We arrived at Berlin main train station just after 1 PM and I was surprised how huge the glass structure seemed to be. You can check out my Frankfurt to Berlin post here . We came to the hotel at about 3 PM . The location of our hotel was great – located in the Mitte area, only few blocks away from the Alexander Platz and right next to a U-bahn station (the subway) so only few subway stops away from all the main tourist attractions.
Berlin is a big city and it is of course great to walk around the entire city looking at famous monuments, museums, gardens, etc. But eventually you’ll get worn out from all the walking and then you need a good and fast way to get around. It seems like the public transportation is quite excellent in Berlin. The U-Bahn covers most of the city with frequent stops around town.
We were in Berlin just for the weekend, so the typical touristy stuff we covered are the main historical sights in Mitte (the old centre of town in former East Berlin covering the area between Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz ), Brandenburg Gate, the street of Unter den Linden, the Reichstag, Berlin Wall, Holocaust Memorial, Museum Island, Checkpoint Charlie and enough time to walk around the Potsdamer Platz, Tiergarten and former West Berlin.
We took a walk along Unter den Linden towards the Brandenburg gate (Brandenburger Tor). Brandenburg gate is one most recognized places of Germany, hence lots of tourist here. Still an impressive site.
Alexanderplatz is not a particularly nice area of Berlin, has a large shopping area. Kind of grim, concretey and unattractive. The TV tower- Fernsehturm is imposing.
Reichstag, or the German parliament is an impressive building with beautiful views. We couldn't go up the wonderful glass dome, apparently you have to book in advance to go up in the dome. The line outside was close to the longest line that I have ever seen. So we settled for the view of the building
Checkpoint Charlie is located on Friedrichstrasse which is full of shops,cafes and restaurants with lot of people and nice atmosphere. At Checkpoint Charlie today you can find a replica of the sign and watch booth that was once there but there is not that much else to remind you of the history that the place holds. It is very tourist centered with funny costumed "soldiers" to take pictures with, but this is it.
Museum Island is a small island that contains the Berliner Dom, Pergamonmuseum and a few other museums and hence the name museuminsel (museum island). The Berliner Dom church was partially destroyed during World War 2 but it has been restored in a "simplified" form. The church looked really impressive on the outside, but we decided not to check out the inside
The Paragmonmuseum is not as extensive as museums like Louvre and the Vatican museum, so I wasn't expecting to spend too many hours inside, however the entrance had a long line, something like 45-60 minutes to get in, so decided to skip it.
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| Berliner Dom |
Potsdamer Platz
Berlin is a huge city and well worth a visit. Lots of great restaurants to check out and lots of attractions to visit. We were not able to cover all the places that we wanted to. So the next time I go there I would like more time so I can visit some of the places that I missed.
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