Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Must Visit Pergamon Museum formerly East Berlin.

Bodestra?e 3, 10178 Berlin

Opening times | Every day: 10am ? 6pm | Thu: 10am ? 8pm


The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Ishtar_Gate_at_Berlin_Museum.jpg/220px-Ishtar_Gate_at_Berlin_Museum.jpg


http://iihc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/toplight.jpg


In the Summer a visit to The Strandbad Wannsee.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/2012BerlinWannsee1.jpg/220px-2012BerlinWannsee1.jpg


Kreuzberg Turkish Quarter

http://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/kreuzberg-in-berlin.jpg?w=468


KaDeWe The Harrods of Berlin


http://www.berlin.de/orte/sehenswuerdigkeiten/kadewe/kadewe11_360_270.jpg



DulwichFox

I go to Berlin quite often. Easyjet from Gatwick is my preferred option, although their Southend service seems cheaper at the moment (50 mins from Liverpool St). The S-bahn service into central Berlin is cheap and easy. You can get a Berlin metro map as an app, which I find useful.


I stay with friends, so my hotel knowledge is sketchy, but I understand that Berlin is one of the cheapest cities to stay in. It is a medium sized city and easy to get around, so any central Hotel will be convenient.


Kurfurstendamm (Ku'damm) is good for eating and drinking, this leads into the Zoo area (where KaDeWe is) - good for shopping and the Zoo itself. The Zoo has a panda which seems to do little more than eat bamboo and excrete bamboo.


You can walk through the Tiergarten to the Brandenburg Gate and then up Unter den Linden to the Museum Island for the Pergamon Museum, Berliner Dom and Neues Museum (for ancient Egyptian stuff). The German History Museum is on Unter den Linden as is the SeaLife Centre, cafes and large souvenir shops.


From the Brandenburg Gate you can also go North to the Bundestag (ex-Reichstag) or South to Potsdamer Platz, the latter takes you past the Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitlers Bunker and the site of the Gestapo HQ - this is left as a patch of waste land with a photographic exhibition called The Topography of Terrors.


Potsdamer Platz brings you near to Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall museum and other such cold war relics. Potsdamer Platz itself reflects Berlin history, pre war it was very racy, flattened in the war, in no-mans land in the cold war and is now an ultra modern area of corporate HQs with the Sony Entertainment centre providing a cinema (most films in English) bars and restaurants.


To the west of Potsadmer Platz you can find two of the major art galleries - the Gemaldergalerie and the Neue Nationalgalerie, both excellent.


Otherwise, alternative Berlin has largely moved to Prenzlauer Berg and is good for bars, restaurants and cafes.


Charlottenberg has its Palace, there is a great flea market near Tiergaten station. The Jewish Museum is thought provoking, the Bauhaus Museum fascinating, as is the German Technical Museum - if you like planes, trains and automobiles.


Further afield the Berlin lakes can be accessed by S-Bahn and Potsdam is a nice place to wander around, have a coffee and slice of gateau.


Look out for the patched old buildings, especially the Bundestag, in the back streets they haven't bothered patching and the bullet holes remain as testament to the fighting in the last days of WW2.


Eating is good in Berlin. Italian food to the Berliners is Indian food to Londoners, universal. There are some good Chinese and Thai restaurants, although the central Berlin Indian restaurants have always disappointed. If you like spice go to Prenzlauer Berg, there are some great South American restaurants and cafes and the Meena Kumari Indian restaurant, which is pretty good.


Henne Restaurant only does roast chicken with a piece of brown bread, sauerkraut and potato salad. That's all, but it is the best roast chicken you will ever have. Its in the Kreuzberg area and is worth seeking out.


If you look at Berlin on Googlemaps you will see most of the above is all relatively close.

Nice review Mike P.


I haven't been to Berlin Since late 70's.


Was a bloody big wall there back then. :)


And David Bowie had a Studio there.

