you unfold a little all along for someone to remind you we're all in this to god we wish you happy holidays merry christmas everyone of the very merry christmas season merry christmas and stacy happy holidays everyone happy holidays to you again soon everybody pays everyone is facing. a little bit of the good. news. it's impossible to overlook the holiday season is in full swing there are sparkling lights all over berlin but that's about the only thing that's just like years past

in the run up to christmas and times of covert 90. there are hardly any tourists and the grand goal of ours may be merry and bright but there are a few people around to enjoy them. plenty of christmas trees though like this one in front of the brandenburg gate. 'd the difference this year is especially apparent on john dominic one of the most beautiful squares in the city this place is usually hopping in december it's the site of a popular christmas market but due to the pandemic that was of course canceled this year. and spite of it all i'm on the hunt for a berlin's christmas spirit are people in

a festive mood at all where does the city shine brightest and with christmas markets cancelled where do i get my annual fix of gingerbread boy let's find out. we're going to pay a visit to $1.00 of berlin's most elegant hotels the adlon. will also make a stop at the a story of the homo morial church. and we'll catch up with globe trotters steve heinous and the portuguese capital lisbon. the. traditional christmas markets were called off even before the most recent shutdown was announced but individual booths like these were still per minute. that's how

did it how do you feel about christmas markets being canceled it's sad yeah really a shame this for. once i'm a big fan of christmas markets for now we'll have to make do with what we've got and hope things will be better next year for. what can be our 10 alternative set ups like this substitute for the real thing no of course not this is just a compromise it's better than nothing but it's nothing like a traditional christmas market so feel fresh it's really sad that we don't have the regular holiday markets this year and that i don't have to but under the circumstances to protect our health and safety i think it is absolutely acceptable . and so are you doing anything special to try and get into the spirit of things do you have any tips for us as marty as only the target of everything if we just moved into an apartment together. and we've decided to put up decorations and stuff like that out a little christmas cheer right now from florida. we need an advent calendar things

like that to get into the spirit on the 1st sunday of advent we had waffles coffee and cake just like always we're sticking to our usual traditions i used to give. the difference in many spots around town the striking it's so quiet box them up lots normally bustling with crowds it's almost deserted usually you'd find a colorful christmas market here too complete with ice skating rink and sled run. the major traditional christmas markets and might not take place this year but when it comes to the festive season people in germany can get quite inventive here's a look at some socially distanced alternatives to germany's time honored christmas

favorite. snow christmas lights will suggest not this may look like a typical christmas market but there's at least one major difference in the varying times of launching this year the traditional christmas market is a drive through. one. of a kind we just had to christmas is our favorite holiday and we want to make the most of it i might be right we are looking forward to christmas and want to get into the spirit of the season and we're hungry. whether they come for a traditional treat or to just soak up the atmosphere it's been a huge hit patrick smith had the idea to close in this restaurant due to culture restrictions. everyone is so happy we're doing this even when they have to work with no one seems to mind some actually like waiting to give them a chance to hang around and enjoy themselves 10 or 15 minutes longer finish the

meeting or get isn't going to. visitors can pick up traditional broad worse cotton candy and a lot of other traits without leaving the walk in safety of their own vehicles there's even more whining thermos flask on offer for those who want behind the we'll of course some travel quite a distance for the pleasure of a trip to the drive in market. have how we want to support this market and there's not much else around going to come for dinner and some old one well not all the holiday plans for me the driver were here to give our kids a. sense of christmas get them in the holiday spirit. their restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus have gravely affected the

tourism sector hotels are among the businesses hit the hardest at berlin's luxury hotel adlon there are more employees than guests these days but that didn't stop them from decking the halls. and these empty chairs there are usually people from all over the world enjoying afternoon tea. i have an appointment with hotel manager costs that. has already been sold beautiful he decorated but for home do you have any guests at the moment. do you have guests as many normally had this time of year it's one about 20 rooms are booked that's a 6 percent occupancy rate. would be nice to create christmas yet in this year for the guests and staff to spread a little very few guests how do you sustain a hotel this size during

a crisis financially. we're not even of course but a hotel or joy that's how it's. going to get through the so this would also cost a lot of money to operate even if you close temporarily but decided to make a statement of sorts to make it clear that the hotel is open to all guests that are still able to come and want to and to are regular customers business travelers for now that we are there for them and we will provide them our usual service and you came up with a very special thank you for the pandemic front line heroes tell me more than once it's been hard on us sure but many. take a moment to think about the people who are really making the difference in these difficult times it is clearly those working in our health care system people who work day and night to save other people's lives and nursed them back to health so we thought what can we do to shore appreciation and to give something back the answer was obvious as

a hotel we could offer them complementary stays so that's what we did i mean how was the response in norm overwhelming within 34 days of the 1000 overnights days you offered were all booked and the waiting list was started half of the states have already been redeemed more than half of our healthcare heroes have come to stay here in our hotel from by with that everything because to ensure they enjoyed themselves it's been incredible in this fight against one of the things like the pandemic in the restrictions that followed for tourism in berlin on hold but that's not entirely true in the midst of the 2nd lockdown the long awaited new for a lemon airport opened its doors to the world and you can also now visit the reconstructed berlin palace my colleagues look at stake i went and checked out. my 1st stop the so-called b.t.r.

