Currently in Berlin and a bit underwhelmed,pleasemt city bit seems s bit underwhelmimg… so what to see been to
Museum island ..pergomman …disappoiting
Check point Charlie interesting
East west gallery .. The wall
Reichstag and bunderstag….only outside no ticketkarl Marx alle russian architecture
Brandenburg gate

So please what
Museums
Art galleries
Somewhere avant garde

Cheers

The holocaust memorial is rather cool (as in what it looks like).

Kit kat club 😉

Tempelhofer Feld is ace, hire a bike and ride around an old airport on the edge of town.

Prater Garten is a good beer and sausage place.

I found the same as you, it’s surprsing how underwhelming Berlin is at first. But cycling around it, I found it really grew on me.

I liked it. People were friendly, beer was good, I never had a bad meal. generally a nice, relaxing vibe to the place.

Try the Bauhaus Archiv and, if you can, book a meal at the Kaefer Restaurant atop the Reichstag. You get to go in via your own entrance, but come out through the normal one… So you can have a look around. The food is pretty damned good too.

We’re going next week and have the following list from the locals:

Have either breakfast or lunch on top of the TV tower (dinner is expensive and not that good, he said). We probably want to book if we want to do this. I’m pretty sure it’s this one here: http://www.tv-tu
Go up to the dome (Kuppel) of the parliament (Reichstag). We should book if we want to do this: http://www.bundestag.de/kulturundgeschichte/architektur/reichstag/ and http://www.bundestag.de/kulturundgeschichte/architektur/reichstag/kuppel/kuppel/199186
Stasi-Zentrale (former headquarters of the Stasi). stasi-museum.de
You can see the site where Hitler’s bunker used to be (there is now a Chinese restaurant instead), it’s below Voss-Straße
Holocaust memorial – http://www.berlin.de/museum/3128015-2926344-denkmal-fuer-die-ermordeten-juden-europa.html
Topography of Terror Documentation Center (Neukirchener Straße 8/Potsdamer Platz) – http://www.topographie.de/en/Hackescher Markt / Hackesche Höfe – “creative”/artistic part of Berlin, pretty architecture – http://www.hackeschermarktberlin.de/ and http://www.hackeschermarktberlin.de/hackescher-hof/
Lafayette food market (good for lunch) Friedrichstraße – maybe a bit like Harrods, I think – http://www.galerieslafayette.de/tag/restaurant/, there is a mediterranean restaurant in the basement called oh-angie.de (named after Angela Merkel)
Saturday morning: food market on Winterfeldplatz (U-Bahn Neuendorfplatz), Winterfeld-Schokoladen is a chocolate shop which Elaine will probably like a lot!
Verein Berliner Unterwelten offers tours underground (bunkers, etc.) http://berliner-unterwelten.de/
Berlin Wall memorial where you can still see a 1.4km stretch of the wall (Bernauer Straße): http://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/de/
Eiffel Berlin (on Kudamm) is a good Mediterranean restaurant (need to book)
Bikini Berlin, a new concept mall with stuff from Berlin – https://www.bikiniberlin.de/
Good Friends is a good Chinese restaurant, on Kantstraße (need to book)
Go on the 100 bus – it takes you past all the famous Berlin sights
Checkpoint Charlie museum – https://www.berlin.de/orte/sehenswuerdigkeiten/checkpoint-charlie/
Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden, Alexanderplatz, Berlin Cathedral, French Cathedral, Cathedral on Kudamm, Kudamm, Statue of Victory (Siegessäule), KaDeWe (a bit like Harrods)
Good Italian restaurant: Bocca di bacco on Friedrichstraße

Avant garde….. hmmmm……. Berghain

😯

Berlin seems to polarise people. Some love it (me), while some find it (as you say) underwhelming.

I am becoming increasingly convinced that Berlin is a state of mind. It is pretty much one of my favourite cities in the world.

For all that, I have no specific suggestions other than to wander and get immersed in the local life.

And perhaps the crypt under the Berliner Dom where the Hohenzollerns are all buried.

We thought the TV tower was brilliant – pick a clear day.

Berlin is far more appealing than the soul less Paris, enjoying it but it expected more about suppose…thanks for all the lists been do checkpoint c… I enjoyed it

Thanks, I’m there Sunday – Thursday too…

Proper stw love in !

Go on a walking/bike/segway tour. Just a bit of back story worked wonders. Apart from everything mentioned pop into the radisson blue and have a look at the mahoosive fish tank. We had a few drinks in the Jewish quarter, there’s a big artists squat in an old department store, you can get a beer and have a wander around.

And if you are there with your partner rather than the lads then the Clarchens ballroom for something to eat is pretty cool.

I always thought that tourist tours were a bit naff and always liked to find my own way, but then I did one of these in Berlin…

http://www.brewersberlintours.com/

Saw and learnt lots of things about Berlin that aren’t in guide books. Think we did the Best of Berlin tour. They also do a Craft Beer tour.

Agreed with the TV tower. We also wandered around the Olympic Stadium with one of the audio tours – which was really interesting.

One of my favourite cities.

+1 to Bernauer Straße. There are some good before and after posters on the walls to go with the massive murals.

Technology museum looks cool. Not very AG I know, but there is a Dakota (DC3) hanging off the front and a wide variety of stuff inside.

I went years ago before the wall came down – in the East the three big sights/attractions were the Pergamon Museum, the Opera (Opera is relatively cheap in Germany) and the Soviet War Memorial.

