uberlin

We visited the spiritual home of the proto-punks with Kevin Cousins, who also introduced us to our favourite record shop in Berlin, Bis Auf’s Messer.

The comic book, buzzsaw chug of the Ramones is one of the most recognisable and imitated rackets in rock’s pantheon. Eternal misfits, they occupied a space of paradox: musically inept but trailblazing in their deconstructing of musical conventions; Rock and Roll Hall of Famers who never really hit “the big time”; a band equally influenced by the Stooges and the Ronettes. They were the kind of band that inspired dogged devotion: a definitive cult item. Therefore, it is perhaps fitting that the one museum dedicated to these loveable losers is far from their hometown of Queens, New York, and just happens to be where one of their biggest fans lived: Berlin. The Ramones Museum is a testimony to die hard fandom, and has Johnny, Joey et al’s scruffy, underdog charm written all over it.

The exhibits are arranged in a loosely chronological order, charting the Ramones’ rise from snotty street urchins to major-label almost-stars. Most of the material is presented through myriad fliers, handbills, posters and photos, but within the yellowing snippets there are some real treats to behold. Shots of these punks mooching on street corners in their home city, unnoticed and awkward, stand side by side with iconic portraits of them hitting London for the first time. There they were hailed as champions of a new, three-chord zeitgeist, with a wide-eyed John Lydon and Joe Strummer jostling to be in the presence of their unlikely idols.

There are touching stories told, too, in which Joey emerges as an especially magnetic character. Clumsy and loping, all limbs and bushy hair, he sticks out as a truly missed icon of the counterculture, with his goofy visage standing out as a welcome presence in all the images on display. His relationship with Johnny was famously fraught: the latter stole and married his girlfriend, leading to a frosty silence that lasted the rest of their career, and this tension is in clear evidence in many of these compelling images.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, then, as you can witness Dee Dee’s alarming propensity for treading in dog-dirt, and the obligatory, Spinal Tap-esque “rotating drummer”. Alarming, too, are their label’s (desperate?) attempts to market the band. Ramones surfwear for the Australian market, anyone? Amongst other treasures are Joey’s beaten mic-stand from their last show in 1996, Dee Dee’s omnipresent padlock necklace and Johnny’s savaged Levi’s.

€5 buys you a lifetime’s entry(!) and a drink in the bar. There you can sit and scan the walls, which form a ramshackle mural/shrine to the Ramones, in the form of graffiti left by passing punk and indie musicians. From Biffy Clyro to Sum 41, all these artists have been inspired and touched by the Ramones’ less-is-more ethic and surging, fuzztone pop. They soldiered on and “did the clubs” for years, watching the bands who they influenced overtake and outshine them along the way. They were perhaps tragic in the fact that, unlike a lot of punk bands, they wanted and courted fame but remained perpetual also-rans. Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee died within a few years of each other: they would surely have been delighted to see their legacy done service at this excellent, big-hearted little museum.

Ramones Museum
Krausnickstrasse 23
10115 Berlin-Mitte
ramonesmuseum.com

We have a habit of missing our anniversary (last year, we were in German class when we realised what day it was), so this year we decided to make up for it with a stay in nhow Berlin. Nhow’s PR team kindly invited us to mark four years of marriage – and a decade together - with a complimentary stay in The Music and Lifestyle Hotel, and, as we took the express elevator to our room on the top floor, we knew we were in for a night even we wouldn’t forget!

Our room, in the aluminum-skinned tower that extends out over the River Spree, boasted “scenic” views of Oberbaumbrücke and a distant TV Tower, and was just as impressive inside. Nhow’s interiors feature a pop art update in hues of teal and bubblegum pink, set off by glossy plastic surfaces and future-retro vector graphics. A mirror that doubles as a TV screen is rightly the focal point of each room. We didn’t manage to break into the recording studios, two floors below us, but I imagine they’re just as plush!

