. We found one in the western side of Germany near Charlottenberg. Conveniently, it was accessible on the same U Bahn line.We wandered around, I bought presents for those at home and a knitted brimmed hat for me (looks better than it sounds, had some gluhwein (well I had almost two gluhweins after Dan gave me the rest of his in favour of a beer. Dan had been hankering to have a half metre bratwurst and amazingly finished the lot. I felt rather like something more vegetable in nature. There was a vegan stand but the tomato soup they were serving actually looked a bit bland. I went for the mushrooms, this time with herb sauce (herb actually means with paprika by the way). After a bit more of a stroll around the market we headed back for my Christmas dessert – baked apples (unfortunately what we thought was vanilla custard in the store turned out to be vanilla yoghurt – not really the same. Probably should have tried it or alternatively just bought some eggs and made our own. The apples were quite yummy though. (Frosty the Snowman – Willie Nelson – for my Dad.)

With (overly) full bellies and quite merry from the beer/wine/gluhwein, we headed off to sleep contentedly, the way it should be at Christmas.

Christmas themed activities – 23  War museums and model shops – 2.5  Design experiences – 2