You might remember from my explorations of the former death strip how the Berlin 'wall' was in fact quite a sophisticated double-layered border fortification. In some places the border exclusion zone extended even beyond the wall itself, into what they designated the 'Grenzgebiet' (frontier area).

These existed in areas where the border was more vulnerable for some reason, like when it was harder to watch over it, when the walls of buildings formed part of it or where the wall was vulnerable in some other way. The zone was then declared part of the Grenzgebiet and access heavily restricted.

Only people considered not at risk of trying to escape were allowed to live in any housing that remained within these areas and they were only allowed guests with the permission of the authorities. Similarly, where the Grenzgebiet included cemeteries, those visiting family graves were only allowed in if they had a 'Grabkarte' (grave card) which allowed them permission to do so.

This rail on Schönholzer Straße might at first seem like something purely to chain bikes to, or to stop pedestrians from wandering into the middle of the road, but it's actually connected with the Grenzgebiet here.

The 'Hintere Sicherungsmauer' or 'Hinterlandmauer' (the eastern side of the border fortification) ran along the northern side of the pavement here, where the grass is in the first picture. The poles served both to highlight to pedestrians that the area behind them was out of bounds and to remove any chances of cars straying off the road and hitting the wall. Signs reminded citizens that anyone entering the area could only do so with the correct permission (and, of course, papers to prove it).

Where there seemed to be more danger that a vehicle could be driven head-on into the wall, they often put out things like these:

While I can see how the plants might once have made these mildly more attractive, they don't go a long way towards disguising the fact that they're fairly brutal chunks of concrete. Certainly in their current overgrown state, I can't imagine many people being convinced of their decorative value.

Making them hollow would have made them lighter (and therefore easier to transport and manoeuvre) though, as well as cheaper - they could then just be filled with soil to bulk up their weight once they were in place. They're sometimes known as Blumenschalensperren (planter barriers). These particular ones are on the corner of Esplanade and Dolomitenstraße in Pankow.

The picture above is taken looking away from where the wall would have been. You can just see the road Esplanade leading into the distance to the left of the picture - the fact that both Esplanade and Dolomitenstraße led towards the wall here would have been the reason for these being put where they are. There's a third one, which you can see in the picture below, and I imagine there would have been a fourth one where there's now a gap for a cycle path.

This view - looking towards the former death strip - also gives you an idea of how thick the concrete in these planters is. The one in the foreground has a circular hole in it for the plants, so the corners are rather thicker than some of the others, which have square holes.

Either way, the concrete's a good 10cm thick even at its thinnest point. It would certainly take rather more than a daredevil driver in a speeding Trabant to break through these. The fact that your death as a result of that would have been reported as the result of criminal actions intended to harm the stability of the GDR rather than just that you rammed into an overgrown flowerpot would probably have been little consolation.



















They come back the other way a short while later.
"You weren't gone for long!" the man says.

"He'll eat anything" the woman comments.
"He spat it out!" laughs the other man.










"A what?" asks the man serving.
"A currywurst" she replies.
"Do you want a roll with that?"


She mutters, adding "Well I want one"
He fetches her a roll and takes the extra money.


He grunts.


"Have you got a newspaper?" she asks him.
"What?" he asks again, his frustration growing.
"Have you got a newspaper?"
"No! This isn't a newsagent's!"


I walk away, my face carrying a smirk not too dissimilar to the woman's. If life in Berlin is a cabaret, it's places like this Imbiß which are its stages. Like Wim Wenders says, come here and try the currywurst...you might get some entertainment thrown in for free.

Star shaped lanterns on sale in Berlin

The ever-popular Christmas markets article updated for 2013! I try to take the opening dates from sources which are as reliable as possible, but obviously it's worth checking for yourself to make 100% sure, if there's a particular thing you want to see.

