Christmas is coming

In this case, a Christmas tree was being delivered to a rooftop outside our hotel this morning. We’d noticed too, that the trees have received a little twinkle overnight. Here in Germany, Christmas really doesn’t begin until Advent and the Christmas Markets here in Berlin don’t open until Monday. As a result, things here have been low key until now, when we are noticing preparations are starting.

We planned to take the U Bahn this morning to Wittenbergplatz, from where we’d do a little shopping in KaDeWe and the other stores along the Berlin equivalent of Oxford Street. You can see from the photo how empty it was today - we’ve not experienced any crowds on public transport and everyone is observant of the need for masks and social distancing. We are thankful for that.

Wittenbergplatz is an historic station and I love the style of it all, including the old advertising panels.

From here, it’s just a few steps to KaDeWe, for many years the landmark department store of Berlin.

Here too, they were just gearing up for Christmas, still in the process of putting up displays and wall panels.

So our quick look around the “Weinachtsmarkt” was exactly that - the Erzgebirge wooden decorations were looking as lovely as ever, with the same extremely high price tickets as always. Fine craftsmanship doesn’t come cheap.

The little Hubrig town was beautifully set out though heaven knows how long it would take to build a collection so extensive! But, collected annually and passed down through families, it would surely be treasured.

Having looked around the other shops along here, ogling the model of the Titanic in the Lego shop window on the way, we’d reached the Kaiser Wilhelms church and crossed the road to walk back to the station. As we’ve done before, we wondered about exploring inside, but feeling a little footsore and with an early, pre-theatre dinner booking, we left it till next time once more. Perhaps we should schedule a specific visit rather than just consider dropping in when we’re doing something else?

We walked through the partly-built Weinachtsmarkt, noting the security measures in place to prevent unwanted vehicle access. This afternoon, whilst reading the news, we learned that in Bavaria, all Christmas markets have been cancelled due to Covid. To think that includes the huge Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt, it must be a huge disappointment for many, especially at this late stage.

Four weary feet found their way back to the station and back to the hotel. We had a quick freshen up and change before heading out again to Gendarmenmarkt, where we had a table waiting at our favourite Augustiner. From there it was just a couple of blocks to the Komische Oper.

I’ll tell you about Anatevka in another post!