This was my first visit to Germany; I had never been before and so this was a country at the top of the list for my first extended European break. Where best to start than the capital, Berlin? I flew into Berlin from Croatia, and later that afternoon met two of my friends who flew out to join me for this part of the trip. It was nearing the end of August; the weather was still very warm but after coming up from Croatia (where the heat was a little too much) felt a little cooler. However, during the 4 days, the weather cooled each day and by the end started to feel autumnal.
Summer 2018 
4 DaysAlexandra Platz is fairly central in Berlin and houses one of the major train/metro stations. The main attraction here is the TV Tower, but if you are staying in the area you’ll find many bars and restaurants around and nearby. Alexandra Platz is also home to the Park Inn (Radisson Blu) Hotel, which is the second tallest building in Berlin after the TV Tower. You can go up to the top for around 4 Euros and get views over Berlin, the only view at height with the TV tower in view. We went up late afternoon and it was a great view, sat on the deckchairs for a while with a drink and got the best pictures of the skyline with the TV tower in view.
A few months prior to arriving in Berlin, I had been in Manchester with one of the same friends joining me in Berlin. At the time, in Manchester, they had the ‘Bee’ trail and we really enjoyed going on the hunt for them. So as soon as I found out there were bears in Berlin, we were ready to do the hunt! Buddy Bears started with an artistic event in Berlin in 2001. Inspired by the idea of bringing art in the streets of a city like the cow parade in Zurich or the Larkin Toads in Hull!
They were originally part of an event promoting people around the globe living together in peace and harmony. I've not been able to find out the exact number of bears, their website states there are 140, but looking at the maps on their website showing where they all are, there looks to be triple that amount (both in Berlin and around the world).
Whenever I visit a city I always look for the highest view point, I love heights, I love views and adore sunsets. So this was a no-brainer. TV Tower at sunset, and despite berlin being relatively flat the views didn’t disappoint. We pre-booked a window table in the upstairs restaurant and had an amazing meal. The restaurant revolves, I think it did a full 180 once every 40 mins or so.
We booked on a 4 hour history walking tour of Berlin on our first morning and despite the 28 degrees heat, it was well worth it.
It was a small group, and the tour guide was English, not only that she was born in the same little town as me, Grimsby! The tour was around 4 hours, so quite lengthy even though we stopped for lunch and drinks along the way. But it enabled us to cover a lot of ground that we wouldn’t have done otherwise and saw all the historic sights in one go with detailed explanations.
We started off on ‘Museum Island’ which is an area where a lot of the city’s museums are located. We walked past Angela Merkle’s Flat, visited the place of Hitler’s Suicide, Brandenburg Gate, Parts of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Reichstag Dome.
A very impressive building situated on Berlins “Museum Island”. I saw this whilst on the walking tour of Berlin, although didn’t go inside. However, you can go inside for a small fee, and you can go up and climb up to the dome roof and get some amazing views over Berlin.
You’ll see this on most guided walking tours in Berlin being one of the major landmarks of the city, it's an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after the temporary restoration of order during the Batavian Revolution. Great photo opportunity and I wish we had got to see this lit up in the evening.
This is a very touristy area, the Checkpoint Charlie that you see isn’t the original, even all the signs around the area are recreations for show. However it’s the only place you’ll get a sense of what Checkpoint Charlie was like.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews consists of a 19,000-square-metre (200,000 sq ft) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. Building began on April 1, 2003, and was finished on December 15, 2004. It was opened in May 10, 2005, sixty years after the end of World War II, and opened to the public two days later.
There is much speculation around what the concrete slabs represent, but the designer has never stated his interpretation, leaving it for each individual to decide for themselves. My personal take is that the individual slabs represent coffins of the dead, but maybe that too simplistic?
There are various parts of the Berlin Wall across the city, and even where it has been completely knocked down, there is a brick outline on the paths and road marking where it was. However, the East Side Gallery is the longest stretch of the remaining wall, around a mile long. We didn't walk the full length, as we had already done so much walking that day, but saw a bit of it, and loved the artwork that is now on the walls.
I returned to Berlin for a short visit 5 years later, and walked the full length of the wall, and the pictures I got were spectacular. Such amazing artwork on such an historic monument.
Luckily a good friend of mine visited Berlin a couple of months before we did, and she advised me that you need to pre-book to go up the Reichtag dome via their website. Useful to know! Apart from being like a greenhouse in there, thank god there wasn’t stairs to climb, its just a gradual slope, the views were pretty good. But the best thing about the dome is just the architecture and the uniqueness of the building, plus the fact its free. Don’t pay for guided tours, register for free on the website and when you go in you get a free audio guide.
Think a smaller version of London’s 02! Covered area housing mainly restaurants and bars. Located not far from the Reichstag Building. This was a nice end to the day as we sat in one of the restaurants and had tea and drinks whilst the day turned into night, we saw the Sony Centre light up with its impressive light display.
So this was definitely one of the highlights of our Berlin visit. This 4 hour tour was billed as an alternative tour (and having done the walking history tour the day before, this seemed like a good option for our 2nd full day). With the Berlin Wall and the relaxed laws on graffiti, Berlin is renowned for its street art. The first part of the tour was looking at street art, but the main attraction was the second half where we got to create some art ourselves in one of the artists workshops. If you go with friends, it can get quite competitive with your street art creations. But my dog won!!! (in-joke, sorry).
This food tour was recommended to us by some Australian guys my friends got talking to. They told us to go on an empty stomach, and I am glad we did. Unlike other food tours I’ve been on where you only get small samples, this was the real deal! A 4 hour tour (between 10am and 2pm), we visited cafes, coffee houses, street food stalls and sampled around 10 different types of German cuisine and drinks. Bastian our tour guide spoke fluent English and made our small group (of around 8 people) feel welcome.
We did the history walking tour, a street art tour and a food tour, as well as some of the obvious things like going up the TV tower, looking at the artwork on the remaining part of the Berlin Wall and looking for the bears. I do think we got absolutely the most from our stay and had such a laugh at the same time. Although I would definitely come back, I’m not sure there are many other experiences to have other than the many museums.
Berlin is a very pleasant city to walk around, lots of open spaces and the streets are very wide (unlike many other European cities). I didn’t find their underground metro system as easy to use though, certainly not as easy as London or Paris. Some of the metros only go so far along a single line before returning (something which my app didn’t seem to understand)!
Nearly 5 years later, I did return for a weekend break, this time with my mum to celebrate her 75th birthday. My mum hadn’t been for many years, since the Berlin wall was up! So she mainly wanted to see the things that I had seen on the first trip, most of which (the sights at least) we did on the first day via a bus tour. As I expected there wasn’t very much more to do, other than what we had jam packed into the 4 days I spent the first time around with friends. However, there were 2 notable mentions.
Potsdamer Platz, which is a fairly new public square close to Brandenburg Gate and the Tiergarten. Amongst the high-rises circling the new square is a new shopping centre and the “Panoramapunkt” which is a viewing platform, over 100m tall boasting Europe’s fastest elevator which reaches the top in just 20 seconds! The view was amazing, if a little bleak being in March.
The Berlin Story Bunker, an actual World War 2 bunker which houses the story of Hitler, his youth and rise to political fame. For anyone who doesn’t fully understand the events of WW2 and wants to get a better understanding, this is the best place to come. You could easily spend a good 3 hours here. It’s mostly storyboards spread over 50 rooms, with some small displays, one of which is a recreation of the room where Hitler committed suicide. The bunker is located just a 5 minute walk from Potsdamer Platz.