When to go

The major Christmas markets in Berlin open in the last week of November and are open right up until Christmas itself, with some open into the beginning of January (Berlin's also a popular destination for New Year's Eve celebrations, though bear in mind that some accommodation prices go up quite a bit at that time).

December 6th in Germany is Nikolaus - St Nicholas's Day - when children traditionally put out their boots to be filled with goodies by St Nick...though if they've been bad, they may get a stick (called a Rute) for their parents to beat them with instead! If you're staying in a Berlin hotel on the night of the 5th, you may find you get a small gift, like a chocolate Weihnachtsmann (Father Christmas) left for you by your door. I've not noticed them giving out sticks, though...

A traditional German nutcracker

What to expect

The Christmas markets have stalls selling a variety of traditional (and less traditional) gifts and decorations. Particularly common to see are wooden ornaments from the Erzgebirge in the east of Germany, like Nußknacker (nutcrackers, like the rather fearsome fellow in the picture up above - not things that are really designed for actually cracking nuts with) and Räuchermänner (smoking men - wooden men which you put an incense cone inside, making smoke come out the mouth). Also common to find is Glühwein (mulled wine), and its rum-laced cousin Feuerzangenbowle - perfect for the cold days!

There'll usually be food stalls too - you'll most likely find at least one selling Bratwurst, often alongside the Berlin speciality the Bulette (which you could either see as a big flat pork meatball, or a bunless pork burger). Gulaschsuppe (goulash soup) is worth looking out for, as is Berliner Kartoffelsuppe (Berlin potato soup), both of which are usually not particularly expensive, but very filling.
If you're after something more on the sweet side, you'll usually find a stall selling Schmalzkuchen, which could be literally translated as 'lard cake' which sounds disgusting. It's actually small squares of deep fried dough, almost like little doughnuts. It's served in a cone of paper, covered with icing sugar, which means it can be hell to eat if you're wearing dark clothes (but very entertaining for the stallholder who's just emptied half his pot of icing sugar onto your Schmalzkuchen). Another thing you'll probably see are the round balls of deep fried dough known as Quarkkeulchen which, when they've been freshly fried and are still warm, are great on a cold night.

What to wear

The weather in Berlin does get quite cold during winter. It's common for temperatures to drop to well below 0°C in December, so it's worth packing plenty of warm clothes...or buy some in Berlin - the Germans know a thing or two about winter clothes! Either one thick jacket or several layers is a good idea, and I always like to have a nice pair of gloves and a warm hat too.

Snow isn't unheard of either, especially later in the month, so you might get at least a small taste of a white Christmas on your visit...no guarantees, though! Beautiful though snow is, it does mean it can get a bit slippery underfoot, though pavements on larger roads tend to get swept and gritted quite regularly. Packing a nice warm pair of shoes or boots with good grips is a good idea!

On the flipside, in a milder winter, it can rain - I like to keep a small umbrella in my bag just in case.

The Christmas Markets (see Christmas markets map)

There are markets right across the city centre - amongst others, there's one on Alexanderplatz, one in front of the Rathaus, one by the Opernpalais on Unter den Linden, one on Potsdamer Platz and one on Breitscheidplatz (around the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche). Those ones are all free to visit; there's also one in Gendarmenmarkt which charges a small entry fee. They generally stay open until well after the shops have closed (often around 9 - 10 at night), so it can be a nice way to end the day, plus the atmosphere is just that bit more special (and the Glühwein seems that extra bit more warming) after dark.

Of course there are many more all over the city (between 50 and 70, depending on who you believe), but hopefully this small selection will serve as a taster (plus they're good if you're only going for a short time and want to see all the sights as well). If you're viewing this via the front page, you might want to click the article's title to take you to the single page view, where you'll be able to see a whole set of handy Google Maps links at the bottom to help you find these markets, of you can follow this link to see them all on one handy map.

The Alexanderplatz market has the advantage of being very close to the station, as well as being close to the shops around Alexanderplatz, which you might find useful for Christmas shopping (and I personally prefer the Galeria Kaufhof on Alexanderplatz to KaDeWe, if I'm wanting a big department store).