Settled in, we rocked up to the nhow’s riverside restaurant, Fabrics, for a special anniversary supper. We polished off two bottles of a delicious Sliding Hill Sauvignon Blanc and kept our bouches amused with the first Spargel of the season, pigeon, the best coleslaw ever, and “avant garde” bread – made from ingredients like olive oil and curry powder… and a lot better than it sounds! Then we shared an “old school special” of veal cutlet, to a soundtrack that seemed handpicked to celebrate our time together: Annie Lennox, The Fountain soundtrack, “Wicked Game” and “Finally”, which could well have been playing in the club we first “necked on” in.

Then it was back to our room WHERE THE MAGIC REALLY HAPPENED. That is, I ordered free guitar room service of a Les Paul copy and a Marshall amp, which we proceeded to play very badly indeed:

Then Zoë did THAT THING I LIKE – let me watch heavy metal satellite channel Scuzz (Enter Shikari live, ). And THEN… don’t worry, I won’t tease you with any more threats of overshared intimate details, and leave our review there.

The verdict? Nhow is a beautifully-designed, fun place to stay. It doesn’t exactly capture the spirit of rock n’ roll, but instead celebrates the lifestyle enjoyed by successful music stars – and so attracts dull, rich people as guests. But if you can afford it, there aren’t many lavish design hotels in Berlin that can compete with nhow. If your budget doesn’t quite stretch to €300 a night, we recommend you check out Fabrics, a restaurant that is way more reasonable and (we feel) better than, say, Pret A Diner. Practical considerations aside, a stay at nhow tops any anniversary we’ve ever spent together, and maybe ever will!

I know we post about Loxx a lot, but this is special: English newspaper The Guardian has published our photos of the miniature railway version of Berlin, and the article is currently on their front page! Click here to see if you can find the suitably teeny homepage photo, or here to see the full article – now with specially-penned captions. Big things are happening for our favourite Little Big Berlin!

Sascha Funke, one of Berlin’s leading techno DJs and producers, unveiled his new project earlier this year. Called Saschienne, it’s a collaboration with his fiancée, French musician and dancer Julienne Dessagne. Together they’ve composed a new album for Sascha’s Kompakt home called Unknown, and in the spirit of just that, Pulse Radio asked the pair to run down their five favourite secret spots to hang out in their home city of Berlin.

Konnopke Imbiss, Schoenhauser Allee 44B, (under the S-Bahn bridge), Berlin Prenzlauer Berg
A legend. You can’t understand anything about Berlin if you don’t go there. The finest German gastronomy highlight: the Berliner Currywurst. A piece of sausage with curry sauce on top of it. But the delicacy doesn’t stop here, you have the choice between having your sausage with or without skin. We highly recommend the version without. If you don’t want to look like a tourist, just say at the counter with your best German accent “ohne Darm”. Don’t be scared, Konnopke looks at first like a poor restaurant you normally find off the motorway…but believe us, after that you’ll be able to say “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

Visite ma Tente, Christinenstr. 24, Berlin Prenzlauer Berg
As a Franco-German couple we sometimes have to make some compromises after the Currywurst… And when there’s some need for authentic French wine and cheese, Visite ma Tente is the place to go to. A nice atmosphere which goes beyond the smell of garlic and baguettes. Just a nice and simple bar where French people can also take their cigarette inside and talk very loud!

Food market on Zionskirchplatz, Berlin Mitte
Probably the smallest food market in the world! One butcher, one baker, one cheese stand, and a couple for vegetables. But everything you need to prepare a nice dinner. The market takes place every Thursday and we go there every week. In summer, you can buy some flowers too and there’s even a woman who sells her handmade hats from now and then. Our favourite remains the Lebanese man who sells delicious falafels. The church behind the markt (Zionskirche) makes the whole experience even more peaceful. Berlin just how we like it!

Happy Shop, Torstrasse 67, Berlin Mitte
For a few months, we could see from the backyard of our flat a construction area, wondering what kind of ugly supermarkt would come and ruin our view… eventually, the story turned into a happy end when we realised that the Happy Shop was born! A shop with a happy selection of clothes, accessories, and a few other objects that you don’t see everywhere else in Berlin. Even if you don’t buy anything, you feel happy to just have a look around!

