A Weekend in...Berlin
Since the fall of the Wall in 1989, Germany’s
dynamic capital city has undergone an extensive revitalization. The vibrant
metropolis is rich with history, culture, good food, and a very reliable rail
system. If you’ve never been, or if it’s just been a while since your last
visit, it’s definitely time for you to check out the Millennium City.
— Bryan Reesman (www.bryanreesman.com)
GO NOW
 SLEEP TIGHT
Berlin
Plaza Hotel (from $90; Knesebeckstr. 63, 011-
49-30-884130, www.plazahotel.de) is not
pricey, especially considering its central location right off the ritzy Kurfürstendamm
(or “Ku’damm”), Berlin’s equivalent of New York’s Fifth Avenue. It’s
snug and modest, and it has a great breakfast buffet and service. The colorful Art’otel
Berlin Kudamm (from $156; Joachimstaler Strasse
28-29, 011-49-30- 884470, http://www.parkplaza.com/artotelberlinde_ku
damm), featuring works by the likes of Philippe Starck and Arne Jacobsen,
is right around the corner and another great option.
SCHNITZEL AND BEYOND
Berlin embraces international cuisine. Bavarian
food and atmosphere can be found within the Bavarium (011- 49-30-2614397, www.bavarium-berlin.de) at the Europa Center
mall. Café Einstein
(Kurfürstenstrasse 58,
011-49-30-2615096, www.cafeeinstein.com)
serves Austrian cuisine in a striking Viennese coffeehouse setting. Turkish
food and delicious döner kebabs — the latter of which are said to have been
invented in Berlin
— abound in the predominately Turkish district of Kreuzberg. For a juicy steak dinner, look into the
different Block House (www.blockhouse.de) locations.
HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS
Remember when there was a
West Germany and an East Germany? Museum
Haus Am Checkpoint Charlie
(Friedrichstrasse 43-45,
011- 49-30-2537250, www.mauermuseum.de)
recalls the post-WWII division of Berlin and Germany and displays
amazing stories of people attempting to escape the Russian sector. To see remnants
of the wall, visit the East Side Gallery (along Mühlenstrasse) and Memorial
of German Separation (Bernauerstrasse), and
then walk through the famed Brandenburg Gate (on the western end of Unter Den Linden),
which once loomed above the wall.
CULTURE
For a comprehensive look
into German cinema, explore the Deutsche Kinemathek in the Sony Center
(Potsdamer Strasse 2, www.filmmuseum-berlin.de).
For Eastern and Middle Eastern art, visit the Pergamon Museum (011-49-30-20905201). Or walk like an Egyptian and wander the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung (011-49-30- 20905577), housed within the Altes Museum (011- 49-30-20905801), home of classical
Greek and Roman art. All three are at Museum Island (Bodestrasse 1-3, www.smb.spk-berlin.de/ang/s.html)
near the Berliner Dom cathedral.
TEUTONIC TERRAIN
You may wait an hour for
an elevator ride to the dome atop the Reichstag building (Platz der Republik 1), but the
panoramic view of the city is divine. Another good perch can be found atop the Berliner
Dom (Karl-Liebknecht- Strasse,
011-49-30- 20269136, www.berlinerdom.de),
which also houses a spectacular pipe organ and a creepy crypt. For a great walk
through a gorgeous, enormous park, stroll the Tiergarten (Strasse des 17. Juni 1), which houses the Berlin
Zoo (Hardenbergplatz 8,
011-49-30-254010, www.zoo-berlin.de) at
its southwestern corner.
SHOPPING
Open until midnight, Dussmann
das KulturKaufhaus (Friedrichstrasse 90,
011-49- 30-20251111, www.kulturkaufhaus.shop-asp.de)
is an emporium of books, DVDs, and CDs. Cover Schallplatten (Kurfürstendamm 11, 011-49-30-88-550130)
sells CDs and tens of thousands of 45s. The ritzy Ku’damm and Friedrichstrasse are home to high-end retail outlets, cafés, and
a few art galleries. And then there’s Kreuzberg, Berlin’s equivalent
of Greenwich Village. It offers a variety of alternative
music and clothing stores, especially along Mehringdamm.
