Charlottenburg Palace was the summer residence of Queen Charlotte and was heavily damaged during the War. The Palace has been completly restored to its original glory but the grounds less so. We took the audio tour on the inside and then went out into the grounds.
It was time to feed Rita's two passions (food and shopping) and so we took the S-Bahn to central Berlin to visit Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe), the "Department Store of the West" which has been in Berlin for more than a century. It reminds me of a smaller version of Harrods. It has a staff of 21,000 to help you sort through its 380,000 items. Rita was in heaven but we had to look after Rita's first passion, food. We went to their famous food floor and had a wonderful bratwurst and pretzel lunch, with a beer of course.
As the weather was nice we strolled around the area and stumbled onto the Gendarmenmarkt which is a wonderful and, of course, historic square with twin churches at each end. One church is German and the other French. The French church is still in service but the German church is now used a museum. I recognized that I had visited the square before during ITB. Martin Walter had organized a dinner event at a delightful restaurant in the basement of one of the German church. I found the restaurant (Refugium) and made a reservation for the following evening.
We started to head for home and stopped for dinner at one of the open air restaurants in Hackenscher Market. Tomorrow we head for Potsdam.
The entrance to Charlottenburg Palace
Geoff and Rita in the Gardens behind Charlottenburg Palace
Rita enjoying a Bratwurst and Pretzel lunch at the KaDeWe Food Floor
Gendarmenmarkt with German Church and Refugium Restaurant
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