This week I was in Berlin, no cultural program this time round but very brick and mortar, images say more than words.

Each time I take the bus from our friend’s house in Moabit and head to Schoeneberg, I glance towards the Bauhaus Archiv Museum fur Gestaltung one of the highlights of our first Berlin trip in 2002…but this time round I spent an entire morning in another Bauhaus…

On the same bus, before getting to Nollendorfplatz, the bus stops An der Urania…

but I spent 3 afternoons An der Ikea…trying to put a a kitchen together in german…

…so I did the biggest part of furnishing the flat, and yes, it was a good idea to open a bank account in Berlin because without a german debit card, it is impossible to pay….

I spent the rest of the time in public transport, as usual when in Berlin…what a treat, to be able to wander about furnishing and refurbishing hubs without the need of a car!

But I did take the luxury of a cab drive home…

especially after late evening grocery shopping at Kaiser’s ….

or at Edeka, where Frauen were shopping, yet not those Edeka-frauen by Kristina Fiand.

So lots of “craftmanship” activities…from discussing with the builders in Schoeneberg …

to furnishing the flat…from comparing paint colors to discussing taps and showers…

Bottom line, I spent quite a lot of time in Tempelhof- Sudkreuz…there are incredible examples of industrial architecture (I bought a marvellous book  on this topic during my previous trip…), gazometer included! One of the most fascinating views of the gazometer is from the Schoeneberg S-bahn station…but you can spot it whit its LED screen gleaming in the night even from Sudkreuz S-bahn rails…

Plenty of notes for the next trips…when hopefully we will be staying in Berlin…at home.