It's open from November 25th 2013 - January 6th 2014.

Almost blending into the Alexanderplatz market is the 'Wintertraum am Alexa' (winter dream at Alexa), which stretches along Alexanderstraße to Jannowitzbrücke, along the side of the Alexa shopping centre (the bizarre pink building on the southern side of Alexanderplatz). There's also a big funfair at the back of it.

It's open from November 25th - December 23rd 2013.

Alexanderplatz is a major transport hub, so there's a huge choice of ways to get there - S-Bahn (S3, S5, S7/75), U-Bahn (U2, U5, U8), tram (M2, M4, M5, M6, M8), bus (TXL, 100, 200, 248) and regional trains (RE1, RE2, RE7, RB14).

The Christmas market at the Berliner Rathaus

The market by the Rathaus, known as Berliner Weihnachtszeit, is of course also close to Alexanderplatz, so you can always visit the two, plus take a wander through the nearby Nikolaiviertel, which you might also find good for gifts. Look out for the stall of my friends at Kleinbrennerei Fitzke (Fitzke small distillery; website in German only) if you're into spirits and liqueurs. They're a husband and wife team from the Black Forest who make a huge array of different fruit brandies, liqueurs and grain spirits, including Herr Fitzke's unique whiskies, which you really owe it to yourself to try if you're into whisky at all.

The Rathaus market also boasts a 50m high ferris wheel, which promises impressive views, though stood next to the 368m high Fernsehturm, it's hard not to think of it as rather small!

It's open from November 25th - December 29th 2013.

The Nostalgischer Weihnachtsmarkt at the Opernpalais

The Opernpalais market (branded the Nostalgischer Weihnachtsmarkt - nostalgic Christmas market) is, in turn, not all that far from the Rathaus. It's open from November 25th - December 26th 2013.

I've mentioned the Weihnachtszauber market in Gendarmenmarkt before. Unlike most markets, they charge an entry fee (though still only 1 euro) and a lot of the things on offer are more expensive, but I think it's worth a look. It's particularly good for arts and crafts, and a lot of the food stalls are run by nearby restaurants and hotels. Of course, it's within walking distance of the Opernpalais, so if you fancy doing a market crawl, you can go all the way from Alexanderplatz to Gendarmenmarkt and not be away from a Christmas market for more than about 5 minutes! If you don't fancy the walk, the U-Bahn stations Stadtmitte (U2, U6), Französische Straße (U6) and Hausvogteiplatz (U2) are all close by (the exit from the U2 platform at Stadtmitte is the closest of the lot).
It's open from November 25th - December 31st 2013 - they also hold a New Year's Eve event there.

I've never taken to the Potsdamer Platz Christmas market as a market particularly, but it does have a toboggan run and a skating rink!

The toboggan run and skating rink are open from November 3rd 2013 until January 4th 2014, the Christmas market from November 24th until Decebmer 26th.

I've never taken to the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market either, but that's no reason not to take a look at it if you're in the area anyway (perhaps shopping at KaDeWe, or stopping off for a Currywurst at Witty's). It's very close to Zoologischer Garten station, so like with Alexanderplatz, there are plenty of options for getting there.

It's open from November 25th 2013 - January 1st 2014.

If you want to venture ever so slightly further from the city centre, the Schloss Charlottenburg Christmas Market is nice. Like I mentioned last year, the setting is particularly atmospheric. Along with a nice selection of things to buy (there's even a second stall from Kleinbrennerei Fitzke...), it has three restaurant tents, one selling local dishes from Brandenburg, one selling Austrian specialities and one selling mainly duck and goose-based dishes.

It's open from November 25th - December 26th 2013.

The Berliner Dom in winter

Other Christmas activities

If you want to enjoy the more religious side of Christmas in Berlin, the Berliner Dom has services and other events (including performances of Bach's Christmas Oratorio) throughout the period. For Catholic services, you may want to try St Hedwig's Cathedral.

