‘Resources & Practicalities’ Archives
Seasonal Recipes: April 2013
Thyme supperclub ease us into springtime with new potatoes, lamb and...chocolate orange dessert... This period in the calendar is perhaps the hardest for a cook. Winter crop vegetables are mostly past their best, but most of the spring harvest has yet to come in. In fact, historically, in northern Europe, early spring gave rise to the expression “the hunger gap” to designate the paucity of produce. Of the winter crop, leeks and cauliflower are still looking good and I’m hoping the [...]
Easter in Berlin 2013
With icy winds still blowing through Berlin's snow-spattered streets, it seems hard to believe that the Easter holidays are almost here. While we patiently await the arrival of spring’s warmth and blooms, here's our round up of Easter-related festivals and events. Don't forget to wrap up warm! Medieval Festivals Between Saturday 30 March - Monday 1 April the lovely Kloster Chorin just north of Berlin will celebrate their annual medieval festival (€4 adults, €2.50 children). [...]
Berlin’s Best Bookshops
Paul Sullivan rounds up some of the city's best English (and some German) language bookstores... Another Country Named as one of the top ten bookshops in the world by Lonely Planet, Kreuzberg’s Another Country is one of Berlin’s longest-running literary/intellectual salons for the English-speaking crowd. A good chunk of its 20,000-odd books are for loan, not sale (bring a book back and the purchase price is refunded, minus €1.50), while about ten percent of stock functions as a [...]
Learn German in Berlin
Ian Farrell explores the best resources for learning German in Berlin... Mark Twain's humorous 1880 essay on the frustrations of learning German as a second language. There are lots of reasons to come to Berlin and, with the city’s cosmopolitan nature, learning German may not be top of the list for every English speaker. Everybody here understands English anyway, right? But learning the local language is essential for anyone who really wants to immerse themselves in the city and the [...]
Ethical Shopping in Berlin
Natalie Holmes rounds up a selection of Berlin shops with a local, sustainable, eco and fair trade twist... DeDeRon - photo by Natalie Holmes Vintage & second hand DeDeRon, as the name suggests, specialises in curiosities from the former DDR, as well as vintage items from way-back-when and newer but equally interesting pieces. Charming turn-of-the-century Christmas tree decorations compete for space with vintage east and west versions of flavoured soda powder – apparently de [...]
Berlin’s Christmas Markets 2012
The temperature has gone sub-zero and anything you plan on consuming had better taste of cinnamon or come mit Schuss. With Berlin playing host to over sixty Christmas markets annually, there’s no shortage of places for you to get your fix of Lebkuchen and gifts in the frosty open air… Best Of The Big Hitters Gendarmenmarkt The sparkliest of them all, lit with all the double-domed grandeur you’d expect from a setting in between the Deutschen and Franzozichen Dome. Visitors get a [...]
STB Contributor Projects
An overview of current projects by Slow Travel Berlin contributors... As you've hopefully noticed by now, Slow Travel Berlin is primarily fuelled by a patient yet regular flow of articles covering a wide variety of topics from food and history to architecture and poetry. Our contributors, many of whom have been with us for a couple of years or more despite the fact our little project makes no money, have put in a lot of hours creating this top-notch content, which we're proud to say tends [...]
How To Travel Slowly in Munich
Jenny Seifert gives some tips on how to travel slowly in the Bavarian capital... Munich is one of those European cities that get trampled by tourists. According to the Deutscher Tourismusverband, in 2011 it was second only to Berlin in terms of overnight visitors, with Bavaria – the state of which it is capital – topping the list for German Länder. It’s easy to understand why people flock to Munich. The city is a veritable museum of iconic landmarks and German stereotypes (think [...]
A Walk Around Berlin’s Architecture
Architecture critic Rowan Moore takes a stroll around some of Berlin's best known buildings... Buildings, in Berlin, tend not to be just buildings. They are manifestos, propaganda, memorials, battlefields. It is the city whose Wall was one of the most political works of architecture of all time. The confrontation of superpowers was condensed into Berlin's urban form, and the apartment blocks in the old eastern and western halves are imprinted with competing ideologies. Nazism, Communism, [...]
On the Reichenberger Straße
Natalie Holmes gives some local insights into her Kreuzberg Straße... Reichenberger Straße is a long road. At least, that’s what I thought when I first set foot on it during one of Berlin’s sweltering midsummer days, fresh off the plane from the comparatively tiny, winding streets of London. “It’s on this road, so we can’t be far off”, I exclaimed naively to my fellow flat-hunter as we walked further and further along. A full fifteen minutes later - and ten minutes [...]
