What to do in Berlin? - Updated with pics from trip

[Z-man]

Heading to Berlin this month on business.

I've got essentially 2 half-days to do some sightseeing. I'd like to visit the site of the Berlin wall, and perhaps some Museums / historical sites.

Suggestions?

[ODDJOB UNO]

yeah read "hidden in plain sight". trust me on this i know the author.

gutentag.

[widgeon13]

Reichstag for starters.

[Rick Lee]

Lots to do in Berlin, but pretty hard to get a feel for what it used to be like in the days of the Wall. The best (and most visited) museum in Berlin is the Checkpoint Charlie Museum on Kochstr., just in front of the old border crossing. Budget two hrs. for it and read everything there. Fascinating stuff.

Obviously, the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate must be seen and are hard to miss. They're a few hundred meters from each other. From there I'd make the long walk down Unter den Linden into the old East Berlin to Alexanderplatz. I haven't been to Alex in a while, but it was the crown jewel of the DDR and still has a bit of the vibe. There's a restaurant in the revolving tower there. Plenty of cool buildings and outdoor cafes to check out along the route.

Be sure to go to the Stasti Archive Museum and the Gestapo one too. Nothing left to see of Hitler's bunker and I don't think it's marked.

The local beer speciality is Berliner Weisse mit Schuss, which is a very dry beer with a shot of green or red syrup. The most famous place to get it is Cafe Kranzler on the KuDam. If you don't like it, Berliner Pilsener is pretty good and Radeberger is pretty common there, which is great.

If you drive to Berlin from western Germany, be sure to seek out one of the Grenzland Museums near the old inner-German border. They are fascinating, but can be tricky to find aside from the brown signs on the hwy.

And Potsdam is a gold mine. The Potsdam Conference was held in Cecilienhof, which is a must see. And there's Sansouci, Frederick the Great's old palace nearby. Charlottenburg is another cool palace in western Berlin.

I'm sure I'm leaving a ton of stuff out. It's a very big city and, even in the old days, you could spend a week in W. Berlin and never see the Wall.

[craigster59]

If you're looking for good food there's this blog: Berlin on a Platter

[slodave]

If you are into art, there is a nice art district and lots of modern architecture.

[kevin993]

You've already got some good suggestions.

If you're into museums, museum island is the place to be - Pergamon, Neues and others. Do some advance planning for tickets. We waited in line for a ridiculous amount of time to get that sorted out. Nearby is the Berliner Dom - get up onto the roof for a good view. Get into the basement for a crypt tour.

If you're a foodie or a shopper, KaDeWe is a well known store. Find the food bar/counter with rosti and Kostrizter Schwarzbier - yum!

Memorial - mother with her dead son sculpture in the Neue Wache on Unter den Linden. Easy to stop in as you walk by. Near museum island. The walk from the Brandenburg Gate down Unter den Linden is worth the time by itself.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - within walking distance from Checkpoint Charlie and Brandenburg Gate. Was more moving in person than it looked from pictures. Of course, we also went first thing in the morning, so we were the only ones there. Hilter's bunker location is pretty close and is marked with a sign. It is a parking lot, so nothing to see.

Brandenburg Gate - obviously. However, go very early or late to get the place to yourself. Very different vibe with tourists buzzing around.

East Side Gallery - need a train ride to get there, but a famous part of the wall that has been retained and painted by artists.

There are lots of other things to see, places to go, etc. Presuming you're looking for the high points from a tourist perspective and want to stay in the city.

[Rick Lee]

Ah yes, East Side Gallery is pretty cool. I was there right after they decided to keep that section and invited a bunch of artists to paint it up.

Z-man, if you haven't seen The Lives of Others, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a Stasi thriller that is super well done and really gives you the vibe of what the DDR was like in the early 80's. Also Goodbye Lenin is a great film, an absolute classic that every German has seen. Both will make Berlin more enjoyable as you see how different it is now.

One thing that really bothers me about Berlin, however, is the rampant graffiti. It's everywhere and it really hurts the city's vibe. There are so many amazing neighborhoods and old apt. bldgs. in Berlin and the vandalism on them is such a shame.

[Rick Lee]

This is how it looked back in the day.



This was an E. German border patrol boat right behind the Reichstag.


The tv tower in the background is Alexanderplatz. It looked and felt so sinister back them. It was a world so near, yet so far away.

I was standing on a rail behind the Reichstag when I took this one of two E. German border guards. I wonder what they were thinking.

[kevin993]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

One thing that really bothers me about Berlin, however, is the rampant graffiti. It's everywhere and it really hurts the city's vibe. There are so many amazing neighborhoods and old apt. bldgs. in Berlin and the vandalism on them is such a shame.

Agree 100%. There is a lot of discontent in Berlin. A lot of youth who are unemployed or underemployed and many have a fondness for the comfort and stability of how it used to be. Berlin has an interesting relationship with the rest of Germany. There is a lot of resentmentin other parts of Germany about the sponge that pulls money from the rest of the country to Berlin and a lot of resentment in Berlin of the rest of the world that invests money in Berlin with nefarious intent or bypasses Berlin with nefarious intent. There are lots of pockets of good vibes in Berlin, but also plenty of tension. I'm afraid that the days of turmoil in Berlin are not yet done...