You might also like to look out for the traditional Christmas meal of roast goose, something you'll find in a lot of the restaurants that serve more traditional German food.

December is really a lovely time to visit Berlin (if you like wintry weather, at least!), so if you like the sound of what you've read here, then now's a good time to start planning your trip - you can get some great deals by booking early, and some travel agents, hotels and airlines put on special Christmas offers.

Don't forget to take a look at the Christmas markets map if you want to see where they all are!

Tucked away in a corner of the Humboldt University's campus at Adlershof is a strange collection of sci-fi-like structures. So sci-fi, in fact, that parts of them were among the settings for the 2005 film Æon Flux. Of course, as you might have guessed from the university campus setting, they're actually part of science history rather than science fiction.

Right from the days of Otto Lilienthal Berlin played an important role in the history of aerodynamic research. As gliding gave way to powered aeroplanes, Berlin gained a new airfield dedicated to the new aircraft in 1909, out here at what was then known as Motorflugplatz Adlershof-Johannisthal (later just Flugplatz Johannisthal, with Flugplatz translating nicely as 'airfield' and Motorflugplatz perhaps best translating as 'airfield for powered flight').

In April 1912, the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (German Research Institute for Aviation) was established on the south side of the airfield. As the nature of experiments became more and more advanced, the site began to become populated with esoteric buildings to house the test facilities, the ones we're looking at here being the work of architects Hermann Brenner and Werner Deutschmann.

Now, four key structures are preserved as protected monuments and the area has been named the Aerodynamischer Park (aerodynamic park) in reference to the aerodynamic research which went on inside them.

The first of the structures you'll come to if you've walked up along Rudower Chaussee from Adlershof S-Bahn and turned onto Newtonstraße will be the Großer Windkanal (large wind tunnel).

Built between 1932 and 1934, the Windkanal was constructed using the Zeiss-Dywidag System - a thin shell reinforced concrete building process that had originally been developed for building lightweight planetarium domes. The thickness of the tunnel's walls is, as a result, only around 8cm thick.

The wind tunnel is folded into a rectangular space and the diameter gradually increases along its length, from 8.5 to 12m. An 8.5m fan would have been at the narrower end, driven by a 2000kW electric motor, generating wind speeds of over 200km/h (124mph). Aircraft parts were placed in a measuring chamber, in the path of the stream generated by the fan, to test their aerodynamic performance.

On the side of the Großer Windkanal is a small piece of graffiti, protected by a glass panel. In fairly large, capital cyrillic letters, it says "Проверено. Мин нет" - Checked. No Mines. This is a relic from the days when the Soviet army were beginning to capture Berlin in the final days of World War II in Germany. Important buildings were sometimes booby trapped, both to injure the forces capturing the facility and to render it useless to them afterwards. The hand painted note on the Windkanal assures Soviet soldiers it's safe to go inside.

The Soviets took extensive amounts of war reparations from their sector and the facilities at Adlershof were no exception. All of the equipment was taken to the Soviet Union to be used in aerodynamic research there, leaving only the structures behind in Adlershof.

The Trudelturm was built between 1934 and 1936, to research a type of stall phenomenon in aircraft known as a spin. In a spin, one wing stalls (that is, loses lift due to a too high angle of attack) more than the other, leading the aircraft to rotate as it falls, spinning out of control. Research into the phenomenon was vital, both to help improve aircraft designs to make them more resistant to and more recoverable from spins and to help improve understanding of how to bring aircraft out of a spin once they'd entered one.

The Trudelturm was essentially a wind tunnel turned on its end. A fan at the bottom blew air upwards and aircraft models could be placed into the resulting stream of air and allowed to enter a spin. The air speed could be adjusted to match the fall rate of the model, so that it would remain suspended at a point in front of an observation platform, allowing it to be filmed by high speed cameras to enable detailed observations of the model's behaviour.

