Fourth weekend in Berlin – Berlin Wall, antiques market near the Ostbahnhof, random stop in Kreuzberg

Yesterday’s blog had a summary from Saturday.

Antikmark near Ostbahnhof

Today, I set out to go to an antique’s market (antikmarkt) near Ostbanhof as a startng point, then see where the days lead me.

There was an issue with the S9 line to Pankow so we had to disembark.  Yesterday, I decided to take a random trip on the U-bahn, missed my actual stop (Zoologischer Garten) to go to Tiergarten.  I decided to disembark on Deutsche Oper and walked around to find myself around the Charlottenburg area.  Today, I decided to keep to the script and take the bus to Ostbanhof.

I’m still getting used to the landmarks, so I completely forgot that remnants of the Berlin Wall (with some art) are nearby.  I decided to take a walk around the antiques market then make my way to the Wall.

Some books, but there were a lot of others.

The antiques market was definitely not the type you’d see in LAPADA Antiques Fair in London or the Spring Masters in New York (both I’ve been to) and there wasn’t a lot that wowed me.  But then again, I don’t know that much about German history.  I think that if you are there with an agenda in mind – ie purchase X from era Y – you might find some enjoyment in it.  For me, it was a good browse around.  I saw some medals, a lot of stamp collection books, a lot of children’s toys, some very old-looking stuff but that was really it.

The Berlin Wall

I admit that right now, I don’t know a lot of history about the Berlin Wall. So my first sightseeing trip was to look at the street art and think about how much walls suck.

Kreuzberg

This is also another area to check out, but I haven’t had a chance.

I was only around the Kottbusser Tor area and didn’t do much as it was rainy/Sunday. I dropped by at a vegan cafe to try out their raw cake (which was OK, although I have an aversion against anything that hints at having coconuts) but walked around a bit before going back to the U-bahn.

Based on my first impressions (the photos turned out quiet interesting), this is not really my type of area.