Just back from our third visit to Berlin in 12 months (which probably gives an indication of the fact that we like the place a bit 
).
We flew out Friday morning which was Tom's birthday and had landed in Berlin to brilliant sunshine by lunchtime. We were staying in The Circus hotel again - a lovely boutique hotel by Rosenthaler Platz U-Bahn and by mid afternoon were sat in the sunshine by the river drinking a few pints of Berliner lager 8)
On Friday night we went to Cookies and Cream (Berlin's premier (only?!) vegetarian restaurant) - it's very 'Berlin' (ie an industrial old warehouse type place hidden in the back entrance of a hotel past the rubbish bins etc) and the food was excellent and a refreshing change to get good vegetarian food in Berlin a city which isn't really reknowned for catering for vegetarians (on a previous visit we ate in a restaurant which included chicken dishes in the vegetarian section
). There is a club underneath the restaurant which is meant to be pretty decent but we'd been up since 5.30am and had a busy day ahead of us on Saturday so gave it a miss.
Saturday we were up bright and early and headed to the Reichstag for a champagne breakfast - this is such a nice thing to do in Berlin and I can't recommend it enough. It's not cheap (27 euros) but when you factor in that you're eating at the top of this architecturally stunning building, you have amazing views over the city and you get so much food that I defy anyone to need to eat again for 12 hours then it is definitely worth it. We then caught the S-Bahn out to the suburbs to see FC Union Berlin play. It was a lunchtime kick-off so the walk from the station to the stadium (literally in the middle of a forest which was certainly the first time I've ever visited a football ground in a forest) was full of German football fans getting beer-ed up at 11.30am in the morning - I love the Germans as they have exactly the same mentality as the English There is a fantastic story about the club in that a few years ago, their stadium was in need of modernisation but they had no money, so the fans actually helped rebuild the stadium As a Forest fan who is used to supporting a team with no money, I absolutely LOVE stories like that! It was old-school football at its best - beers on the terraces and a cracking atmosphere and the mighty Union came away 2-0 winners. I'd definitely recommend it as a way to spend a few hours on a Saturday afternoon if you're in Berlin, we'll definitely go and see them when we're over there again.
After a couple of beers in the sunshine in Alexanderplatz we headed back to the hotel to try and get a bit of sleep before the main event - Berghain/Panorama.
Anyone who knows me will know how much I LOVE the place so without wanting to sound like a stuck record here are just a few of the reasons why I love the place so much:
1. It opens at midnight Saturday until sometime Monday morning so that's over 30 hours of clubbing. And it costs 12 euros to get in. I'm past my clubbing prime these days and the longest we've ever been in there is 17 hours but that is still fantastic value for money. Even if you did a 'lightweight' 8 hours then it's still an excellent cost per hour ratio
2. Drinks are SO cheap. A beer is 3 euros, a double vodka is 5 euros and a huge bottle of water (that you can refill in the toilets) is 2 euros. So you could buy 15 beers and drink water ALL night and still have change from 50 euros
3. The staff and virtually non-existant security are so friendly. Unless you try and take a photo , in which case they will probably shoot you
4. The music is relentlessly good from the moment you enter, until you have to drag your weary body out many many many many hours later
5. They have the best toilets in a club EVER - unisex, anything goes, anyone can pile in and do anything type toilets
6. The shutters
We got a taxi about 1.30am (I love going at this time as there is never more than a 10/15 minute queue and you do always have the fallback option of going elsewhere until later Sunday morning if you don't get in). I'd say in the time we were queuing about 25-30% of people were turned away but fortunately we got the nod and were in and on the dancefloor before 2am). The first part of the night was being hosted by Secretsundaze who I have very fond memories of from the days many years ago when every weekend was a Ministry - Royal Oak - Secretsundaze marathon and they didn't disappoint. James Priestly played from midnight until 4am and really warmed the place up and then Giles Smith took it to the next level until gone 10am - absolutely superb and perfect for Panorama bar. Next up was Margaret Dygas whose first half hour was a bit flat but then she started boshing it out and it was relentless until eventually we dragged ourselves out battered bruised but with huge smiles on our face at 2.30pm Sunday afternoon after a good 12+ hours of solid clubbing. I've said it before but in all my years of clubbing, there is nowhere in the world like Berghain/Panorama Bar - absolutely the undisputed best clubbing experience in the world. EVER.
Sunday evening was spent having a couple of recovery beers and then a final breakfast in the sunshine on Monday morning before we flew back home.