A similar facility still in operation today is NASA's 20 Foot Vertical Spin Tunnel, which was opened in 1941. You can watch a video of a model being tested in it on YouTube which ought to give you an idea of what went on inside the Trudelturm.

The Schallgedämpfter Motorenprüfstand (soundproofed engine test bed) was built between 1933 and 1935. It was used for testing aircraft engines - in particular, the propellers, which were often pushed to the point of disintegration in efforts to find their true limits. Propellers of up to 5m in diameter could be tested within the safe confines of the soundproofed building, which proved resistant not just to noise but also the bits of propellers which occasionally came flying off into the walls when the parts being tested reached breaking point.

The construction of the main part of the building is actually similar to the Großer Windkanal (the temporary scaffolding in the picture hides its shape slightly), with the outside walls only around 8cm thick. Soundproofing was achieved by the clever direction of airflows around the inside of the building, along with the use of sound damping materials. A ventilation system driven by a 500kW electric motor helped prevent the tested engines from overheating.

It now serves as a meeting point for the university's students, centered around a student-run café.

The Motorenhöhenprüfstand (engine altitude test bed) was used to test how engines would perform at different altitudes. It allowed engines to be run under differing air pressures and temperatures. The information gleaned from this testing could be used to inform estimates of fuel consumption, and lubrication and cooling requirements. It was built between 1932 and 1936.

It now houses laboratories and offices belonging to the university.

Dotted around in the grass of the Aerodynamic Park are these odd UFO-like objects. Every now and then, they'll start making UFO-like noises too. They are in fact an art installation called AIR BORNE, created by Stefan Krüskemper, with sound by Karlheinz Essl. It uses sounds from the Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (German Radio Archive) which have been processed using software programmed by Essl, to form a composition of what he and Krüskemper call 'remembrance images'. According to the project's website, because of both the distance between the ellipsoids (that is, the UFO-like objects) and the amount of silence between the sounds, hearing the entire composition would take many years. If you plan on staying to listen to the whole thing, it may be worth making a sizeable donation to the student café up front so they don't kick you out for hogging the chairs and taking all their coffee.

Whether on a warm summer's evening or a crisp winter night, there's something cosy and inviting about the Nikolaiviertel (Nicholas Quarter). What could be nicer than a stroll through Berlin's authentic old town? Well...old town...well...town anyway. The thing is that the Nikolaiviertel isn't quite what it seems...














"Hat die Menschheit einmal ihren Erzähler verloren so hat sie auch ihre Kindschaft verloren" - "Once humanity has lost its storyteller, it's also lost its childhood."

When I wander Berlin's Holocaust memorial, I can't get these words - spoken by the character Homer in Wim Wenders's film Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) - out of my head. Homer, played by German-Jewish actor Curt Bois, wanders the city lamenting the state of storytelling and wanders Potsdamer Platz searching for the Berlin he once knew, before "the people were no longer friendly".

The memorial - more properly known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas) - is just a short walk from Potsdamer Platz, built in one of the gaps left in the city by the wall's death strip. Through these empty spaces, Berlin seemed to enjoy a kind of second childhood in the early post-wall years, a time of boundless possibilities, when areas left or forcibly made empty by the city's division suddenly became usable again. Berlin became known as Europe's biggest building site and began the process of capitalising on the potential of its empty spaces.

Designed by American-Jewish architect Peter Eisenman and opened in May 2005, the memorial consists of 2,711 concrete pillars - or stelae, as they're often referred to - arranged in a grid pattern. The heights of the stelae vary between 0.2m and 4.7m and the ground level also undulates, making it generally deeper in the middle. In his explanation of the memorial, Eisenman says that "The project manifests the instability inherent in what seems to be a system" - that it reveals the potential for chaos in what seems to be something orderly.

The Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, famed for his eccentric architectural design work, once said "An uneven and animated floor is the recovery of man's mental equilibrium, of the dignity of man which has been violated in our levelling, unnatural and hostile urban grid system." Rather than the memorial's uneven floor destroying the "illusion of order and security in the internal grid and the frame of the street grid" I find that it actually brings a sense of freedom and a desire to explore. To me, the uneven floor, like Hundertwasser's work, feels playful.

In a 2005 interview, Eisenman said that "I think people will eat their lunch on the pillars [...] I'm sure skateboarders will use it. People will dance on top of the pillars. All kinds of unexpected things are going to happen."

People do dance on top of the pillars. Skateboarders use it too. Just they get shouted at by one of the guards employed to make sure that the atmosphere remains as solemn and rigid as the concrete pillars themselves. Eating your lunch on the pillars might just about be ok, as long as you don't do it on the tall ones, though I can imagine the guards' tolerance for that being fairly low too.

Eisenman's comment there seems to suggest that he knew how the chaotic element of his design would make visitors behave, that he was aware of the playful edge which it would lend the memorial.

Before the Nazis came to power, Berlin's Jewish population was at the centre of its entertainment industry - writers, musicians, composers, artists, actors and cabaret performers, people who observed and commented on the city's daily life. During the Holocaust, Berlin lost many of its storytellers, and perhaps, for a while at least, it lost its childhood too. The Holocaust memorial, in having its playful side suppressed by its guardians, then becomes a lament for this lost childhood. The playful elements of the design end up jarring with the imposed order of the society which guards it.

How much freedom should visitors be allowed, though? It's clear from Eisenman's explanation of the memorial that his concept is something rather deeper than commemorating the Holocaust with an adventure playground, which is what it could be in danger of becoming if people are allowed to run, climb and jump their way through the memorial as they fancy. There have been times when I've been in there when it's been filled with shrieking teenagers - the atmosphere is certainly far from reflective then.

Interestingly, Eisenman also states that the memorial represents "the idea that all closed systems of a closed order are bound to fail." Interesting because the ordered part of the memorial, represented by the stelae, is itself becoming disordered; some of the stelae are starting to develop tiny weather cracks. Very slowly, the sharp, orderly corners are becoming notched and jagged as pieces flake away.

What's ultimately intriguing is the way that the very play between order and chaos which Eisenman eludes to is what plays out within the memorial, that the system it seems to present does reveal itself to be unstable, even if visitors might not always stop to ask what position in this system they might be occupying.

This post refers to the service provided before the takeover of bmi by IAG, and is left here purely for historical interest. Flights to Berlin are no longer available through bmi.

Reading the horror-toned reports of snow chaos at London's Heathrow airport, I wasn't all that confident I'd make it back before Christmas. As it nears time to leave, nothing on bmi's website or their Twitter stream seems to indicate my flight has been cancelled though, so I head off to Tegel hopefully.

It seems to be business as usual at the airport and the flight's still showing on the board, so before I go any further, I check myself in on one of Lufthansa's quick check in machines.

I'd like to be able to say that I headed off in search of Lufthansa's business class lounge next, but I want to drop off my suitcase first and, by the time the baggage drop off point has opened, it's time to go through to the gate anyway. The Lufthansa lounge at Tegel is before check in and security, rather than after like bmi's lounge in Heathrow - I think it being after makes a whole lot more sense (no need to guess at how long you'll have to queue for baggage drop and security while you relax with your coffee and cakes), but Tegel's terminal design doesn't allow for it. A shame they don't open the baggage drop earlier, though - something bmi seems to have well sorted out at Heathrow (though they also guarantee that business class passengers at Heathrow can turn up just 30 minutes before their flight leaves and still make their flight).

On the plus side, though, Tegel's design does mean a whole lot less wandering around - in the picture above, the taxi rank is on the right and the entrance to the gate is on the left (the exit, if you're arriving at Tegel, is in practically the same place) - that's it, about 10 seconds' walk!

