Berlin 2018 - Monday 6 August

Mark and the 'Farnham Travel' group caught a train to Bamberg on Monday leaving me with a full day to plan for myself.

Corbusierhaus Berlin

In the morning I visited Corbusierhaus Berlin near S-Bahn Olympiastadion and the Olympic Stadium site. Le Corbusier was invited by the city of Berlin to build an example of his 'Unite d'Habitation' concept in 1957, five years after the first one had been built in Marseille.

Route (yellow) from Flatowallee bus stop to U-bahn

With European Athletic Championships starting at the Olympic Stadium it was possible to walk outside the perimeter hedge of the stadium from the southern entrance to the east entrance.

Eastern gate - Olympic Stadium

The sunken stadium, built for the 1936 Olympic Games, has its lower part 12 metres below ground level.

After viewing these impressive buildings, I took the U-bahn (U2) directly to Sophie-Charlotte-Platz station which has preserved seats and decorative features.
Taking the Suarezstrasse exit led to the street renowned for its antique shops and the opportunity to view some interesting window displays. Posters advertised the 17th Antikmeile festival held there on the first Saturday each September.

A little to the west is Lietzensee Park and I stopped for a coffee at Bootshaus Stella am Lietzensee at an outside table on a deck overlooking the lake.
A rest at the hostel would follow a bus ride from Stuttgarter Platz near Charlottenburg S-Bahn station.

Spinnrad

Later, the M29 and 186 buses took me from Herthastrasse to a stop opposite Spinnrad, Wiesbadener Strasse 16.

Cafe Frau Maus

Walking down the tree lined street of Rheingaustrasse, I stopped to take a photo of Cafe Frau Maus.

At 7pm I arrived at my nearby destination - Foersters Feine Biere, facing a green space with benches. This lies on the northern boundary of the Steglitz neighbourhood.

Joe Stange had kindly recommended Foersters to me on Friday as one of the few good beer bars reasonably close to my hostel in the east of the Grunewald district.

Although it was a Monday, most of the outside tables were occupied. After ordering my beer I would take a seat on a keg with a red cushion on top at a round table near the entrance.

The Fränkischer wheat beer (Aischgründer Karpfen-Weisse by Zum Löwenbräu of Adelsdorf) was especially refreshing as the first beer of the day! This was one of the changing draught beers listed on the blackboard outside - 0.5l 4.90 euros - and was served in a tall glass.

There was time to look through the beer list but I chose the second beer from the blackboard as my next - Bock from Brauerei Keesmann of Bamberg. Although I couldn't be with Mark in Bamberg this evening, at least I could drink beer from Bamberg in a stemmed glass!
Bottled beers selected by sommelier Sven Foerster include Lemke 030 & Berliner Beirfabrik Schabrackentebier (pale ale) and Lemke Spree Coast IPA & Labieratorium Paranoid (IPA).
The snack menu included items like bread with cheese or salami served with gherkin and tomato for 4.90 euros but I decided to have one more beer here and eat at nearby Cafe Frau Maus.

From Brauerei Kundmüller, in the Bamberg area, I picked Weiherer Keller (0.25l 2.50 euro) from the regular draught beer list as my final beer. There was no distraction from traffic noise at my outside table but some cigarette smoke did drift across to my seat especially after a couple asked to join my table.

I didn't have a chance to talk to the owners of the bar whose photo appears in the beer menu. This page also mentions the bar opens at 4pm, is closed on Sundays and holidays and does not accept card payments.

Burkhard - Foersters Feine Biere

However, at 9pm, when it was time to pay my bill, I did have a brief chat with Burkhard who had been efficiently serving beers poured at the bar to customers at the tables outside. He explained that the warm weather had brought extra customers to the bar. Burkhard accepted a copy of West Berkshire CAMRA's Ullage magazine to add to the stack of beer books on a shelf near the bar.
I can recommend a visit to Foerster's Feine Biere which was ranked 6th in the 2018 Beer Gastronomy section of Bier, Bars & Brauer a specialist German magazine and website.

The nearest U-bahn station is Walther-Schreiber-Platz (U9).

It was only 150 metres to walk from Foersters to Cafe Frau Maus, Rheingaustrasse 4, in the neighbouring Friedenau district, which I had walked past earlier. Inside, I discovered that the beer mats also feature the distinctive mouse head logo I had noticed on the outside wall of the building.
Again, the outside tables were busy so I took a seat at the bar to order my beer and consult the menu. A useful feature in the dimly lit bar was a lighting strip under the bar edge to illuminate menus etc..

I asked about the entenbratwurst and zucchini item on the handwritten menu of the day and was advised this was duck so ordered this to go with my beer.

Meals are prepared from a kitchen above and behind the bar. The duck sausages on a homemade ratatouille base were delicious!

The beer range here was limited but I enjoyed Flensburger Pilsener from the permanent draught beer range and a smooth Brauhaus Riegele Kellerbier from Augsburg which was the draught beer of the week on the handwritten menu.

A variety of older furniture is used inside the bar. My table had a ridged surface so a beermat was useful. Another interesting feature is a display of decorated china that is used for serving meals.

Before leaving at around 10.30pm I let Dirk know that I would like to take a photo and he hurried to fetch proprietress Sabine Mauszewski to be included. They have now been running the popular local establishment for four years. Cafe Frau Maus is open Wednesday - Monday from 4pm until 11pm.in the summer.

When I left, the compact beer garden was almost empty.
For good value, freshly prepared food and good beer served in a friendly environment, Cafe Frau Maus has been added to my list of places in Berlin to return to.

At this time of night the 186 bus runs less frequently so there was time to visit Spinnrad, near the bus stop, for a final beer. Several tables on the enclosed pavement forecourt were still busy here.

Here, at a cost of 2.50 euros, I enjoyed a glass of Edelweissbier from Allgäuer Brauhaus of Leuterschach in the Allgäu Alps (Bavaria), part of the Radeberger Group.

The bus journey to Richard-Straus-Strasse only takes 10 minutes with little traffic around.

Grunewald Feuerwache

I stopped to take some photos of an unusual disused old building with a half timbered section, on the 1km walk back to the hostel via Wernerstrasse and Grunewald church. Later research showed that the building was designed in 1895 by the architect Franz Ahrens & was Grunewald fire station (Feuerwache).
As on other nights I returned to the hostel a little after midnight to find my room on the top floor still retaining the day's heat.