Winter in Berlin can be very grey and dark and wet and cold and – not so nice. And then again you learn to appreciate a sunny morning with blue skies even more. On these rather rare days Instagram is almost boiling over with photos of sunny streets and blue skies and even though the temperature may still be below zero, people are already gathering on the terraces to have a coffee in the sun.

The photo was taken around 9 o’clock in the morning on one of these cold but sunny days. The streets of Prenzlauer Berg are still rather empty, just a few cyclists, probably on their way their way to work – and a tram / streetcar coming down Schönhauser Allee towards Kastanienallee. Behind that you can see the iconic overpass of the U-Bahn line U2 and the subway station Eberswalder Strasse which is a rather busy spot – but not so much during the early morning hours.