Great pics Rick. Love to see the older pics. Please post those anytime. Must have been an amazing time.

[Esel Mann]

Run the marathon there! I did so back in 2009. Great way to see the city. You even get to run through the Brandenberg tor (as well as run past the Berlin Hooters to name just a couple of landmarks)!!

Gendarme market is very nice. Who would have thought that the French and Germans got along all those years! There is even a cool chocolate shop there where they make all sorts of **** out of chocolate. Can't remember the name though. Perhaps too much beer after the marathon. TV tower is pretty cool too but I didn't get a chance to tour it (did the Furhnstern (sp). in Stuttgart through). The double decker bus tour is not bad for touring to get your sense of bearings. Oh and you didn't hear it from me but if you get lucky you will run into naked chicks in public in broad daylight. Just act like the locals though and pretend it's normal.

What a wonderful city! Country too! Be sure to try the local Berlin delicacy curry-wurst. Beer, well, it's still Germany after all! Different than say Bavarian beers but wonderful still the same. The marathon took us all through the city. Not a single area I didn't like. English garden is as you would expect and absolutely wonderful. People there very friendly and very helpful.

Watch out for Rick Lee's suggestions though. He's a secret double agent who's directive is to get you over there and once there you will love the place and not want to come back. Having to return to reality however you will cry like a baby upon leaving.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Esel Mann

Run the marathon there! I did so back in 2009. Great way to see the city. You even get to run through the Brandenberg tor (as well as run past the Berlin Hooters to name just a couple of landmarks)!!

I did that in 1999.



My running partner's mom worked for UAL, so we flew for free. The friend we were going to stay with in Berlin was in New York and missed her flight back to Berlin. When she no-showed, I called her folks who lived four hrs. away and they told me we were on our own. We had partied hard the previous night in Cologne and then driven to Berlin. By then the roads were closing and the hotels were full. We parked in a residential area near the starting line, slept in the car and then ran 42 km in the pouring rain. Of course, we had nowhere to shower afterwards, so we just drove to my friends in Halle, who insisted in getting us drunk as soon as we arrived. To this day I have never slept better than I did that night.

[Esel Mann]

+2 on the picks Rick! More please if you got'em.

Naturally the landscape was much different in 2009 when I was there albeit briefly for several days. It is amazing to see pictures of a place in which life was totally different.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Esel Mann

Watch out for Rick Lee's suggestions though. He's a secret double agent who's directive is to get you over there and once there you will love the place and not want to come back. Having to return to reality however you will cry like a baby upon leaving.

Berlin has an amazing vibe and there's just no denying that. You really do feel that the place is different and there's a weird attraction. I've never stayed there for more than 3-4 days at a time, but have done that about 10x over the years. A buddy and I hitchiked there from Trier and some friends gave us their flat in Schoeneweide while they were on vacation. We stayed a few days, really only hung out in the really dingy E. Berlin parts and then took the train to Frankfurt Oder, where we walked across the bridge into Poland and hitchiked around some more. Such an adventure. I sort of toy with finding a way to live there for a few years, but my wife wouldn't like it because she can't handle the language.

[Rick Lee]

This is what the Brandenburg Gate looks like now. Even the gypsy panhandlers beg in English for the softy Americans. Mrs. Lee just laughs at them, since they have all their limbs and beggars in China are far more pitiful and often maimed ala Slumdog Millionaire.

[Rick Lee]

Took this in W. Berlin in 1988. I don't think they had fake ones yet.



And this is what the common folks in E. Germany drove, usually after a 13 yr. wait.



I swear, back then it was always grey and drab in E. Germany. I remember being there on some sunny days, but must not have taken any photos on those days.

[motion]

Geez Rick, you are really making us all look bad

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

One thing that really bothers me about Berlin, however, is the rampant graffiti. It's everywhere and it really hurts the city's vibe. There are so many amazing neighborhoods and old apt. bldgs. in Berlin and the vandalism on them is such a shame.

One other major thing is that Berlin is the worst big city I have ever seen for having dog crap on the sidewalks. Its almost everywhere, so at night really look down where you are walking or you will bring a "present" home with you.

Where are you staying? If at all possible stay inside the city. We stay at the Marriott at Brandenburger Plaza, otherwise at the Courtyard in the old East Berlin. Do not stay outside the city in the old East on the outskirts. The hotels near "****tyfield airport" are ok but you are in the middle of no-where.

If you have a rental car, get a GPS with a "Europe chip" on it. Berlin is a beyotch with traffic and even worse parking. The U-bahn (underground trains) is an excellent way to get around. Also if you have had even only one drink, DO NOT drive as they are rabid on DWI.

If you want a good tour, take the water based tour around in the canals.

Love the town, lived there for 11 years while flying medivac out of Tempelhof Air Base. Some of the best days of my life...

[slodave]

Since Rick was remembering the past:














These last two were taken by somebody we met at the Wall.

[Joeaksa]

Dave,

We went to the wall a couple of weeks after it fell in a secluded area and with the help of a US Army bulldozer, got a complete section of the wall. Boy the VoPo's were pissed when they saw us backing up with it but by that time were well back within W.German terrority and they could not chase us!

Am out flying right now so no pics with me but still have some of it around the house somewhere...

Those sure were some fun days!

Joe A