Me in front of one of Berlin's many icons, The Brandenburg Gate
In many European countries, in recognition of Easter, both Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays, providing the perfect opportunity to travel. This year I stayed put and hung out with two traveling divas who decided to spend Easter weekend in Berlin! I love hosting my friends, it gives me a great chance to rediscover the city. We focused our sight seeing efforts on the Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz and the East Side Gallery. We would have seen much more but our time outside was cut short due to freezing cold temperatures and a snow storm that hit!
My weekend in Berlin started out with a hearty brunch with a group of friends at the California Breakfast Slam, in Neukölln. With our bellies full of American inspired brekkie, we then headed towards the new center of Berlin to visit the Holocaust Memorial.
Thousands of concrete slabs or stelae make up this memorial
The Holocaust Memorial also know as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, consist of 2,711 concrete slabs called stelae that are arranged in a grid on a sloping field. The stelae are all the same length and width but vary in height, creating a disorienting atmosphere. Underneath the memorial is a museum which contains the names of all known Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
A boy looks for his friends during a game of hide and seek amongst the stelae of the Holocaust Memorial
The Place of Information is located underground and is accessible via a stairwell. The underground museum provides details about many of the victims of the Holocaust, including personal correspondence, family profiles and heart-wrenching tales of escape.
One of the rooms underneath the Holocaust Memorial - The low light creates a haunting effect
A map showing the number of Jewish people executed in the Baltic States. Estonia was marked as "Jewish Free".
After the museum we slowly made our way to Brandenburg Gate, we took quite a few pictures and the weather started to get colder. Since no weekend in Berlin would be complete without sweets we decided to hunt down some sugary goodness in Berlin’s Old Town. Earlier in the week I discovered Tiger Törtchen on twitter. They are a fairly new cupcakery in Berlin and specialize in mini cupcakes. I didn’t know what to make of the tiny cupcakes but due to their size you are able sample more flavors, YUM! They also offer savory non traditional cupcakes like goat cheese and fig!
Mini Cupcakes on Offer at Tiger Törtchen
I got a cupcake for free because I checked in on Four Square. Black Tiger, Red Velvet and Lemon!
By the time we left the shop on our way to Friedrichstr, it began to snow! That’s right on the first week of April in year our Lord 2012, it snowed in Berlin. The winds were so harsh that we had to duck into a building entrance for a photo op 
. It was unbelievable, not rain, not hail, not wintery mix, proper snow. My goodness!
It was totally snowing on our parade!
On Easter Sunday we had much better luck with the weather. To take advantage of this we hit up the East Side Gallery. The East side Gallery is a 1.3 km stretch of the Berlin Wall, complete with murals from artist from all over the world. We took advantage of the sun, mild temperatures and amazing colors of the wall to snap some more photos.
Berlin East Side Gallery
My friend Karolina visiting from Warsaw, Poland posing in front of the famous mural, "Brother Kiss"
Shari, participant of the weekly Woman of Color Travel Talk on Twitter #woctt and now friend!
Oberbaum Bridge, a Berlin landmark, crosses over the River Spree
Colorful Berlin mural with the Fernsehturm in the distance
What did you end up doing for Easter? What did we miss? Any suggestions for other people who are hoping to spend a weekend in Berlin?
Be sure to find me on facebook for more pictures from that weekend.
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Looks like you got to see and do a lot of interesting things during your holiday. And those cupcakes look delicious!
They were great and the owners of the shop are so lovely! I like to support people I like
Wow, the photo of the boy running in the Holocaust Memorial struck me. It’s amazing!
Thank you, this was fairly innocent but there were some other people climbing on the concrete slabs and I felt some sort of way about it. So many people see this place as a photo op instead of paying attention to the meaning of it all.
[...] Here you can find the story about including tigertörtchen in the perfect sightseeing event: nicoleisthenewblack.comHope to see you soon in the Nikolaiviertel !ShareTweetVerwandte Artikel Cupcake Kinder-Backkurs 27. [...]
We were in Berlin last weekend and I saw people climbing up on the boxes as well. I figure it’s a good way to get a photo of the whole thing, but I did feel rather uncomfortable about it. It just didn’t seem right.
Can’t believe you guys actually got snow for Easter. It got super cold here (near Frankfurt) but no snow. We’re moving to Berlin soon, so I’m going to enjoy perusing your blog for more Berlin tidbits
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Great! if you have a questions please send them my way. There is so much I dont get to blog about due to time constraints but I would love to help. Also there is a great group of Berlin bloggers here. Apparently we are known as Berlin Bloggerati
[...] I’ve always loved walking in the shadow of the TV tower. And I hear there’s a great cupcake shop nearby, [...]
I know how you feel about people climbing on the memorial, I felt it was rather strange to see tourists running and shouting through the the pillars/boxes. But after 4 years you get used to it. I think its a positive sign that people are relaxed around it and use it as a place to meet and get some sunshine. this doenst mean that people dont understand the Symbolism – I see it more as a sign that (most) people have come to terms with this countries crimes in WWII (at least to a certain extent) . The last thing that this city needs is another depressing memorial to fuel the sense of national guilt and shame.
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I know what you are saying, but I simply do not agree. These people walking on the memorial were not showing reverance. You can be respectful and still not be depressing. The memorial is not about shame or guilt. Its not to remember the crimes of the past but the lost lives. The people I saw were climbing all over the concreate slabs trying to get photo ops, it has nothing to do with them being relaxed, and I am sure if they took time to learn why the memorial symbolized they would have thought twice about walking all over it and being annoying. They were being obnoxious tourist. Plain and simple. We never agree on anything LOL.
In my current job I somehow end up visiting Berlin fairly frequently (I live in Kassel, so the trip by train is not that long), and twice I’ve stayed for the weekend and explored the city some more. But a month probably wouldn’t be enough to explore it all…