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Conserve
 In Search of a Green Machine
With all the sky-is-falling news
these days — global warming, crashing fisheries, mercury contamination even on
mountaintops — you probably haven’t given a second thought to that laptop you
just closed before you picked up this mag. Maybe it’s time you did. — Heather
Millar
Electronic products — or, more to
the point, computers — harbor a grab bag of environmental bogeymen: They use
enormous amounts of energy. Manufacturing them may squander resources, not to
mention involve nasty chemicals. The internal components contain dangerous toxins
like mercury, cadmium, and lead. And recycling complicated electronic devices
can be so labor-intensive and polluting that the job often gets shifted offshore,
creating all kinds of new contamination problems in places like India and
China.
Before you slump in despair onto
your tray table, though, know there’s hope: A coalition of electronics-industry
representatives, academics, engineers, environmentalists, and recycling experts
has devised a system for rating the environmental impact of these electronics. Electronic
Produce Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) rates products on energy
efficiency, packaging, toxics reduction, manufacturing efficiency, and
end-of-life issues like recyclability and battery disposal.
“What matters is the types of
materials and the energy efficiency. Could they make computers easier to pull
apart and recycle?” explains professor Paul T. Anastas, director of Yale University’s
Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, one of the organizations that
helped draft the green-electronics standard. “It turns out that, yes, they
could.”
Manufacturers supply data to qualify
their products for Bronze, Silver, or Gold EPEAT status based on a combination of
mandatory and optional criteria. EPEAT then independently and randomly verifies
these claims to ensure accuracy.
“By setting a high bar for
environmental improvement and allowing manufacturers flexibility in meeting it,
EPEAT is successfully motivating the environmental redesign of computer
products,” said Jeff Omelchuck, executive director of the Green Electronics
Council, the Portland, Oregon–based non-profit group that manages EPEAT.
To date, EPEAT has rated over 680
products by more than 20 manufacturers, and NASA and the EPA have applied the standard
in their contracts, as have corporations like McKesson and Kaiser Permanente. EPEAT
estimates that in its first six months, the greener practices have saved 13.7
billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 24.4 million tons of materials and
have kept 56.5 million tons of air pollutants out of the atmosphere.
Reaching Gold Status
Visit www.epeat.net for an outline of standard
criteria and a searchable database of rated products. Some of the cooler EPEAT
Gold gadgets include:
1 Zonbu 1 A desktop with no moving
parts, it uses a superfast Internet connection to access remote applications —
even the operating system — which cuts down on materials.
2 One Laptop Per Child
OLPC XO-1 Designed to be distributed in developing countries, it’s so energy
efficient that it can be operated by a hand crank.
3 Lenovo Think Vision
L193p It’s guaranteed that 25 percent of the plastic in this monitor comes
from postconsumer recycling. It’s the first product in the EPEAT registry to make such a claim.
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UNCORK A BOTTLE
 Ports of Call
New to port? Wine expert
Michael Green (MichaelGreen.com) offers some tasting notes on some top bottles
— all produced in Portugal.
Like Champagne, true port only comes from one
place in the world: the Douro Valley of Portugal. But beyond that, what makes a
port a port? We went to Peter Prager, winemaker at St. Helena, California–based
Prager Winery and Port Works (which makes some of the best American port-style
wines around), for some answers. “Ports are fortified wines. During the
fermentation process, grape spirits are added,” he says. That makes them
sweeter — and gives them a fuller body — than regular wine. But what makes a
white port white, a tawny a tawny, and a ruby what she is? Well, wood ports reach
full maturity in the barrel, and each is named — as you’ve probably guessed —
by its color, which grows ever so deeper the longer it stays put in the wood.
Typically, ports spend two to seven years in wood casks before being bottled.
White ports are lighter, tawny ports tend to be a bit nuttier, and ruby ports
are fruitier . And the very best ports? Those are vintage ports, and each is
made from a single harvest (wood ports are blended). Once a port is declared
vintage, it’s pulled from the barrel after two to three years and then aged in glass
bottles. Says Prager: “In the world of port, vintage means reserve. There has
to be something unusually good about it.” Wondering what to serve with your
port? According to Prager, a cheese plate is your best bet, regardless of the
the port color .
—
Jenna
Schnuer
Keeping Up Traditions
1. Pass the port. What
does this mean? you ask. It means the host pours a glass for the person on the
right and then passes the bottle to the person on the left, who in turn pours
right and passes left, and so on, until the bottle makes its way back to the host.
