Here is the final installment of the Berlin Chronicles - Click HERE for parts 1, 2 and 3! I promise to be back to design related posts in the coming week, but travel is such a wonderful opportunity to soak in new design ideas and very educational to observe how other cultures interact with spaces….we can learn so much from one another about the art of living! Our last two days in Berlin were filled with shopping and tourist-y sightseeing, and, of course, wonderful food!

On Monday morning we made the mecca to the Ritter Sport Chocolate World emporium. Ritter Sport is available in the US in a few of their popular flavors, but the store in Berlin boasts not only all the flavors, but also a custom option where you can create your own chocolate bar! We didn’t need to - there were already SO many good flavor options (31 to be exact!) - but how cool is that? You can choose dark, milk or white chocolate as the base and mix in anything from a list of 20 or so ingredients - it will be mixed and poured into the iconic Ritter Sport chocolate mold with the raised squares, and packaged especially for you! While you wait for your custom chocolate bar to set, you can go shopping for MORE candy or swag in the store or visit the cafe upstairs! We managed to come home with about 2100 grams of chocolate bars?

While we were in the neighborhood, we went back to the very first Christmas Market I visited for a bit of Christmas shopping and some lunch. For lunch we had glühwein (of course!), with lángos, a Hungarian street food which consists of a savory fried dough topped with sour cream, garlic, cheese and herbs - other toppings can be added as well, but we went with the traditional version and it was delicious! I’ve never met a fried dough product I DIDN’T like, so this was not surprising…

For dessert we finished off our glühwein and jägertee with some orange and pistachio macaroons while listening to the brass quintet that was playing classical favorites…ahhhh this is the way life should be!

On the way home we poked in a few design shops - this one, called The Amazing Crocodile, had a fascinating assortment of offerings, including these married dishes created by fusing two halves from different pattens together!

And then it was time for dinner! Jenna wanted to introduce me to good ramen…this is NOT the microwave-noodle-in-a-cup variety! We went to her favorite ramen place…a tiny establishment with zero space to wait for a table…the sign on the door instructs the line to form in the park across the street! We didn’t have to wait very long and hearty, hot soup for a chilly evening was just perfect! The first picture below was taken from just inside the door and that bench is where we were seated for dinner. We had a front row seat to the ballet that was the open kitchen - a space about 4’ x 10’ with 2 cooks turning out the most amazing food!

And then we were off to our neighborhood Alexanderplatz Christmas Market for our evening stroll and those spirally, hot cinnamon sugar pastry things I am now addicted to (it’s probably quite fortunate that home puts an ocean between me and those pastries!) , and a ride on the ferris wheel with the dubious honor of being one of the largest mobile ferris wheels in Europe. It is a charming ferris wheel with enclosed 8 passenger carriages and a great view of the whole Alexanderplatz Market and the lighted skating rink around the center fountain!

Our final day we visited the adorable Rose Garden cafe just down the street from our apartment for a German breakfast of assorted meats, cheeses, fruit, and breads, and then we were off to play tourist!

We took advantage of one of the rare sunny days in Berlin to go to the observatory in the Fernsehturm or TV tower. At 368 meters to the top of the antenna, this is the tallest building in Germany. The observatory (and bar) is in the lower portion of the sphere at 203 meters (666 ft). It was fun to see all the places we had been to from a birds eye view!

The elevators in the TV tower have a window in the top so you can watch your progress! The elevator lobbies on either end of the ride display an image of the building with a moving red dot indicating the locations of the 2 elevators at any time.

Our last afternoon was spent at the Scandinavian Christmas Market followed by a leisurely stroll home through a few more design shops.

In honor of our favorite Swede from back home we HAD to try the Swedish version of glühwein called glögg! Honestly? Auntie Nancy’s is better!

And then it was home to pack and weigh the suitcases….after much juggling of our hefty amounts of chocolate ad Jenna’s myriad of vintage store clothing purchases, we managed to JUST squeak in under the weight limit at 22.9 kg of the allowable 23!

We celebrated our final night with dinner at THE most adorable Vietnamese restaurant and a last, nostalgic stroll through the Alexanderplatz Christmas Market for ONE last pastry and libation, and to watch Santa fly over the market in his sleigh one more time!

Germany in general and Berlin in particular is such a study in contrasts - old and ornamented next to new and sleek, joviality and a lack of urgency alongside remarkable efficiency and refreshing courtesy. I look forward to an opportunity to return and if you can manage it, I highly recommend Europe at Christmastime for a taste of magic and an experience of the way life SHOULD be! The danger, of course, is that you may not want to come home!