On the other side of security, there's a nice view out onto the terminal ramp, where another airline's plane is being de-iced before departure. There's something very sci-fi about the way the nozzles scan backwards and forwards across the wing, with white clouds of deicing fluid filling the air.

It's not long before it's time to board our own flight. I'd expected that, with some of the day's flights having been cancelled because of runway closures at Heathrow, this flight might be packed. Far from it - it seems like most of the evening's travellers have decided to stay at home, and it turns out I'm the only person sat in business class.

The de-icing machine comes over and gives our plane a good spray, then we push back and head off down the taxiway...and stop. The captain's voice comes over the PA system. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're experiencing a minor technical problem..."

Oh dear. It turns out they've lost steering on the nose wheel, which means we have to wait for a tug to pull the plane back to a stand. The flight attendant comes over to apologise and offers a drink. I ask for a cup of coffee, which he brings, shortly followed by a pack of almond biscotti to dunk in it. Very civilised.

Once we've been pulled back to a stand, the captain comes to the front to explain the problem further. He's been trying to steer, but "the computer isn't agreeing." The words "computer says nooo!" come into my head, but I resist shouting it out in case he doesn't appreciate Little Britain references (and besides, the look on his face suggests he might not currently be in the mood to see the funny side of things).

Shortly afterwards, some stairs are pushed up to the plane and a Lufthansa Technik van arrives. An army of men comes on board, armed with a laptop. Meanwhile, the flight attendants from economy class come through to fetch water and cups. They come past on their way back offering blankets and pillows.

After a lot of prodding around, the plane is given the all clear, the engineers head back to their van and we head off towards the runway. Then we're off into the air. After the initial climb, the plane banks slightly, revealing a spectacular view of Berlin out of my window.

As we were waiting on the tarmac at Tegel, I could see the timer on one of the ovens in the plane's galley ticking slowly down from 30. As the timer continued to tick, the smell of meat and vegetables started to fill the air. Of course things went a little bit awry when the plane ended up not leaving the ground, but having got in the air, the timer begins ticking away again. I know they're hiding something in there!

A while later, the flight attendant comes over and asks if I'd like to have dinner. "We've got Christmas dinner or gnocchi with spinach," he says. Aha! So that's what it is...and, yes, Christmas dinner sounds like an excellent idea (even if I did already have one yesterday).

Let's see now...

There's turkey, roast potatoes, brussels sprouts, cubed sweet carrot and swede, a bowl of Waldorf salad (it's hiding under a lid in the picture), a nice warm bread roll and...a pair of chocolate reindeer (one of them took cover underneath the plate when I took the picture, but trust me, it's there). Not a bad spread! I'm not sure that its unplanned extended encounter with the oven has left it at its succulent best, but it tastes pretty good (I particularly like the spicing of the carrot and swede cubes).

When I'm finished, the flight attendant offers another drink. I choose coffee again, which he brings promptly, and I recline back to enjoy the rest of the flight. As we near London, the helpful flight attendant comes over again to say we might get a nice view of Windsor Castle out of my side if the cloud's not too low. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot to be seen as the plane comes in to land, but it was nice to be told anyway.

After all the stories I've heard about Heathrow, I expect to see piles of snow like there were in Berlin. Instead, there's a thin dusting on the ground, with blades of grass showing through. While it's clear that people have been clearing the runways and taxiways, it doesn't look like London's been quite the giant ice cube Berlin was.

Still, we've landed and I have to say, it's been nice flying with bmi. A big thanks to their staff for all their support and for making me feel so well looked after!

Disclosure: this trip has been sponsored by bmi. Opinions remain my own, palms lightly greased with business class tickets and chocolate reindeer. If you want to book your own trip to Berlin from the UK, have a look at bmi's flights to Berlin page.

Head down to the U6 platform at Friedrichstraße station and you might notice this little hot dog stand. There's something a bit more unusual on offer here, though. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting...the Ketwurst!