berlin's major airport it has only been in operation since oct 31st. so touristic when speaking this is the very latest berlin has to offer. this is the terminal building and i've got to say it's neither beautiful nor ugly it's just an airport and it's not particularly big if you consider that the whole thing was designed for around 46000000 passengers a year. explained to me however as you can see it is a little use at the moment there are only a handful of travelers claim. the pandemic hit the airport hard in addition it was opened with an unbelievable 9 years dealing. with.

it. and on the runway hardly any movement. it's. as you can see there is hardly anything going on here so let's see if it's different in the city center. for people. and that's the new old palace the so-called home void for them to me it kind of looks like a film. set a little bit on a real. 3 facades of the palace where once prussian rulers resided or built in a historical start only one side is very modern. i like this story called facades better

but many people have a completely different opinion. so the reconstruction is controversial mainly because of the reproduction of the historical facade. i am permitted to enter the courtyard the head of the opening the once completely destroyed palace has been rebuilt since 2012 there are only a few scaffolding left who would who would for women or limb pellets what is it actually as a business is primarily a center for culture and science there are exhibitions will hold events and have a culture education program called the focus is on world cultures it's the whole level it's our questions were leading to democracy and the environment there's an exhibition on how berlin and the world are interconnected for another about the fascinating history of this site over the course of 700 years for different buildings including the humble form of these were located at this site of the 1st

dominican monastery in the whole solar palace in this east germany's parliament and now the humble foreign home which is now almost part of this history there what's the biggest attraction for tourists here what is there to see and to give me an idea come on as i don't know if there are you know the bronx larger courtyard reconstructed on 3 sides is a brand new part of berlin just waiting to be discovered then there's the north south passage way and the palace itself so that. allegedly the home board form will open soon and that's a glimmer of hope jury was locked out. until mid december stores in germany were still open for christmas shopping. always making sure to keep that distance between mask choppers and caddy probably berlin's most famous department store. it 1st opened its doors over 100 years ago.

on the 4th floor it's christmas the lower every kind of decoration imaginable everything you could wish for and more. it seems like business as usual to me but this is nothing compared to what they're used to according to store manager team of eva. i mean how noticeable is the absence of tourists in the store to meet them at. a very bare leaners those from the surrounding areas account for about 50 percent of the revenue the rest is generated by visitors from elsewhere in germany europe and

the rest of the world so we are noticing the difference at the moment we're flying the christmas flag so to speak for billionaires to come here and feel and enjoy a sense of normality. no money of normality but only to some degree only 3000 people are allowed in the store at a time how do you keep track digital monitors at the doors count people as they come and go that shows us how many are inside at any given time and our team also keep a close watch on things. you know right now barbara lynn are still coming here to ca davey or have you noticed a reluctance in people to spend time indoors string the pandemic once inside an opinion. no just i feel that their leaders are supporting us standing by us. we see plenty of evidence of that it is wonderful when 1st thing in the morning you see someone had 2 words the cheese counter for a little chat because they may spend most of their time at home and have very

little social interaction i don't hear the seals deficit cheerful have to do engage in conversation find out how they're doing that's what we're here for to be in contact to keep in touch talk to people and author of customers nice things to take home and i think it was an incident i think one of the biggest challenge for the store in the current situation is think of them i think there are many different kinds of challenges to list the 1st thing is respecting the regulations and yes the standards to safety is priority number one with a clean and i think we're doing very well at maintaining safety in this thing that we can tell that from the feedback we're getting and gets to be that from the authorities or i guess it's and then of course our goal is to build the store with the magic of christmas so that the visitors feel good when they're here relaxed and happy. setting off to discover foreign lands is not really an option for most people going to the coronavirus pandemic but our globe trotters steve painted just couldn't wait any longer and headed to portugal and the capital lisbon if you want

to know what people there are doing to get in the mood for christmas. welcome to portugal where i'm spending winter this year due to the pandemic today i am in lisbon in the run up to christmas with my local friend who actually met 8 years ago travelling through bolivia and now he's going to show me how the portuguese celebrating this time of the and that's why we are actually here in front of a church it's usually all the traditional portuguese christmas starts right fortunately still largely with very carefully country and so the traditional way to leave it is you should fostering today and then you meet with all your family and all the community inside the church for a special service called me. and then after the service you can go to your respective family house and they have a feast we do your own family's ok you go in and check it out let's go right.

