Twenty eight years have made a huge difference in Berlin, not least in the Christmas markets - there are now many more around the city and masses of bright, colourful decorations.
When we first visited Berlin in December 1990 the Wall had been down only a year and the city was still quite grim in places.
One cheerful aspect, though was the Christmas Market near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
Christmas lights were strung around the roofs of little hut-style stalls selling colourful Christmas goods.
Near the church there road was lined with stalls selling lots of different types of traditional German Christmas food and drink.
When we returned in December 2018 the Christmas markets had expanded enormously and there were many in the city as well as in outlying districts.
We stayed at the Adlon Kempinski at the Brandenburg Gate, a truly wonderful hotel, beautifully decorated after recent renovations.
Breakfast at the hotel is fabulous - possibly the best hotel breakfast we've had anywhere! Impossible to list the huge range of foods on offer, as well as freshly prepared by the chefs.
The city has numerous Christmas markets, the Gendarmenmarkt being within walking distance of the hotel. We headed for it after checking in, taking in a late excellent currywurst lunch and beer at the Augustiner. At either end of the square stand the German and French cathedrals.
A choir was signing traditional German Christmas songs - very atmospheric.
The Christmas market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is now much bigger with a much greater variety of offerings and illuminated decorations.
Alexanderplatz is home to a large Christmas Market, though we did find that here the vast majority of stalls were selling food of some description.
In the west of the city there is a very nice Christmas Market at Charlottenburg Palace. Andrew had an extremely good Grand Marnier crêpe here.
