Berlin Report
On Thursday, 7th June, a group of 18 people from NW Wilts CAMRA flew out to Berlin for a three day visit to sample some of the beers there. Last year, just in time for the World Cup, CAMRA published a guide to German pubs. This we used to locate the best pubs.
Thursday night after finding our hotel which was just a couple of blocks away from Alexanderplatz train station (we’d caught the suburban “S-bahn” train from the airport), we returned to Alexanderplatz train station. We followed the railway line, which at this point is on a viaduct, rather like the line in London between Charing Cross and London Bridge stations, until we found our fist port of call, the Lemke. This is a brew pub underneath the arches and also served a good selection of German sausages. Like most of the pubs we would visit it had a variety of beers both light and dark and also cloudy wheat beer (“Weissebier”). This part of the city is the oldest and was part of East Berlin during the partition years. Close by is the very tall Television Tower, which some of us went up on Saturday.
Friday morning most of us elected to go on a walking tour of the city. The tour started near the Lemke pub and went round the historic city centre, most of which was in East Berlin during partition to Checkpoint Charlie. From here we were then shown the site of Hitler’s bunker and the Holocaust memorial. To stop graffiti artists spoiling it , the stones are covered with a chemical made by the same firm who supplied the gas to the death camps. Sadly killing did not end in 1945; nearby is a memorial to striking East German workers who were massacred by Soviet troops in 1953. Finally we continued east to the Brandenburg Gate.
We then visited a number of pubs by the Parliament building, before finding what turned out to be our favourite pub, the "Zur Letzten Instanz" ("The Final Judgment") This is the oldest pub in the city, dating back to 1621. (page 446 of CAMRA guide!) Despite being 5 minutes walk from Alexanderplatz train station and 15 minutes walk from our hotel, it felt a bit tucked away as it was down some side streets. One of the walls of this pub is the only remaining section of Berlin's original city wall which was built in the 13th century. The pub also has a nice beer garden, and served some dark beers.
Saturday saw some of us go up the tall TV tower; a couple even went for brunch in the revolving restaurant. The views were fantastic from there; on a clear day you can see for 25 miles but although warm the skies were a bit hazy so we couldn’t see quite that far!
Next we caught the S-bahn train to Zoo station where we found a brew pub in a shopping centre. We also visited the Berlin’s equivalent of Harrods. Whilst the ladies in our group visited the departments you’d expect them to, the boys all seemed to congregate in the Toy Department on Floor 5!
That evening we ate in a pub by the River called the George (there’s a statue of St. George doing his stuff outside!) and we also foud some other nice pubs nearby too.
Sunday started with a river trip on a cruise boat. Afterwards we took the S-bahn to the suburb of Spandau, where on the outskirts of the city we found an attractive red-brick pub and brew house. It also did an all-you-can-eat hot buffet for 8.50 Euros. But all too soon it was time to get our cases and make our way back to the airport.
We had an excellent time and would recommend both the city and our hotel, the Agon Alexanderplatz in Mollstrasse (by X roads of Mollstrasse and Otto von Braun strasse). Getting about was easy as we all bought a 3 day rover ticket that was valid on all public transport for 18 Euros; these also came with a book of discount vouchers for many tourist attractions including TV tower and the River boat cruises.
Richard Putley