Welcome to my new category Life in Berlin where I will blab about different bits and bobs of what life is like in Berlin, tell you what I’ve been getting myself up to and even write some local product’s reviews. Sometimes I might even give you a peek into my life beyond food!
Today I will start by sharing something really special: our visit to the Azalea and Rhododendron Park in Kromlau, a two hour drive from Berlin. When you look at the bridge, it will probably look familiar, you might have seen it umpteen times online. It’s such a spectacular looking location that people are having their wedding pictures taken there (actual anecdote from our visit!). What most people don’t know, is the following:
- it’s fairly easy to go there with a car
- there’s a lot more than just the bridge to see there
We packed some water and snacks – read Fizzers galore, recently shipped via personal butler all the way from Switzerland – and left Berlin around 9am and made it just before 11am (no pit stops, my small bladder is proud to say), and at that time there were only a few cars other than ours. But, believe me, when we left a few hours after the car park was half full! I guess in the last few years it has grown more and more popular thanks to this wondrous thing called The Internet.
The first thing you might want to know is that the car park is very close to the actual bridge, a short 5-10 minutes walk. There are signs all the way, and after you’ve seen the beauty of the main attraction, it does pay off to follow the rest of the signs to see the park.
As we were making our way from the most well known side of the bridge to the back through a little archway in the stone, we heard a voice saying “Watch out for the cat!”. I looked at G and he looked at me questioningly, and all of a sudden there He was, the Majestic Cat of the Rakotzbrücke, apparently quite the famous celebrity in these parts. Him and I quickly became friends, as everyone knows I love cats and they love me. G, not so much…
These are some of my impressions from the rest of the park:
If you have a car, Google Maps will help you get there. If you don’t, Deutsche Bahn will help you instead.
A special mention goes to the cozy Cafe Azalee where we hid away from the nagging cold for a bit, and were welcomed by a huge variety of ice cream flavours, homemade cakes and various hot and cold beverages. We shared a slice of Donauwelle cake and another of almond cake, and overheard different languages coming from the other occupied tables.
