Weihnachtsmarkt un der Spree 11/23/25
Today we took it easy for a bit, then headed next door to the Deutscher Dom (German Church). It is one of the twin churches located in Gendarmenmarkt, which is widely considered to be the most beautiful public square in Berlin. The French Church was built first in 1701, but the Germans were not to be outdone, so they built a twin church on the other end of the square, but made it 14 cm taller than the French Church, according to the local guide we hired on Wednesday. Between the two beautiful churches lies the Berlin Konzerthauz (concert hall).
Inside the German Church is the Bundestag Museum, which tells the history of the German parliament. It was in German, so we spent quite a bit of time using Google translate to understand it. One of the most interesting displays was the federal ballots for the elections in 1933, 1936, and 1938, in which Hitler was the only name on the ballot. Hmmm….who do you think you would vote for? And would you dare check “nein” or “no” on that 1936 ballot???
After that we headed out to the Weihnachtsmarkt un der Spree (Christmas Market on the Spree River). It is an all inclusive market where you pay a fee and get a wristband. So we tried All. The. Food. We had the Leberkase, which translates to liver cheese and contains neither liver nor cheese. Instead, it’s a beef, pork, and bacon meatloaf, but it’s very finely ground to the consistency of a hot dog, shaped into a loaf, and baked. It was quite tasty. We also tried the Goulash and Spaetzle (beef stew and noodles), and the Germknödel, which is a sweet fluffy yeast dough dessert with vanilla sauce. Next up was the waffle and vanilla sauce, followed by the Quarkbällchen, which is a deep fried cheese dough ball sprinkled with powdered sugar. Someone please roll me back to the train.
We needed to work off some calories, so we tried our hand at curling (we suck), giant Jenga, and driving nails into a log. We did not see the need for, or the fun, in that last one, but hoped it would keep us warm. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. The temp was 28 deg F and felt like 21 deg F. Shall we just admit that Berlin is cold? We were sufficiently chilled by this point, called it a night, took the train home, and got off at the correct stop this time. We are trainable.
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