You should probably give more specific descriptions of the expected conditions than “cold”. Answers will differ if you mean high-desert conditions (-20C, windy but dry), cold-ish city conditions (just below 0C, frozen rain or snow), moderate (generally a bit above 0C, often rainy), or something else (Southern California gets down to 10C and cloudy).
In a lot of places, you should be thinking semi-outside, rather than full open-air. Pavillions or large covered spaces such as outdoor seating for restaurants will keep the worst of the wind and precipitation out, and many of them have heating elements.
I don’t care about high-desert conditions as Berlin won’t hit them. I care about making meetups work in the other contexts and I’m happy about any suggestions for that even if the don’t work for all cases.
Cool (but not cold ;) ). I’ve only been to Berlin in the summer, but from travel guides, it seems basically temperate and not overly-damp—there will be occasional snowfall, but no significant accumulation, and many days will have no cold rain to deal with.
Standard advice for clothing in variable conditions applies: look to layers, so you can adjust over time, and add/remove pieces when you go indoors or if the sun is out and it’s 5-10C warmer or cooler than you expected. A sweater/jumper over your shirt gives you flexibility here. I have a fleece undercoat with a waterproof shell that’s great in really cold conditions, and fine as just a shell when it’s warm (+5C) and rainy.
For meetups, you’ll still want to find covered areas—even if no rain is in the forecast, less moving air makes a noticeable difference in comfort. I suspect there’s no way to make it pleasant and effective enough to be worthwhile before you can do it in an enclosed (but not crowded) space, but I really look forward to hearing how it goes.
You should probably give more specific descriptions of the expected conditions than “cold”. Answers will differ if you mean high-desert conditions (-20C, windy but dry), cold-ish city conditions (just below 0C, frozen rain or snow), moderate (generally a bit above 0C, often rainy), or something else (Southern California gets down to 10C and cloudy).
In a lot of places, you should be thinking semi-outside, rather than full open-air. Pavillions or large covered spaces such as outdoor seating for restaurants will keep the worst of the wind and precipitation out, and many of them have heating elements.
I don’t care about high-desert conditions as Berlin won’t hit them. I care about making meetups work in the other contexts and I’m happy about any suggestions for that even if the don’t work for all cases.
Cool (but not cold ;) ). I’ve only been to Berlin in the summer, but from travel guides, it seems basically temperate and not overly-damp—there will be occasional snowfall, but no significant accumulation, and many days will have no cold rain to deal with.
Standard advice for clothing in variable conditions applies: look to layers, so you can adjust over time, and add/remove pieces when you go indoors or if the sun is out and it’s 5-10C warmer or cooler than you expected. A sweater/jumper over your shirt gives you flexibility here. I have a fleece undercoat with a waterproof shell that’s great in really cold conditions, and fine as just a shell when it’s warm (+5C) and rainy.
For meetups, you’ll still want to find covered areas—even if no rain is in the forecast, less moving air makes a noticeable difference in comfort. I suspect there’s no way to make it pleasant and effective enough to be worthwhile before you can do it in an enclosed (but not crowded) space, but I really look forward to hearing how it goes.