Travelling Sophie: Berlin part 2!

Now, that you read about Travelling Sophie: Berlin part 1 it is time to move up to part 2. What do you think? Here we go!

You already knew that we stayed in a lovely 3 star modern hotel, called Hotel Gat Point Charlie, in the old historic part of this wonderful city, in Mitte. I told you all about it, in an earlier post, click here! 

The breakfast area!
Very cool & modern too!

It is located in a very quiet street, the Mauerstrasse.We booked breakfasts too. It was a huge buffet, the food choices were great & diverse. You could eat scrambled eggs, baked bacon, with several toppings, toast white bread, toast whole-wheat bread, cook your eggs, take smoked salmon with horseradish cream on your brown bread rolls,… They also made freshly baked cookies, had fresh home-made cakes & home-made energy bars! They also made finely thin baked pancakes, topped with coconut flakes! Yummy! You also had the normal rest of a buffet, like in other good hotels. We always ate a lot, in the morning. We walked a lot & only ate at 3 or 4 PM for the 1st time since breakfast! 😉

The front of our hotel at night!

The lighted sculpture where before the Bethlehem’s Kirche stood. This is one of the 
Memoria Urbana Berlin! Behind it, our hotel.

Then, later we went to Checkpoint Charlie, that was only 200 meters from our hotel. We read, outside on the street, all about the difficulties Berlin had to stood through, in time. In the history of Berlin, building the Wall, wasn’t the 1st crisis the Berliners went through. You could read all about it there. There is also a museum but we didn’t do that. We went to another museum after this.

Checkpoint Charlie!

Fake soldiers at Checkpoint Charlie

What is Checkpoint Charlie?

Was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. GDR leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and manoeuvred to get the Soviet Union‘s permission for the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop Eastern Bloc emigration westward through the Soviet border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from East Berlin to West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of east and west. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the place during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the building at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction.

Then, we went to the museum: Topographie of terror, a museum dedicated to Hitler, the SS , Gestapo & Reich Security too.

Topographie of Terror!

A very interesting museum: free too!

It is about how Hitler got the only Power in his Third Reich in Germany & how the SS & the Gestapo developed into what these organisations became & what they did. It was very touching too. I took pics inside but will not show them to you. You just must go & see what horrible actions this evil man did. But you learn a lot. The admission was free. It is an impressive site, with an outdoor exhibition too.

The outdoor exhibition “Berlin 1933–1945: Between Propaganda and Terror” addresses National Socialist policy in Berlin and its consequences for the city and its population. Adresse: Niederkirchnerstraße 8, 10963 Berlin. Open? Daily from 10 AM till 8 PM. Closed on Dec 24th, 31st, Jan 1st. Nearest U-bahn: U-Bahnhof  Potsdamer Platz oder Kochstraße. We were 2 hours there.

After resting in a café, we went searching for a cool place to eat. We searched a lot & then, finally, we found this little gem: The only mozzarella bar & botega,in Berlin, called Al Contadino sotto Le Stelle, August Straße 34, 10119 Berlin . It is a very cosy mozzarella bar. It has been open since June 2012. Peter & I were very hungry. Now, what to choose? We could eat anything from the menu or from the menu card solo or combine things together. Peter & I started each with a good glass of red wine. I had a Don Aldo wine, a more old one: very rich & very cherry like, there was also Cabernet Sauvignon in it. It was lovely. Peter had another red wine: Marchese Rosso D.O.P. 2010. ( It contained: Sangiovese 60%, Malvasia nera 30%, Cabernet Sauvignon 10%). His wine was a bit younger but also very fragrant, had a good body & depth.

Enjoying a good glass of red wine with my loved one, Peter!

We twice ordered the lentil & vegetable soup with an Italian sausage in it. Before we received our soups, we got some lovely fresh Italian bread slices, some good fruity olive oil, some green olives & a few pieces of home-made foccacia. It tasted lovely. So fresh & appetizing too!

Halfway through my tasty soup, scented with fresh rosemary!

We were enjoying ourselves over here, sitting at the window, watching the world go by,…It was lovely. There was also a cosy atmosphere. We stayed there for 3 hours! It is a great alternative & cozy place to dine & wine. 🙂 It is not too pricy too. You have good quality here. After the soup, we were still a bit hungry so we looked at the menu. We took advice from our friendly waiter. I ordered a ball of fresh buffalo mozzarella, 250 gr! Just for me! You could choose: a powerful or a milder mozzarella. I chose a milder one. I ordered extra, the Mortadella al Tartufe, finely sliced with it. This is finely sliced Mortadella with black truffle pieces in it. Mortadella is made out of low-fat pork meat, with black truffles in it. I ordered the same red wine because the waiter said this would go fine with my dishes. He was right! Peter ordered just finely sliced Speck: pancetta tesa, 100 gr. This is also finely sliced, made from pork meat from the pork’s neck, flavoured with salt & paprika. He ate this with the lovely bread slices & with that fruity olive oil. He also ordered another glass of his fine red wine. The place was filling up now.

Me, enjoying some good food!

A lovely fresh Buffalo mozzarella: all for me!

The finely sliced Mortadella with black truffle pieces in it! yummy!
So rich & powerful in flavour: Heaven!

The combo of the fresh white & creamy rich Buffalo mozzarella & the finely sliced Mortadella al Tartufe was a heavenly combo, I assure you that! And the red wine did go so well with it all! MMM!

For the deal, we payed around 50€.

Peter’s choice: Speck : pancetta tesa

Our lovely waiter & the lovely interior of our mozzarella bar!

Where I was sitting,I saw this article about this bar: Angelina & Brad Pitt came here too!

The charcuterie area!

We visited a  lot of other tasty cafés & restaurants, but didn’t make any pictures. I will give you a few lovely adresses here extra though. Maybe, they will interest you. Just click onto their links in brown, to go to their websites.

1. Santa Maria, Mexican Diner, Oranienstraße 170, 10999 Berlin, Open? 12.00-late, Mo.-So. | U1-bahn: Kottbusser Tor. This is a very alternative Mexican food resto. The atmosphere is a bit more dark & punky & but the food is excuisit! We took each a large filled burrito with black beans & the works! Mine was filled with soft beef strips, guacamole, mexican cheese, rice & crème fraîche & spicy red onions on the side. Peter had the same but with chickcen. Yummy! I had a Mexican beer with it! MMM!

Santa Maria Berlin!

2. Fleischerei, restaurant, Bar, grill. Schönhauser Allee 8, 10119 Berlin.

It looks that you are sitting in a former slaughterhouse. Of course, you can eat meat dishes over here. They only sell 1 vegetarian dish, That’s all! 😉 Great atmosphere. Book your table in advance! We didn’t do that but still got a table at the window.

3. Augustiner am gendarmenmarkt, Gendarmenmarkt 55, 10117 Berlin

You must book a table a few days in advance. Maybe if you are lucky, like us, you can get a table. We ate there twice. They have a German specialities. Once, Peter & I ate a half roasted duck in a lovely cranberry sauce with 2 special potatoes. Yummy! Very good quality too! Stay tuned, Subscribe by email through the link below to get my new cool newsletters aka posts! Join 1,850 email Subscribers! It is free! 

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You might like:

1. Travelling Sophie: Berlin part 1

2. Travelling Sophie: Berlin part 3

3. Travelling Sophie: Berlin part 4

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