Absolutely perfect weekend - the only problem is working out when we can fit the next visit in
).We flew out Friday morning which was Tom's birthday and had landed in Berlin to brilliant sunshine by lunchtime. We were staying in The Circus hotel again - a lovely boutique hotel by Rosenthaler Platz U-Bahn and by mid afternoon were sat in the sunshine by the river drinking a few pints of Berliner lager 8)
On Friday night we went to Cookies and Cream (Berlin's premier (only?!) vegetarian restaurant) - it's very 'Berlin' (ie an industrial old warehouse type place hidden in the back entrance of a hotel past the rubbish bins etc) and the food was excellent and a refreshing change to get good vegetarian food in Berlin a city which isn't really reknowned for catering for vegetarians (on a previous visit we ate in a restaurant which included chicken dishes in the vegetarian section
). There is a club underneath the restaurant which is meant to be pretty decent but we'd been up since 5.30am and had a busy day ahead of us on Saturday so gave it a miss.Saturday we were up bright and early and headed to the Reichstag for a champagne breakfast - this is such a nice thing to do in Berlin and I can't recommend it enough. It's not cheap (27 euros) but when you factor in that you're eating at the top of this architecturally stunning building, you have amazing views over the city and you get so much food that I defy anyone to need to eat again for 12 hours then it is definitely worth it. We then caught the S-Bahn out to the suburbs to see FC Union Berlin play. It was a lunchtime kick-off so the walk from the station to the stadium (literally in the middle of a forest which was certainly the first time I've ever visited a football ground in a forest
) was full of German football fans getting beer-ed up at 11.30am in the morning - I love the Germans as they have exactly the same mentality as the English There is a fantastic story about the club in that a few years ago, their stadium was in need of modernisation but they had no money, so the fans actually helped rebuild the stadium As a Forest fan who is used to supporting a team with no money, I absolutely LOVE stories like that! It was old-school football at its best - beers on the terraces and a cracking atmosphere and the mighty Union came away 2-0 winners. I'd definitely recommend it as a way to spend a few hours on a Saturday afternoon if you're in Berlin, we'll definitely go and see them when we're over there again.After a couple of beers in the sunshine in Alexanderplatz we headed back to the hotel to try and get a bit of sleep before the main event - Berghain/Panorama.
Anyone who knows me will know how much I LOVE the place so without wanting to sound like a stuck record here are just a few of the reasons why I love the place so much:
1. It opens at midnight Saturday until sometime Monday morning so that's over 30 hours of clubbing. And it costs 12 euros to get in. I'm past my clubbing prime these days and the longest we've ever been in there is 17 hours but that is still fantastic value for money. Even if you did a 'lightweight'
8 hours then it's still an excellent cost per hour ratio 2. Drinks are SO cheap. A beer is 3 euros, a double vodka is 5 euros and a huge bottle of water (that you can refill in the toilets) is 2 euros. So you could buy 15 beers and drink water ALL night and still have change from 50 euros
3. The staff and virtually non-existant security are so friendly. Unless you try and take a photo , in which case they will probably shoot you
4. The music is relentlessly good from the moment you enter, until you have to drag your weary body out many many many many hours later
5. They have the best toilets in a club EVER - unisex, anything goes, anyone can pile in and do anything type toilets
6. The shutters
We got a taxi about 1.30am (I love going at this time as there is never more than a 10/15 minute queue and you do always have the fallback option of going elsewhere until later Sunday morning if you don't get in). I'd say in the time we were queuing about 25-30% of people were turned away but fortunately we got the nod and were in and on the dancefloor before 2am). The first part of the night was being hosted by Secretsundaze who I have very fond memories of from the days many years ago when every weekend was a Ministry - Royal Oak
- Secretsundaze marathon and they didn't disappoint. James Priestly played from midnight until 4am and really warmed the place up and then Giles Smith took it to the next level until gone 10am - absolutely superb and perfect for Panorama bar. Next up was Margaret Dygas whose first half hour was a bit flat but then she started boshing it out and it was relentless until eventually we dragged ourselves out battered bruised but with huge smiles on our face at 2.30pm Sunday afternoon after a good 12+ hours of solid clubbing. I've said it before but in all my years of clubbing, there is nowhere in the world like Berghain/Panorama Bar - absolutely the undisputed best clubbing experience in the world. EVER.Sunday evening was spent having a couple of recovery beers and then a final breakfast in the sunshine on Monday morning before we flew back home.
Absolutely perfect weekend - the only problem is working out when we can fit the next visit in