In late summer 1976 David Bowie & Iggy Pop started their work at legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin Kreuzberg district - directly at the Berlin Wall in the so called no man?s land


Not sure if they still do the Studio Tour but if you are a Bowie Fan.


http://www.musictours-berlin.com/bowie-tour


DulwichFox

Schonefeld is Easyjet's airport, the S-bahn station is 5 minutes walk away along a covered walkway (turn left as you leave the airport building), the S-bahn is cheap. Buy your tickets at machines in the platform access underpass, don't forget to stamp them in the machines on the platforms.


A day ticket for zones A, B and C costs E8.10 (Schonefeld is in zone C) on non flight days A and B are all that will be needed, a day card for these costs E6.90. The same machines sell single and day card tickets. They are multi-language, just press the flag of your choice. They give change too. There are aren't any ticket barriers only plain clothed ticket Inspectors who show no sympathy to the unwary tourist. So always stamp your card on the platform when you start to use your ticket.


A taxi will cost about 30 to 40 Euros into central Berlin.


BA fly into Tegel and Tempelhof has closed and is now a public park that is worth a visit.


If you want to see a Berliner cry, ask them about the Brandenburg airport debacle. Brandenburg airport has been built, it is on the other side of Schonefeld, as you will see.


It is still not open, there have been so many cock-ups.


The DDR Museum is on Unter den Linden and gives a great and well balanced insight into life in East Germany/ East Berlin. It wasn't all bad.


The "Ostalgia" movement was started as a reaction to the feeling that all of the East German traditions and institutions were bad. Their biggest victory was the pedestrian crossing lights. In West Germany the red and green men are like ours, in the East they had a brimmed hat. After quite a fight with bureaucracy all new pedestrian crossing lights have the men in hats.


Souvenir shops are full of T-shirts, mugs etc bearing the hat-wearing men.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • I think it has to be acknowledged that in some streets, rubbish is inadvertently tipped into the street after bin collection. That's what happens where I live. I can't blame the foxes unless they only visit on a Tuesday. No-one sweeps any of the fallen litter up. Neither do we get anyone sweeping the streets. I never like to blame front line workers as ususlly the problem lies furthet up the food chain. Trouble is this uncollected rubbish is a magnet for passers by to add to the mess by littering. Never mind potholes. My next vote goes to the Councillor who campaigns on a keep Southwark tidy ticket.
    • By ‘adopting’ you would still have to pay for the dog.  Do you have children?  Have you ever had a dog before?  Looked after anyone’s dog?  Work away from home?  Are there any breeds you are particularly interested in?    I would suggest going to Discover Dogs which is part of Crufts but that won’t be until next year now. That way you can meet many different breeds and their owners.  They used to have a standalone DD at the Excel Centre in November but I don’t think it exists anymore. You could also go to different dog shows to see different breeds. They are held throughout the year.  if you get certain breeds like a shitzu or poodle then you’d have to factor in grooming costs if you can’t do it yourself.  You can always keep them in a very short clip.  Many dogs shed a lot including short haired dogs like pugs.  Golden retrievers are also notorious for shedding.  I personally would never get a brachy dog like a pug, French bulldog or English bulldog ever.    If you get a well bred dog from a breeder and can meet the parents then you would get an idea of what the dog will turn out like.  Sometimes breeders have dogs returned to them for various reasons including illness of the owner.  You could look for such a dog.  It’s important that all dogs are socialised correctly during their first year as well as being exposed to outside influences. If this doesn’t take place then the dog has been done a disservice.  But, there’s no substitute to good breeding in my opinion or if you are getting an older dog perhaps you could foster first to get to know them.  You could end up with a dog who’d been badly treated in a previous home and that would take a lot of fixing.   If you are interested in sight hounds, @galgosdelsol are a rescue in Spain run by an English woman (they are on Instagram and have a website) who rehomes Galgos, Spanish dogs similar to greyhounds.  They are often dumped by Spanish hunters if they won’t hunt and retrieve.  They are thoroughly assessed and trained before being rehomed. A breeder of my favourite breed in York works with a Romanian rescue and she fosters a few dogs a year in order to rehome them in the UK.  She’s even kept a few herself.      
    • Agree.  They also send emails out saying when they’ve received it and on day of delivery say what time in a three hour gap to expect it.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...