Berlin has probably the best classical orchestra in the world.

The Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is worth a visit so is the TV tower and Museum Island. I liked Berlin but it definitely doesn’t have the buzz of a capital, there is so much space and so much public transport which isn’t packed, not a crowded city like Paris or London.

personally i don’t like Berlin. find it dirty and run down. not a massive fan of the dog eggs, either. or the people smoking spliffs in the park where kids are playing (and this is coming from someone who has smoked weed for over half their entire life). the beer is crap compared to the south of the country (however you can find Augustiner and Tegernseer in some Spätis).

i try to avoid going there unless it is for work which is shame as good friends live there, but i find that after a weekend i’m itching to leave.

find that Berlin has a bigger mouth than trousers.

it’s history is interesting (how some settlement in a swampy backwater came to be the seat of Prussia and then Germany), just not a fan of its current culture.

it doesn’t feel like a capital city, more town occupied by students, “artists” and the homeless…. sometimes it is hard to tell which is which. lots of shitty motors, which is odd as all the other major towns in Germany are full of shiney Mercs, BMWs and Audis….

Berlin costs the south of the country about 3bn a year. there is little industry there. its miles from anywhere of note (unless you count Poland).

however…

seriously go to the old Stasi prison where the East Germans were tortured. tours are guided by previous inmates, although you may have to find out about times if you want it in english. **** up place. really get a feel for the terror of the regime.

take a boat trip along the canals when the sun is out.

or, my favourite thing to do in Berlin… jump in a car and head down the A9… to Munich! 8) 😆

The Jewish Museum is worth a visit. Not fun like, but worth your time.

I know this doesn’t help the OP, but I love Berlin in the winter. Properly cold, European winter weather, the routine of dressing up before going out (and taking off half your layers when you go into a bar), and big leaden grey skies like you’d never get in the UK.

More relevantly, try to get to the Dahlem Museum – I spent a very foot-weary day there. Fatigue beat me before I lost interest, and I’m not usually a museum person. And just enjoy the life there. Turkish bars give a good perspective on the non-touristy, ‘native’ life there.

My favourite city in the world (although, as a true rural hick, this may not be a recommendation!)

Teufelsberg! When we went a couple of years ago it was closed to the public and we had to go in through a hole in the fence. Could hear people off in the derelict buildings smashing stuff up (probably nicking copper etc) and I found it pretty eerie and scary. It looks like proper tours have now been introduced though which should be fascinating –
http://berliner-teufelsberg.com/web/en/fuhrungen-und-preise/

I also really like the Chapel of Reconcilation:
http://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/en/chapel-of-reconciliation-216.html

I’ll add hiring a rowing boat on the Spree

Curry wurst museum

Currywurst was invented by an English soldier after the war. He poured some curry powder into a sausage mix. Few Germans knew of curry (never having had a proper empire) and were really taken by the taste and they said “Ja, wiv zis wurst you are spoiling us”.
German cuisine has never been the same since. Nor has it moved on much either, unless you go to some poncy burger joint where they sell sweet potatoe chips.

MountMitte

I read a book “die entdeckung der Currywurst” which was set in Hamburg. I was intrigued to find out if it was based on fact so Googled it and the results pointed to an Imbiss in Berlin. No mention of a British soldier.

I was there for a surprisingly civilized and grown up stag do a few years back and loved it. It struck me as a very “liveable” city – great public transport, bike friendly, lots of open space etc.

As well as visiting some great bars we did a lot of the normal tourist stuff but it’s a great city to just wander around soaking up the atmosphere of the different neighbourhoods. It probably helps that I’ve been really interested in cold war history since I was a kid – I’ve devoured most of Le Carre’s stuff over the years and The Innocent is still one of my favourite books.

Sounds tacky but one of the absolutely best things we did was to do the Conference Bike tour – our guide was really knowledgeable and zipping through Checkpoint Charley at 30kph with a beer in my hand whilst cycling a dining table is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget!

http://www.donbikes.com/berlin-guided-biketours-berlin-city-tours.html

We went to a great area with a load of outdoor bars and restaurants around a disused railway terminal – can’t for the life of me remember what it was called.

@ Edukator…..

12 mins in…..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04k6rcj

german sausages are crap, IMO, compared to British bangers.

OK, so the British soldier provided the curry powder. That fits because Worcester Sauce is also quoted as one of the early ingredients.

So today we have been to Jewish museum…. The art/ memorials and building are outstanding…checkpoint Charlie again but very good
West kreutz for a wander good food hall and a bit bohemian/lived multicultural area
Train ride to charltonberg….very boring and mundane
Museum island cannot warm too
Off to a bar or two….

P’s…love the underground and trains
Great place for bikes community… Had a coffee in a bike shop round the corner really chatty folks…some really friendly people
The history is interesting and being of an age remember the cold war from the 70/80’d and glasnost of the 90’s

it doesn’t feel like a capital city, more town occupied by students, “artists” and the homeless…. sometimes it is hard to tell which is which. lots of shitty motors, which is odd as all the other major towns in Germany are full of shiney Mercs, BMWs and Audis….

Which is exactly the way I like it. I find the wealth and polish of the South and West a bit stifling, to be honest. Just spent three weeks in Karlsruhe followed by Freudenstadt, and would have been glad of a few old VW Jettas banging about.

The Jettas were all scrapped when the towns became E4 zones. A colleague scrapped a perfectly good Golf because without E4 it was unsaleable and she lived in an E4 zone.