Spring Window Shopping in Berlin
Over the weekend, an old high school friend and I wandered through Berlin. I hadn’t really been in department stores since Christmas. Stores in Germany are significantly more crowded than in the United States due to a lack of space and higher costs. Throw in Christmas shoppers, added inventory, and thousands of Christmas market tourists, and well, let’s just say I have been totally fine with not venturing on shopping and browsing trips for the last three months.
We walked into KaDeWe – Europe’s second largest department store – and I have to admit I was pretty overwhelmed. The crowds were okay. But this time – I was shocked by all the color. The grays and blacks I’ve grown so accustomed to seeing in Germany (like all of the clothes I’ve encountered in my No New Clothes Challenge), were replaced by this colorful scene. I’ll be honest. I didn’t buy a thing. But the colors sure had me swooning!
Would you like to browse the spring display at KaDeWe with me just to see what’s abuzz in Berlin?
Decorating live branches that are just starting to bud with green leaves seems very popular in Germany. Every flower shop sells beautiful spring-filled branches. All you have to do is place them in a large vase and add a little water. And stores everywhere sell beautiful decorated eggs (some are real blown eggs!) and other spring and Easter ornaments to hang from the branches.
My German teacher even set one up in our classroom. The dentist’s office has one, too!
This butterfly display certainly had me pausing. Pastel butterflies graced all the corners of these displays at KaDeWe.
Paper carnations weren’t even for sale. I sure loved them. It could be such a fun project to make at home.
This store draws 40,000 to 50,000 visitors every day. They have an entire floor of gormet foods, little dining areas, and international food. If you’re wondering where to get your hands on some good ol’ American Crisco Shortening – it’s here along with canned pumpkin puree and peanut butter cups. Just be prepared to pay!
Speaking of paying, I am sad to report that the “glass” items in the shot below are all plastic. Talk about a disappointment! Good eye candy, just not the take-home kind.
Do you decorate your home for spring? Have any little touches you like to add for Easter? A little tree of eggs, perhaps? Or are you more of a chocolate egg kind of decorator?
March 18th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Oh I loved KaDeWe, I had a glass of champagne at the food bit at the top when I was there it was a relaxing break from the hectic shoppers – thanks for reminding me of the memory.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
i’m another fan of the KaDeWe. I went in as a teenager and saw the most lovely porcelain figurine – a girl wearing a lovely red dress that was blowing in the wind as she stood there with a book open in one hand. I’ve never been a figurine person, but that image has stayed with me over the years.
yes – we decorate for Easter! We have an Easter egg tree made from forsythia branches every year. So does my MIL – it’s tradition! =) She has eggs she’s collected over the years as well as some my husband and his brother made when they were kids. Every year she makes a careful selection of which of her collection to display. We’ll need to work on ours this weekend… =)
March 18th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
I think every european country decorates with pastels in easter! We, no exception, although I must admit that I really really really don’t like the usual egg-bannies-chicken theme! So in my home I avoid it at all costs. Instead I follow all the food related traditions and the house smells heavenly for a couple of weeks.
Now to something irrelevant: what is the “shortening” you mentioned? I see it in many recipes in the internet and I don’t understand it. Is there a european equivalent?
Thanks
March 18th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I love Germany in the early days of Spring. It’s like the country is suddenly coming awake again after a long sleep. The colors are brilliant. I have touches of Spring/Easter all over my house. I have the branches with eggs hanging from them. I adore how popular it is in Germany. Your photos are gorgeous. We don’t have KaDeWe down here. Wish we did.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Shortening is the vegetable equivalent of lard. In the UK, popular brands are Pura, Flora white and Trex. I don’t know if you recognise any of those brand names? Lard can usually be substituted. HTH!
Spring branches are popular here too, especially pussy willow- it has little furry buds on:
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/pussy-willow.html
March 19th, 2010 at 1:29 am
There is a Wikipedia article on shortening: it means any cooking fat that is solid at room temperature. In Australia, we tend to use butter, or perhaps margarine; animal shortening is now rather rare except for people making home-made pies and the like.
March 19th, 2010 at 1:53 am
Commercial shortening, like Crisco, is hydrogenated vegetable oil though.
I’d only use shortening or lard in pastry 1/2 and 1/2 with butter, where it makes the pastry crisper and ‘shorter’ and the butter gives the flavour.
For frying, I’d use oil and/or butter, but you don’t often see instructions to fry in lard or shortening.
Incidentally, I learnt the other day that lard is a less saturated fat than butter! I’d never have thought that. And shortening is just artificial and pretty grim nutritionally, so I try to avoid it.
March 19th, 2010 at 7:13 am
Oh yes, you are right.
Spring decoration is the right thing to after a long winter ;-))
btw, KaDeWe is an abbreviation for Kaufhaus des Westens = Department Store of the West (Berlin) and exists ONLY in Berlin. But it’s Karstadt/Arcandor, just much bigger. It was first established in 1907 and was supposed to be the window of West-Berlin during the Cold War.
March 19th, 2010 at 7:52 am
Thanks for the answers on shortening and KaDeWe, ladies! You are so speedy while I am off at school. Much appreciated!
I don’t cook with any sort of shortening in the US, so naturally I haven’t even tried looking for it here. My sister – a professional cake decorator – says that a lot of cake bakers will use vegetable shortening + powdered chemical “butter” flavorings in the US to make “butter cream frosting”. Yuck! Just a food for thought..
Katie
March 19th, 2010 at 10:41 am
I’m surprisingly not big on pastels, but I do love decorating with flowers and branches and moss – whatever little artifacts I can find outside. And the mantle always gets a springy makeover too!
March 19th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Beautiful photos! I love window shopping, too. And, yes, I do have a few touches of Spring & Easter around the house:)
March 19th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
My young family has a tradition that every spring we blow eggs to add to our collection. We paint them and I save them carefully from year to year, so that we’ve amassed about 40 of them now. I used to hang them inside from a tree branch, but one year one of my small children knocked the whole thing over and we lost a lot of eggs. Ouch. So now I display them in glass bowls around the house. My kids look forward to this every year.
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:14 pm
I don’t decorate for Easter but try to have whole spring some fresh flowers in my home…
March 24th, 2010 at 2:13 am
I’ve never decorated my home for spring, per say, but I do retire the heavy blankets and switch to a lighter color scheme with our duvets and things. Those butterflies would have made me pause too – gorgeous! And true, how disappointing that the glass like display was really plastic. Boo!