julie travelcaster
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Here are a bunch of things to do.
Start off by visiting the two biggest areas. If you are in the West, that would be the Kurfurstendamm area, starting near the Bahnhof Zoo and the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche. There are a number of other sights to see in the west, including the Käthe Kollwitz museum, Schloss Charlottenburg, but a lot of the west is very commercial. I am extremely fond of the former East.
Between East and West, there is a bus, Bus 100/200 which takes you past a whole lot of sights, through the center of the Tiergarten, and past the Reichstag, and Brandenburger Tor, and up the main street of the east, Unter den Linden. It will go all the way to the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) in the east (it goes back, too, so you can do all this backwards - but a couple of travel guides, most notably Rick Steves' has a description of the trip that tells you all the sights along it. But I'll do so, too.
From the top of the TV tower, the tallest building in Europe I think, you can see a lot of berlin, all the way down to the Reichstag, past the Tiergarten, it's pretty immense. Enjoy
Spend a day walking down Unter den Linden, seeing the sights you care about. Here's a listing from Reichstag to Alexanderplatz and the Fernsehturm.
Starting at the Reichstag, there is a long line to get in, usually, but you can climb the dome. Keep in mind this is open late at night, so either do it on a weekday evening or first thing in the morning to avoid the worst lines. In addition to the fabulous history of the place (the fire here put Hitler in power in the 1930's, and it was part of the whole reunificationthin in the 1980's, and it is where the German Legislature meets today) there is the dome, which is a great deal of fun to see, climb and enjoy.
Next of course, a block south, is the Brandenburg gate, an old (late 18th century) symbol of Peace. It was rather co-opted by the world as a symbol of the division of Germany between the erection of the wall and the fall of same. It has in the base a chapel devoted to prayer for peace. If you have any spiritual sensibilities at all (it is non-denominational) then the Room of Silence, as it is called, is a great place to be.
At this point you cross Parisier Platz to find yourself at Unter den Linden, a broad avenue with the Linden trees on either side. I like a stop at Friedrichstrasse, where I would head north a lock and a half, past the train station, to the old building just beyond, the Trainenpalast, or palace of tears. This was the border crossing on the S-Bahn in the divided Germany days, where families who were divided across the border would separate, often forever, across the border. It's now a nightclub.
Heading on down Unter den Linden, you pass Museumsinsel on the left and the Cathedral. The Cathedral is interesting if you like churches, but not the most remarkable. The Museumsinsel, though has a huge number of fantastic museums, including the Pergamon museum, which has an amazing number of antiquities, including the Pergamon altar, and the Ishtar Gate. There are probably a half dozen museums, and they trace the art and culture of the western world from antiquity to the present. You could spend days there!
On the right side are cultural institutions including the Berliner Oper, the Komische Oper and others. I didn't see as much of that.
After you cross here, you're not officially on Unter den Linden, but you can continue on to Alexanderplatz. There, check out the fountain, the Mariankirche, definitely worth visiing, the Rotes Rashaus, the World clock and we've already talked about the Fernsehturm and the Nicholaiviertel.
Other stuff - visit Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall Museum. the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and the 1 KM portion of the wll left intact near Ostbahnhof.
Visit the Jewish Museum, built by Liebeskind, and the Holocaust museum. The nearby Sachsenhausen can be reached by taking the S-bahn to Oranienburg. Once there it is a bit of a walk to Sachsenhausen, but worth it. The Topographie des Terrors exhibit is open air on the grounds of the former Gestapo headquarters. Hitler's bunker was not far away.
Visit Potsdammer Platz for the commercial center of present-day Berlin. Nearby some of the state museums of the former West Germany are worth visiting, if not quite as impressive as the ones on Museumsinsel.
Go on the S-Bahn all the way the opposite direction from Oranientburg to Potsdam, and see the finest of Baroque, 18th Century imperial Germany.
And for goodness sake, sit down in a cafe, visit a nightclub in one of the neighborhoods, whatever, see the people's Berlin.
I think I've given you a few ideas, and I have to go! |
fliege52000
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Why are you not buying some little traveling book about Berlin and read and mark the interesting places and let's go.... Berlin is so nice and you can do so much nice things there and see so many different places. It is very interesting big nice city. I was there 4 times and I can't get enough.
There is everything: Art, History, Museums, cafes, shopping, boat riding, bike riding, walking, parks, Zoo, restaurants, clubs, pubs....... Have fun!!! |
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