Bookshop “Walther Koenig”, Burgstraße 27, Berlin Mitte
Located next to Berlin’s famous Isle of Museums, this bookshop has a huge selection of art books, sometimes available in different languages. We can spend hours in there. You can find some nice books about Berlin which have nothing to do with all the boring tourist stuff you see in most other shops. A lot of beautiful photography books. And many more. At the moment you can also find hundreds of beautiful books about Gerhard Richter whose exhibition is now at Neue Nationalgallerie (a must as well!).

Unknown by Saschienne is out now on Kompakt. This article was originally published on Pulse Radio.

Our favourite thing to do in Berlin just got favouriter! The nerds behind Loxx Miniature Railway are forever adding new bits to their tiny version of Berlin, but this time they’ve surpassed themselves. They’ve added a mini Bundestag with a stage in front, from which some of the most iconic speeches in Berlin’s history are delivered. Press a button and up pops JFK to declare “Ich bin ein Berliner”, or Reagan to roar, “Tear down this wall!” The coolest touch is a set of working miniature cameras, which transmit the scene to a screen just over the “road”. If this awesome detail isn’t enough for you, check out the photos from our first visit to Loxx Miniature Railway.

We loved last week’s ITB Berlin travel trade show, not least because of the venue. We may not have blagged free flights to New Zealand, but we did come away with photos of the Internationales Congress Centrum (ICC) – which rivals Berlin’s TV Tower for retro-futuristic awesomeness. Check it out!

Just been for a Sunday stroll… ON the Landwehrkanal! It’s frozen solid, so bring your ice skates!

Move over RSVP, we’ve found a new favourite paper porn palace! Modular at Moritzplatz more than lives up to its tagline, “material total”, by offering stationary, art supplies and even furniture in all shapes, sizes and colours of the spectrum. The building also houses design studios, picture framers and a couple of cafés, making Modular more of a creative lifestyle brand than just a supply store.

Its concern with both form and function, and blurring of the lines between home and work, reflects what we feel is a very Berlin mindset. In a city where many homes are converted factories and many places of work are in old apartment buildings, why shouldn’t your office be as aesthetically pleasing as your home, and your flat as functional as your office?

Theorising aside, do check out Modular – chances are you’ll find us wandering aimlessly through its aisles, saying irrational things like ”Ooo… I love these! What are they? Can we get one in every colour of the rainbow?” If you experience the same kind of “supply snow blindness”, we recommend using the 3D relief map of Berlin, pictured in the last photo, to reorientate yourself. Yes, that’s where you are…

Little big world! This miniature railway version of Berlin, found on the top floor of the otherwise unremarkable Alexa mall, is perhaps the best thing we’ve seen since we moved here. Everyone bangs on about the world’s biggest mini railway in Hamburg, but we doubt that it’s been constructed with the same attention to detail and sense of humour as Loxx. The world´s “largest model railway with digital PHS-control in the scale of 1:87 (H0)” – whatever that means – features everything inside the Ringbahn and then some, including vehicles that wait at the functional traffic lights, nekkid sunbathers, a drunk Santa and a Tina Turner concert. There’s even a “working” airport with planes that take off and land, and a climate-control system that brings night, day and typisch Berlin rain showers. Check out all the cool stuff we spotted below, and get down to Loxx the first chance you get!

Now this is a real fleamarket. This Aladin’s Cave, tucked in beside the Arena at Treptow, makes Arkonaplatz look like IKEA and Mauerpark look like a catwalk. We happened across the Hallentrödelmarkt (indoor flea market) on our way home from the International Tattoo Convention, and to be honest, this place was weirder. We encountered mountains of junk, an otherwise normal looking girl test-driving an accordian and countless angry stall owners telling us “keine Fotos!” (I guess if we can’t take a picture of that stuffed badger, we’re just going to have to buy it?!) Every time you see a computer monitor up a tree, or a giant plastic chandelier hanging from the ceiling of a neighbourhood bar, we’d bet it has passed through here. Come down and have a poke around – there’s no telling what you might find.

Hallentrödelmarkt Treptow takes place every Saturday and Sunday at Eichenstraße 4. For more details visit Qype.