I love this idea – roaming hot-dog sellers. I found this particular “outlet” on Alexanderplatz, or “Alex” as the local’s call it. But they are all over Berlin. And at ER1.70c for a hot-dog they are excellent value, and they taste excellent as well. If you’re ever in Berlin lookout and have a hot-dog. You’ll enjoy it.
While most of the Berlin wall has long-since been removed, there are a few places where sections have been preserved, in particular the East Side Gallery is a 1.3km section of the wall that has been turned into an outdoors art gallery. We only walked a small section of it, but they gallery goes on forever. There are a total of 102 paintings, and these are just the few that we saw. The gallery is something that you must visit in Berlin; the art is though-provoking and interesting.
It was two years later that the wall went down. The Brandenburg Gate was build in the 1800’s, and has often a site for major historical events, including the above-mentioned speech. During the cold war it remained closed as part of the Berlin wall, and now it symbolises the unification of Germany.
Its a truly grand structure to walk under as you wonder from the beautuul buulevard of Unter den Linden to the Reichstag parlimentary buildings.
I was standing in Gorlitz, the eastern-most town in Germany. Looking across the bridge you see the town of Zgorzelec, the western-most town in Poland. It was a simple matter to pop across to Poland for lunch. Well it would have been if the restaurant we wanted to visit wasn’t full.
Currywurst is one of the strangest things to come out of Germany. Of course Germany is famous for its sausages, but how on earth did curry-flavoured sausages become such an institution in Berlin?
Supposedly in 1949, a German called Herta Heuwer obtained tomato sauce and curry powder (yes I know my colleagues from Kolkata will cringe at the words “curry powder”, but such it is in Europe) from a British soldier, turned it into a sauce and started it with sausages to locals. And from there it spread all over Germany. 
Personally, while I love German sausages, and I’m a huge fan of Indian food, I’m not sold. The flavours are a little too different for my taste. I’ll eat one or the other, but not both at the same time. But when in Berlin, eat as a Berliner.
You can read all about currywurst here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currywurst
We bought this cheese at a market in Gorlitz, Germany. It was good, very good. So good in fact that it din’t last long at all. We should have bought 2 cheeses instead of just the one, but then maybe it was good that we only stuck to the one.
When we last travelled to Poland, I realised that we could take a (somewhat) small detour and visit the lovely town of Gorlitz. The reason being that the Europa Marathon was in Gorlitz, and of course I grabbed the opportunity of running it.
Entering Poland
This is a somewhat unique race in that it crosses the border into Zgorzelec in Poland – just over the river, and then back to Germany – my first (quite literally) cross-country race.
Supporters – one of them gave me a mid-race beer
It was a tiny marathon; only 110 people ran it, so it was small and intimate; it was great running past the supporters because they would sit around relaxing and then burst into cheering and applause as I ran past.
It was also a beautiful route to race – a large part of the race was country roads and bicycle paths through woods and farms.
Mid-race
At the finish
I loved running this tiny marathon, and I’m somewhat amazed that it is not bigger. It was super-well organised and a lovely route. There are also a few other events (half marathon, inline skate races, unicycle marathons etc). If you have the opportunity go and run a marathon in Gorlitz.
A well-deserved brakwurst and beer at the finish
Gorlitz is a lovely town in Germany; it is the eastern-most town in Germany, and the sister to Zgorzelec, which is the Westermost town in Poland! The Fat Tower is in the middle of Gorlitz. A long time ago it formed part of the city defences, but by now the town gas grown so much that the Fat Tower is right in the middle of town, and it’s not the only tower in Gorlitz; watch here for some pics of the other towers in the town.
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