Gorki Apartments Berlin

…no, these are not the Gorki Apartments

Our son and his then girlfriend (now wife) went on a trip to Berlin many years ago. They stayed in the Michelberger Hotel, a very hip place graced by Marina O’Loughlin, then writing for the Observer. It was in the old East Berlin quite near the Eastside gallery, a collection of preserved graffiti along a section of the old Berlin Wall. All very hip, man.

East Berlin is much more lively than it used to be, very much the haunt of the young. Bars, restaurants and cafés line the busy streets, reminding us of staying in Greenwich Village NYC many years ago. Here we rented a small apartment and ate breakfast out at a couple of the nearby cafés. Great coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, Bircher muesli and perhaps a croissant. Apart from Cookies Cream we ate at local restaurants – Peter Paul (small sharing plates), Gärtnerie (eating out on the street), a local Vietnamese and TorBar – really quite French and don’t be in a hurry…

We did all the essential Berlin things: The Wall, Checkpoint Charley and its museum, the Gestapo Museum, the Jewish Museum. The galleries were a mixed bunch: Gemäldegalerie had a collection of early paintings which didn’t impress anywhere near as much as those in Florence. The Neue Nationalgalerie similarly underwhelming for its art, but the Mies building, carefully upgraded by David Chipperfield, was inspiring. Across the road The Extension – a barn like structure (their words) by Hertzog and de Muren was still a hole in the ground despite the cost already rising from Eu200m to Eu450m. The ‘light touch’ restoration of the original was Eu120m…

A great place to stay Gorki Apartments