The custom is an old naval tradition and possibly stems from the fact that
ships pass one another on the left, which is known as port to port.
2. If the bottle stops
getting passed around the table, say to the person nearest to it, “Do you know
the bishop of Norwich
?” When you get a “No,” you then say, “He’s an awfully good fellow, but he
never remembers to pass the port!”
3. It’s bad form to
recork the bottle; you pass and pour until it’s empty. In fact, some even say
that the bottle shouldn’t touch the table again until it’s been emptied.
Bottoms up.
—
— Anna Fialho
1 Warre’s “Otima” 10 Year
Old Tawny, $20 “A lighter style of tawny port and a great aperitif. Raisins meet
crème-brûlée!”
2 Cockburn’s Quinta dos
Canais 2003, $56 “A delicious single-vineyard port marked by vibrant color, jammy
plum and black fruit flavors, a medium body, and firm tannins.”
3 Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled
Vintage 2001, $23 “A wonderful value; glorious sweet black fruit and licorice
aromas.”
4 Osborne Late Bottled
Vintage 2000, $19 A “luscious, juicy, mature port” that’s a “slam dunk” with
chocolate.
5 Fonseca Vintage Port
2003, $92 “A classic vintage port that will age gracefully for years.
Complex, with notes of licorice, blackberry, and spice. Plush mouthfeel and
just plain yummy. Worth the splurge!”
6 Graham’s Six Grapes, $23 This ruby port “from one
of the great port houses” has “heady aromas of raisin, prune, and dark fruits.”
7 Dow’s Colheita Port, $34 “Aged in wood for over
seven years; tasty flavors of almond and caramel.”
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GET A HAIRCUT
Step Away from the Scissors
Bad hair happens —
especially when you’re on the road. But whether it’s a clip, a style, or a
color that calls you, rest assured that taking matters into your own hands is
not the answer. (Been there, done that.) Instead, take our advice and book it
to one of these salons. You won’t be sorry. — Becca Hensley
 Norbert Hair
Designers, Washington, D.C. In a city where image is everything, politicos
and television journalists covet a camera-ready coiffure. They find it at
Norbert Hair Designers, just five blocks from the White House. An ideal image
institution for nearly four decades, this dedicated salon excels at ensuring
that its clients have perfect public presentation. From $70. 1050 Connecticut Avenue Northwest, (202) 466-2111
Osgood-O’Neil Salon, Dallas Forget big hair. These days, Dallasites want
haute hair in à la mode styles, with just a touch of Texana, and to get it,
they head to any of the three hip Osgood-O’Neil salons. Every appointment begins
with a personal consultation, and all technicians specialize in either cuts or styling.
Added bonus: Allure magazine voted co-owner J.T. Osgood one of
the best colorists in D-Town. From $45. 6932 Snider Plaza,
3213 Knox Street,
and 4320 Lovers Lane;
(214) 373-6336; www.osgoodoneil.com
The Men’s Room, Jon English
Hairspa Uptown, Minneapolis Compete for a seat at the Men’s Room with the
likes of Mikhail Baryshnikov. An urbane Uptown-situated all-male mane shop, it
offers comely creations in a crotchety barber-and-brilliantine-free setting. This
modern hair haven is sure to mediate that midlife crisis. (Women can get hair
help at any of the city’s other Jon English Salons.) From $32. 1441 West Lake Street
(first floor), (612) 822-5050, www.jonenglishsalons.com
Umi Salon, Boston Everybody wants a haircut by Jeffrey
Dauksevich. But if you can’t afford to wait for an appointment (or pay $300 for
a clip), try any of Umi’s other stellar stylists, all trained by the master
Dauksevich himself. On historic Newbury
Street, in Boston’s
beloved Back Bay, this contemporary salon
attracts style-savvy businesspeople, artists, and musicians from around the
world. From $125. 75 Newbury
Street, (617) 247-0770, www.umisite.com
Mr. Pinkwhistle, San
Francisco Composed of intricate layers
that swirl and move, the signature haircuts by salon owner Simon Marc set the
“chic” bar high in San Francisco.
Clients travel from as far away as Hong Kong
for makeovers by Marc (or his specially trained stylists) in a setting that’s
more akin to an art gallery than to a hair lair. Close to Chinatown,
the salon offers the advantage of post-appointment dim sum. From $75. 580 Bush Street,
(415) 989-7465, www.mrpinkwhistle.com
When You’re on the
Road, Don’t Leave Home Without ...
