Cully's alternative advent calendar

Behind door number 14: the most Christmassy place in the world (or Berlin at least).

After ticking off a few 'must see while in Berlin' sites; Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Bebelplatz and more importantly the Ritter Sport shop, now with a bag of ten blocks of chocolate (thank god Easyjet are a lot more lenient with baggage than Ryanair) we started to feel a bit peckish.

Around 4pm we stumbled upon our first Christmas market - Weihnachts Zauber - where we bought our first gluhwein with a shot of amaretto (well the cost of the extra shot went to the homeless so it would have been wrong not to) and a bratwurst! The market was truly magical (pictured) with traditional stalls selling cheeses, hams, dried nuts, waffles, pork baps, chocolate coated biscuit balls the size of tennis balls, locally crafted gifts etc and the not so traditional - it had a sit in cocktail bar!? We kept with tradition and grabbed another gluwein, then another, then an eggnog, then a lager, then a... You get the idea.

Soon we found ourselves high on the German Christmas spirit, singing and dancing to the early hours with the locals, to a fab choir singing everything from 'silent night' to 'man in the mirror'. The female Alan Carr lookalike being the highlight! A fab evening and well worth sacrificing my Christmas presents for!