This Berlin trip was built around a single fixed event.

In November we won a Marriott Moments auction that included a daytime Gourmet Odyssey and a stay at the Ritz-Carlton Berlin. With that date firmly in place, we then started to build the rest of a Berlin long-weekend trip around it.

What follows isn’t an attempt to define Berlin or generalize from it. It’s simply a short record of how the trip came together when one organized day sat between two deliberately loose ones, and how three very different parts of the city ended up shaping the experience.

Hotel: me and all hotel Berlin East Side (Hyatt)

Area: Friedrichshain / East Side Gallery

We didn’t start at the Ritz.

The first night was spent in East Berlin at a Hyatt property chosen during a period when I was still exploring a Hyatt status challenge, that was later abandoned. Even setting that aside, the choice stood on its own: location first, not as a base, and not as a focal point.

Breakfast was included. The common areas and bar were active, but we didn’t treat the hotel as the centre of the day.

After checking in, we headed to Alexanderplatz early.

The Christmas market was busy with lots of people there, happy to enjoy the seasonal festivities. We walked it once, bought the obligatory German sausage and mustard, absorbed the energy, and moved on. Doing it early removed any pull to return later or keep it hanging over the rest of the trip.

In the late afternoon, we returned to the hotel and paused before going back out. That break reset the day rather than stacking momentum straight into the evening.

Dinner unfolded while walking Friedrichshain.

Several places flagged by current online recommendations no longer existed or were closed. Distances felt longer than expected. What did work was the walk itself: graffiti-covered buildings, long blocks, and the sense of moving through a part of the city that wasn’t curated for visitors.

We eventually sat down somewhere ordinary, paid cash, and ate without ceremony.

The night didn’t end there.

Back at the hotel bar, the room had filled naturally with travellers. Through the windows, the rough, modern East Berlin streetscape sat directly outside a warm interior. The space was lively without being forced. We stayed longer than planned.

That closed Day 1.

East Berlin did what arrival nights often need to do: orient, recalibrate expectations, and let the city lead.

Hotel: Ritz-Carlton Berlin

Area: Potsdamer Platz / Mitte

The second day was the reason the trip existed.

The Marriott Gourmet Odyssey began late morning and ran through the afternoon. It was tightly organised, with printed programmes, coordinated movement, and full dishes served at each stop. Portions were generous, particularly the schnitzel at Lutter & Wegner. Nobody left hungry.

What worked wasn’t subtle pacing or clever restraint. It worked especially well because of when it was scheduled.

Because the experience lived entirely in the day, it didn’t compete with the evening. It occupied the centre of the trip without forcing everything else to build toward it.

It was a great dining experience, and I will write more on it separately, but by mid-afternoon, it had ended.

That was the point.

Later that evening, we went to Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt.

It was cold. We were the only ones outside, drinking German lager and enjoying it. Inside, a long queue formed just past the door. Because we were already there, already served, and already visible to the maître d’, we stayed put.

A table eventually opened up.

We had more beer, currywurst, and the Augustiner beef goulash. No rush, no pressure to feel that this was the night’s “event”. But it was genuinely enjoyable.

On the walk back, we passed through Bebelplatz.

It was completely empty.

The Book Burning Memorial sat beneath glass, illuminated from below, with no one around it. Humboldt University receded into the dark. No signage, no crowd, no explanation.

It was the quietest moment of the trip, and it arrived without planning.

Only after that did we return to the Ritz.

The Curtain Club was active, with an in-house band and late drinks. Our F&B credit quietly disappeared there as we spent the evening just as we would have done if it weren’t included.

As it should, the hotel framed the day. We started there and finished there. And there was nothing about it that added any additional pressure at all.

Hotel: Lindner Hotel Berlin Ku’damm (Hyatt)

Area: Kurfürstendamm / West Berlin

The final night was spent west.

This was the second Hyatt stay, booked under the same earlier strategy, but it stood on its own. Calm, functional, and deliberately unshowy. Breakfast included. Nothing asking for attention.

We walked Ku’damm and nearby streets. A different Christmas market. Fewer crowds. A lower register.

There was no destination meal and no attempt at a closing flourish. After the previous day, the trip ended by loosening rather than adding.

Departure followed the next morning.

In retrospect, the organised part wasn’t the risk.

Anchoring the trip to one fixed, daytime, centrally planned experience simplified everything around it. It removed pressure from the evenings, allowed different neighbourhoods to be explored without obligation, and allowed us the freedom to not have to fit every other part of the trip neatly into a pre-planned box.

Across the stay, we moved through East Berlin on arrival, spent the centre of the trip anchored around a single fixed date, and ended in West Berlin at a quieter pace.

The structure didn’t prevent discovery. It actually helped to create space for it.

If you’re interested in the math behind the trip, I have written it up. Please see The Berlin Stay, In Numbers for that short report.