Barenquell Brauerei, perhaps the final visit.

Back in April I went to look around the Barenquell Brauerei abandoned brewery again. See previous visits here and here. I've heard that as of August there's a new fence around the place so perhaps its due to be torn down:(

A strange little room that was visible through a hole in the wall.

Organic duct tape.

  Once again this amazing place inspires some great compositions. Lets hope its still around next year.

Cheers
Andy

Wandering #2

A few more random things I found during travels and events in Berlin:

Lunchtime Concert:
Almost every Tuesday the Berliner Philharmoniker performs a free lunchtime concert for anyone who shows up. It appears to be quite popular:

  That was a big crowd for a cold Tuesday in January I'd say. If you'd like to check it out, there's more info here.

Yosemite Sam's place in Berlin:
   This is an impressive playground. The whole thing seems to be based on a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon set with everything heavily stylized and toonified. There are some nice details like wanted posters, cow skull, buzzards and cartoon mice in there. Its on Frobenstrasse in Shoneberg.
 

Beaky Buzzard's German cousin.

Stuff:

Cheers til later.
Andy

Camping south of Berlin

Back in July my girlfriend and I went camping with a bunch of friends. They found this campsite next to a lake to the south of Berlin. Easy to get to by train and someone from the site picked us up from the train station, very nice. The nearby town is called Dahmsdorf and the camp site is here:
  Its a good place if you want to get away from the city and be in a quiet forested area. Germans are not fond of noise in general and it seems our group (about 20) were talking a bit too loud (after 10pm) one evening and the owner got a bit grumpy. We think someone complained but we were not all that loud, no music just laughing. In any event, if you're looking for a QUIET place to camp with a tent near Berlin this could be a good place to consider.

  There's a path that (I think) goes all the way around the lake, Grosser Storkower See. That would be a very long walk though. We walked down a dirt road for about 20 minutes with wild forest on the lake side and planted forest on the other. It was hot and sunny so the shade was welcome.

The beach and swimming area at the campsite. Nice water.

One of the residents

  Not much in the way of wildlife around other than mosquito's, dragon flies, birds etc. I'd like to find something a bit more rough and wild, perhaps there's still a bit of the Black Forest out there somewhere?

Cheers
Andy

Berlin's Burger

  A friend of mine introduced me to possibly the best burger joint in all of Berlin. As with most great finds its a tiny hole in the wall kind of place with room for three or four to sit inside and picnic tables out on the sidewalk. While you wait inside there's a Super Nintendo to keep you entertained. There's always a crowd and everything is prepared fresh upon your order. So expect a 20 minute wait from that point.
  There is a list of menu burgers, chicken, vegetarian etc. However I still haven't managed to try any of the regular menu burgers as they also have a weekly special:

oh my, ya bitte.

  This one above is a beef burger with rucola, tomato, house mayo sauce, Camembert cheese, a fried potato patty and schinken (German cured ham). Rather pricey at 7.50 but that's cheap anywhere else but Berlin.

One of our group had the regular cheese burger (4.90), looks good but I'm still thinking about the one above.

  This one was called Sergeant Walnut, 50% Lamb 50% beef, aged Parmesan cheese, grilled veggies, Walnuts, Aioli, Pesto Mayo.

  On a previous visit the special was a beef burger with caramelized onion, and a slightly sweet  cranberry mayo, Feta cheese but the rest is a hazy memory drizzled in fat.

  The place is called Berlin Burger International in the Neukölln district of Berlin. Worth checking out if you're in the area.

Cheers
Andrew

Berlin Kulture

Not long after the May first events in Berlin is the annual Karneval Der Kulturen . You can see more from that in previous posts here but this year we found a park with these guys below.

  They had drum sets setup and drew a big crowd.

This guy was in the crowd and spontaneously joined in.

  Great sounds and beat had the place jumping. Looking forward to next years impromptu park concert.

Andy

A few faces in the crowd

Just a few folks in the crowd from this years May Day party on Oranienstrasse in Kreuzberg

To each their own.

Like it says, Berlin Hustles Harder.

Caio for now
Andy

The 2nd cat posting, there may be more.

Ok so I took care of my friends cats recently and while at her place I managed to take a few photos that caught the personality of each as well as their ability to get along (put up with each other):

This is Juan, he's been around the block a few times.

  My friend thought he needed a playmate so she found Betty a few months ago:

There was a bird in here, did you see it? Where did it go? I'm hungry, do you have food?

You look'n at me?

10...9...8...7..

If you look carefully you'll notice who is more confident in the frontal assault.

Considering that this is Juan's territory, he's very kind with her. She's not holding back with those claws.

Bad kitty.

 Half the time their wrestling matches evolve into mutual grooming sessions... for about 5 seconds, then Betty decides that he's been mollycoddled enough and goes for a take down.

Cheers
Andy