Umi Salon’s miraculous Umi Powder. A dry shampoo and an
indispensable travel companion that provides fullness and pliability to style-hungry
hair. Available in a two-ounce carry-on size. $28. www.umisite.com
Philip B’s Jet Set Precision Control Hair
Spray. A handbag-size, lightweight spray that texturizes while
freshening hair with botanicals. Stylists at John Frieda Salon in L.A. don’t go anywhere without
it. $18. www.philipb.com
Kérastase Bain de Force Shampoo. Osgood-O’Neil Salon
stylists like this shampoo for plumping, fortifying, and moisturizing super-dry
hair. $32. www.kerastase.com
Beauty Scoop. Reverse travel damage
with just one serving a day of this dissolvable vitamin-peptide-mineral
formula. It boosts the body’s regenerative power, which results in stronger, shinier
hair. $75 for a three-week supply. www.beautyscoop.com
Shu Uemura Moisture Velvet Nourishing
Treatment. An intensive conditioning mask infused with camellia oil that
restores shine and moisture to dry hair. Combine it with the DepSea Foundation ($30) before
blow-drying for the ultimate hair transformation. $60. At select salons
nationwide; call (866) 914-8750 to find one near you.
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SAVE A DOLLAR
 Fair Exchange
A guide to getting the most
euros/pesos/yen for your bucks. — By Bryan Reesman (www.bryanreesman.com)
Cash, debit cards,
traveler’s checks — which is the best to take with you? Cash always works for currency exchange, but it’s
not wise to take a lot. Using a debit card gives you the going exchange rate,
and oftentimes, you’re hit only with your bank’s withdrawal fee, as many
overseas banks won’t charge you for the transaction (some do, though, so be
sure to inquire first). Plus, these days, ATMs are available everywhere from Germany to Ghana. Traveler’s checks, on the other
hand, while having the advantage of being insured and replaceable, are
redeemable in fewer and fewer places today, making them inconvenient. So we
recommend you take some cash and your cards.
To charge or not to charge?
This is the eternal question.
Using credit cards helps you spare your cash for essential items and
traditionally gives you the best exchange rate — so you incur no fees and get
the rate of the day. Some cards, though, are reportedly charging small
transaction fees now. Also, hotels require credit cards, but when you’re
shopping, you may run into snags such as purchase minimums and acceptability
issues in different countries. Visa, for example, is widely accepted in England and Belgium, but you’ll have a harder
time charging in many German stores, which prefer Euro MasterCard. Check with each
store about what it accepts before standing in a long line, especially if
you’re cash poor at that moment. Beware — many foreign restaurants take only
cash.
Online know-how: Check XE.com for the latest exchange rates.
If you know you should get 39 Indian rupees or six Norwegian kroner to the
dollar but an exchange booth offers you substantially less, you can go elsewhere.
The best strategy is to determine how much foreign currency you can obtain for
$100 with each rate. A few cents per dollar can make a difference once
multiplied. Oftentimes, hotels and airports charge unnecessary and costly fees,
but check their rates, just in case. Once at your hotel, find out which local
banks exchange currency, and then compare prices. Knowledge is power!
Exceptions to the rule: While the above guidelines generally hold
true, there are occasional anomalies that could blindside you. A small village
might have only one or two banks that exchange currency, leaving you stuck with
their rates. Seoul
has few machines from which you can get cash, but credit cards are widely accepted.
And we found a truly interesting rule breaker outside Brussels, where a Best Western hotel recently
charged $1.41 per euro, two cents less than the actual exchange rate at the
time, resulting in our saving $2 for every 100 euros we bought.
11 Countries Where You
Can Really Stretch Your Dollar
Vietnam, $1 = 15,985 dong
Indonesia, $1 = 9,434 rupiahs
Zambia, $1 = 3,750 kwacha
Colombia, $1 = 2,008 pesos
Lebanon, $1 = 1,512 pounds
South Korea, $1 = 939 won
Costa Rica, $1 = 497 colones
Chile, $1 = 492 pesos
Hungary, $1 = 173 forints
Japan, $1 = 109 yen
Sri Lanka, $1 = 108 rupees
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