christmas wouldn't be risking this without christmas pastries and why we have the talent in germany you have the balls i will bring super traditional christmas breads. that's usually maybe crystallise fruits on top so it's very colorful and he also has try treats and raisins. and it was invented right here at the factory in us you know right in the heart of this. our health let's finally try it so let's try that.

while. just you know my german christmas brought. me christmas you know. in germany we have christmas markets we have anything like this you. may not be in the same sounds but usually what happens is this whole downtown area where it's very much a shopping and curious question here every shop gets decorated and then you can see that it's all these special lights and the christmas tree so usually people just to have a waltz and then try to put some service. it's about a christmas dinner some might say the most important part about the whole christmas eve and we actually came to

a more traditional restaurant here in this venue to try something you would actually have for christmas dinner but not in the restaurant i would i would say read never in the restaurant you always have the christmas deanery with your own family but still this is it would be exactly what you have wild caught fish just some vegetables around chickpeas potatoes some cabbage sometimes. very down to earth and very typical and this was actually in the past some expensive cuts so families would really save up. so they could afford but i don't know for the christmas you know even so it's not christmas eve i would say let's enjoy it let's again. drunk this whole chris. this experience we have a tradition knows because friends can't switch or really could call this using a nonsense so that i felt the fish and all.

the unsuited. for many people around the world the christmas season is a time of contemplation and celebration of their faith. and friend of the kind of the home memorial church star shaped ornaments with personal wishes written on them remind us how quickly the ordinary can become something extraordinary and this person wishes they could spend christmas with their grandparents.

for many going to church isn't it revokable element of christmas but will services be possible in the midst of a pandemic. gamma has been the memorial church's pastor for 15 years as one of our none of us has ever experienced a christmas season quite like this one how is it been for you. fortunately we were allowed to worship together and that's what we wanted to on christmas eve a lot of it will be our only service is midday and it's on that night of something we have already been doing during the advent season on weekdays we hold mid-day prayer services there are fewer people and in tennis the usual are those who come on are really appreciative it means a lot to them and we think it will be the same on christmas eve the thing we've

done also is on the economy what service like in times of the coronavirus what can and what can't be done. does it was 1st of all we maintain want to have meter distance between chairs no one sit side by side as you're only good but that's the sort of quality of it's own you focus more on yourself and perceive those around you differently with the thought of we're not allowed to sing so instead we have the organ sing for us if you will the and then we can either sing along in our heads or i read the words aloud to the music order to fix this interesting this gives us a new sense of protection which can be very positive. and i think in the volume of the fix currently our services are short of the usual because we leave things out that would normally be part of the services but that in turn helps us focus more intently for those who were on board to come on our thought of what was quite

simply on this count among all this can you even get in the mood for christmas or is there something missing. it does pretty well i'm curious to see how things develop from my experience as a pastor i can see that true christmas spirit is when we really began to celebrate it before that we're busy organizing the preparing everything of and that's not the same as the christmas celebration itself i think we reach christmas eve and christmas day we will find ourselves in a festive mood. then hopefully we can leave the hustle and bustle and a few of our troubles behind and focus on what christmas is really about as i please his important to remember that some christmas and thank god became man born as a child in the manger works in a makeshift shelter cooper begun considering that things here are still pretty home on this it all began under the circumstances were well that's what's nice about it what does is this for an awful time providing already way back when happy holidays

thank you to. 'd one bright side plots right next to the church some scattered stalls are doing their best to spread a little christmas cheer. merry. and again i want mulled wine please. and at least some things haven't changed. after all that 20 twentieth's put us through i almost didn't believe it possible but my little stroll through berlin really didn't get me in the mood for christmas there's something comforting about all those shimmering lights although of course

the cheerful crowds are missing hopefully next year we can all get back to how things used to be happy holidays and be safe wherever you may be. well i'm going. to.

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good. of the morning. i cannot salute the prosciutto forward and zuma. in those bored smolder. who knows lol good schools. there's no use in the love of a good for the wicked. doesn't worry your workers either her girlhood. canceling. her current school. current school.

place blame. is due to the news live from but then closing down for a pandemic christmas governments across europe tighten lockdown restrictions i fear the gear and holidays could turn into covert 9 tain mass super spreader events also coming up germany marks a grim anniversary 4 years ago today a truck plowed through a christmas market in the capital but named well look at how the country reacted and the lessons learned to. play.