One for the Road: The Spirit of Berlin

by Kelly Amabile on

We’re looking at new May releases all this week at One for the Road, and I’m guessing this one weighs more than any other we will mention. So this is really one for the road that you should actually leave at home.

The design team at Cologne-based TASCHEN has just released a hefty photo montage of Germany’s capital city. The Spirit of Berlin: A Photographic History Into the City’s History is just that — a collection of almost 700 images from 1860 to present day that captures the soul of Berlin, a city that has survived devastating destruction and now thrives as a center of European business and culture.

The 672 page book (!!) is an impressive compilation of images that visually tells the story of Berlin and its inhabitants. Author Hans Christian Adam viewed over 10,000 images — including maps, portraits and aerial photos — while assembling this comprehensive pictorial history. Pick up a copy to see which ones made the cut in this tribute tome to a grand city.

The Strange, Uncomfortable Silence of Naked Germans

by Neil Woodburn on

What is it about Germans and nudity?

I’ve probably seen more naked Germans on vacation than any other nationality–on beaches, at parks, staring at me from glossy magazines in the bahnoff.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Sometimes it’s great to see naked Germans. Other times I’d rather not see a pair of pasty-white man-boobs on some chap named Gunther. But I guess that’s the same with any nationality.

Mark Schatzker, a blogger who is tramping around the world for Conde Naste Traveler, has a few thoughts to share about our naked German friends as well. Mark encountered a gaggle of them (or is that a gander) in a spa in Italy. It was a co-ed spa and there was an equal amount of fraus and herrrens tromping around without any clothing. While this didn’t appear to bother Mark, there was a social side effect that did. Apparently naked Germans don’t like to talk. They sit there in the sauna naked, not saying a word. They wander the grounds with body parts dangling, not saying a word. Other than a single danke, no one spoke to Mark at all. It was like a nudist monastery from hell.

Oh man, leave it to the Germans to take all the fun out of being naked!

Berlin’s Grandest Hotel

by Neil Woodburn on

The most famous hotel in all of Berlin is undoubtedly Hotel Adlon.

During its heyday, it played host to Greta Garbo, Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich and many others. Unfortunately its prime location near the Brandenburg Gate meant that it was trapped unceremoniously on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War and consequently languished under communist rule.

Things have changed since the fall of the Wall, however. Paul Torpey, writing for The Guardian, takes us back to a hotel that has ebbed and flowed throughout Germanys’ turbulent history, but has now finally returned to its rightful place as Berlin’s very best–or at least most historic–five star hotel.

Perhaps you might recall its most recent role in the bizarre Michael Jackson baby dangling incident which was performed just outside one of the hotel’s windows–probably the window of the presidential suite which runs a mere $16,000 a night.

For those less fortunate, a night in the Aldon becomes surprisingly affordable this July and August as the hotel celebrates is hundred-year anniversary. Rooms will cost just €100 in honor of this momentous event.

Except, of course, the Presidential Suite.

Gipfelbier, or Another Excuse to Drink Beer

by Justin Glow on

I read an interesting AskMetafilter question the other day, it asked: “What is the German word for a beer enjoyed at the top of a summit that you have just climbed?” Apparently the asker climbed Mount Tongariro on the North Island of New Zealand, where they ran across two German men on the summit, each enjoying a beer along with the beautiful view. “They told us that this was a traditional thing for German hikers to do on top of mountains that they summit, and they even had a specific word for the beer enjoyed on such an occasion.”

It turns out there is a term for such a thing: Gipfelbier, or “summit beer.” According to a response posted to the original question, “Gipfelbier or Gipfelhalbe (Halbe = half a liter of beer), it’s simply a reward for having made it to the top, Gipfelschnaps is also common.”

Any excuse to drink beer is fine with me, even if it means lugging it up a mountain first.

Video: Airbus A380 Test Evacuation

by Justin Glow on


Last year we reported that the Airbus A380 passed its jumbo jet evacuation test in Hamburg, Germany, and here’s the video to prove it. The crew was able to evacuate all 873 people on-board in almost complete darkness in 77 seconds, with only one broken leg (out of 1,746!) and 32 minor injuries. Not too shabby!

Related: The Cranky Flier’s Look at the A380, Airbus A380: More Passengers Means More Toilets, and Touring the Airbus A380.

[via cynical-c]