One of my best friends Taylor and her boyfriend, Hilton, came to visit us in Amsterdam in April! Just a few short hours after Taylor arrived in Amsterdam, we headed back to the airport to fly to Berlin for the weekend.

We arrived late Friday night and met both Cole and Hilton at the hotel who arrived earlier on separate flights. We headed to the nearby Hofbrauhaus to show Taylor and Hilton a proper bier hall. We ate schnitzel and sausages and drank steins of beer while we listened to the German band playing on stage. It was the perfect start to the weekend.

On Saturday, we headed over to the neighborhood of Kollwitzplatz, where a coworker recommended grabbing brunch and walking around the Saturday market. It was beautiful and probably my favorite part of town in all of Berlin. After a few hours of exploring, we headed to Brandenburg gate to start our walking tour to re-familiarise ourselves with the rich history of the city. One of Taylor’s good friends, Veronica, flew in that morning from London and joined us in Berlin right in time for our SANDEMANs tour!

 

 

 

 

We saw the infamous Hotel Adlon, the Holocaust memorial, Hitler’s bunker location, the Berlin Wall, and Checkpoint Charlie, which was all fascinating to see in person. Unfortunately it was FREEZING and none of us had come prepared for how cold it would be. As we were nearing the end of our tour, it begun to hail unlike anything I had ever seen before. We decided it was a good time to end the tour and warm up over beers somewhere else.

 

 

 

 

We headed to the hipster neighborhood of Friedrichshain where we wandered the cute shops on the street before enjoying some delicious and well deserved beers at Hops & Barley. We finished the evening enjoying another delicious dinner of schnitzel at a great restaurant called Speishaus Berlin. These recommendations all came from another friend and were great.

We tried to stop in a cocktail bar nearby, Fitcher’s Vogel, which was packed and came highly recommended but it smelled way too much of cigarette smoke for our liking. We headed back to the hotel bar for a nightcap before calling it a day.

Unfortunately, the freezing cold weather from Saturday meant that I woke up with a fever and cold on Sunday morning. I tried to suck it up and make the most of our remaining time in the city, but felt pretty miserable. Cole and I explored a bit more of the city and grabbed brunch before he headed off to the airport for his flight. I was flying out later that night so I met back up with Taylor, Veronica and Hilton and we wandered around some of the sights for a bit before grabbing lunch at Shiso Burger, which was delicious. Veronica and I then headed to the airport and left Taylor and Hilton to enjoy a bit more of Berlin.

 

 

 

 

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Without even realizing it when originally booking the flights, her trip overlapped with the infamous King’s Day – Amsterdam’s biggest party of the year to celebrate the King’s birthday. Here’s a few photos from Taylor and Hilton’s Amsterdam visit!