Back in the late 70s in the GDR, a search for new fast foods to sell to visitors at Alexanderplatz led food researchers to come up with a combination of a sausage, ketchup and a bread roll...sounds just like a hot dog, you say? Well...almost.

Not happy to serve up American-style hot dogs in the heart of communist East Berlin, the boffins at the Rationalisierungs- und Forschungszentrum Gaststätten (that is, the streamlining and research centre for restaurants) created their own, more ideologically acceptable, version. The name came from combining the words Ketchup and Wurst, in typical East German style (a lot of words came about that way - MuFuTi from Multifunktionstisch, a multi function table, for example).

To make a Ketwurst, a long bread roll is placed on a heated spike, making a hole in one end. A bockwurst-type sausage, heated in water, is then dipped in tomato sauce, which is dripped into the hole before the sausage goes in after it.

Thomas Stürmer has been growing his empire of Ketwurst stands since 2003, under the name Original Ketwurst. Frustrated by the disappearance of what he felt was authentic Ketwurst from the streets of Berlin (there are other places selling it), he dug out an old recipe and took to the streets to sell the resurrected snack. The secret to his ketwurst is in the details - the roll is a more crusty type than the typical hot dog bun and the sauce is a more tangy, spicy sauce than ordinary ketchup (he keeps tight lipped about how it's made, but I suspect there's mustard in it, amongst other things). An East Berlin butcher makes the sausages and an East Berlin bakery bakes the rolls.

Does it taste the way they did back in the GDR? That I don't know. Does it taste good? It sure does...at least if you like this sort of thing! Those after a fine dining experience probably won't find munching on Ketwurst in Friedrichstraße station very satisfying. For fans of things involving sausages and tomato sauce, though, it's well worth a go!

"I wouldn't cook goose dear, it's very fatty!" were the words of wisdom my grandmother imparted on coming to stay for Christmas one year. We weren't planning on having goose, but still she felt it worth saying, repeating "Very fatty, dear" even after she'd been assured we weren't having it.

It was only when I was living in Germany that, invited by colleagues to a Gänseessen (goose dinner), I discovered the truth about goose. In place of the plate of blubber that my grandmother's remarks had led me to expect was a plate of a dark, tender and flavoursome meat. I was hooked.

You'll see goose starting to appear on the menus in restaurants from about November onwards (having a Gänseessen is traditional for St Martin's Day on November 11th) and of course it's a popular choice for Christmas dinner too. It's often served with red cabbage (Rotkohl), but sometimes you'll get offered a choice between that and Kale (Grünkohl)...and in the particular restaurant where I took the photo, it came with leeks (Porreegemüse, in this context - a leek is a Porree, or a Lauch).

This is a goose breast (Gänsebrust) but you'll sometimes see the leg (Gänsekeule) on sale instead...or you might get both (Brust und Keule von der Gans)!

You'll notice two big round yellow-ish things behind it. They're not, as you might fear, school-dinner-style mashed potato served with an ice cream scoop, but potato dumplings (Kartoffelknödel, or Kartoffelklöße). They are made with mashed potato, but usually together with flour and eggs (and sometimes semolina). They often have some toasted breadcrumbs in the middle.

And what to drink with all of this? I'm rather partial to a Schwarzbier (black beer) myself. While it might look like a stout, it's actually made like a lager. The character's somewhere in between - packed with toasty malt flavours, but not quite as heavy.

This particular one is Köstritzer from Bad Köstritz in Thuringia. It's been brewed there since 1543 and it's said that even Goethe was a fan. There's also a Schwarzbier brewed in Berlin, Märkischer Landmann, but that one is unfortunately going to have to wait for another time.

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Here's a nicely made film focusing on children and young people in Marzahn, Der Himmel Über Marzahn: http://t.co/bEc7UokCrm
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The rush to dismantle the balloon-light bases to take home has amusing echoes of the 'Mauerspechte' chiselling at the wall after it fell!
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