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I’d avoid Checkpoint Charlie though.
+1
It's hillarious. The origial was demolished as the whole area was redeveloped. Then they thought 'Hey we need a tourist attraction' so sent Fritz to B&Q who came back with a shed and some sand bags and they stuck it in the middle of a busy road!
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51984499716_291dc90f42.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51984499716_291dc90f42.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ncG9DS ]Checkpoint Charlie[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
I’d avoid Checkpoint Charlie though.
+2
When I was there I was just wandering about when I stumbled upon Checkpoint Charlie. It was a real is that it? moment!
Not sure if anyone ever went to the fake Checkpoint Charlie at Granada Studios in Manchester as a kid? Well, that was a million times better.
I went to the Checkpoint Charlie techno night in Reading a few times. It sounds a lot better than the real thing. Talking of techno, if anybody has a guaranteed way of getting into Berghain, let me know. It’s high up on the bucket list but I’m not getting any younger or hotter.
Berghain? You need to know people who are regulars, junior got in that way, but has also failed on other occasions. Try at 8/9 a.m. Sunday. Wear black and look the part. See if Blame the Mono (junior and mate) are playing anywhere, they're sometimes in Anomolie.
Eating: Imren grill, Boppstrasse 10, 10967, Berlin.
It’s a shame that the Ramones Museum is currently closed and looking for (yet another) new location. One man’s hoarding obsession turned into a shrine / café / bar.
But there are hundreds (literally) of museums and galleries.
Barberini (in Potsdam) -- currently impressionism, including about 30 Monets;
The Neue Nationalgalerie, designed by Mies van der Rohe of the Bauhaus and very recently re-opened (currently showing a Gerhard Richter retrospective).
Museum Berggruen in Charlottenburg has a permanent exhibition including about 30 Picassos. And much less packed than more central museums.
All of Museum Island is worth a visit. But buy tickets online to avoid queuing.
Eating:
Avoid Simon-Dach Strasse like the plague; it’s a hideous tourist hell-hole with zero restaurants worth visiting.
Saturday:
Farmers’ market at Boxhagener Platz: Handmade black tahini, Turkish pida, random cheeses, organic veggies, exotic teas and juices, and the demographic that goes with all that.
Sunday: Flea markets at:
Boxhagener Platz (hipster artworks, old vinyl, house-clearance garbage targeted at hipsters, plus overpriced East German tat – mostly in orange plastic);
Museum Island (east side), across the river from Museum Island: Books, some vinyl, genuine Soviet / East German pin badges, etc., and random homemade artisan guff. Go right to the back before buying, to check out all of the stalls.
R.A.W. in Friedrichshain (south of Boxi), close to Warschauerstrasse station: More of the above. It’s the site of a former railway yard, and has food stalls, market, brew pub, gig venue, climbing wall, beer garden, public pump track, and fantastic indoor skatepark.
Also on or near Boxi:
Nyom: pan-Asian cuisine with a tendency towards Vietnamese (common in East Berlin, due to past exchanges of guest-workers between communist countries).
Iro Izakaya: Japanese (no sushi!). Be aware of the “special” waiter, who will decline dish choices that he regards as poor combinations.
Yogi Ashram Indian on Gabriel-Max Strasse. Best yellow dahl outside of Nepal.
Il Ritrovo on Gabriel-Max / Wühlischstraße: Punk rock anarchist pizza restaurant, with graffiti, tour posters, and lefty flyers everywhere. The Buffalina can be slightly too soggy for the super-thin crust, but all other options are great. Don’t order any specials or pasta – everyone goes there (and to the two other branches in Kreuzberg and Prenzlauerberg) for the pizza.
Miss Saigon: Vietnamese (no surprise) on Skalitzerstrasse in Kreuzberg. Very close to Görlitzer Bahnhof stop on the U1 line. Small and busy.
Hasir (Turkish) on Adalbertstrasse in the full-on “postcode 36” (former squatter / alternative paradise) area of Kreuzberg. Few non-meat options, but the lentil soup is worth a visit at any time of the day or night.
Hopfenreich brew pub in Kreuzberg.
Wen Cheng (hand-pulled noodles) on Schönhauser Allee in Prenzlauerberg.
[edit] Also Cafe Mugrabi (Israeli) on Görlitzer Str. (post code 10997).[/edit].
All of the above are popular and might well require an online reservation (the more popular ones don't do that, and instead make you queue like the fools trying to get into Berghain).
There are literally thousands of bars and restaurants. Each district (in the east, at least) was designed to have everything one might need within close proximity. So it’s more like a collection of small villages (Londoners say that, but they have no idea).
So wherever you stay, you’ll randomly encounter comedy clubs, bars, music venues, galleries, pop-up stores, and all kinds of memorable and unexpected weirdness (unless you’re in Mitte or the posher parts of the former West, where it’s just cars, noisy streets, expensive apartments, and blandness – just like any other capital city).
And if you find yourself leaving a bar or club early (for Berlin), then there are numerous nice European and Turkish bakeries that open around 5:30 am and often have seating inside/outside.
As mentioned, there are no "tied houses" like in the UK. So bars are run by the people who work there. In many cases, they would like a smoke (of whatever) and so you might too.
Also: A surprising number of restaurants are cash-only. Take note of any signs to that effect (they'll also be in English). But tourists are commonly caught out by that. So they will always know how to direct you to the closest cash machine.
Also, if arriving from the airport directly into an area that's popular with tourists / creatives / gap-year kids / moths to the Berlin flame, then try seeing how long it takes you to hear anyone speaking German. In some areas, English, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, etc. are very common on the streets.
On the grimmer (but necessary) theme of Berlin’s history:
The Soviet war memorial (walk from Treptower Park station) is predictably impressive. But pushes the line (justifiably or not) that the Soviet Union alone liberated Europe from the horrors of Nazism. A condition of the Russian Federation pulling its last military personnel out of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall was the perpetual upkeep of this site (and others) at German expense. Ignoring current events in Ukraine (which has its own thread), there are 24-hour police patrols of the site, because otherwise Berliners (remembering their still-recent history) would probably dismantle it overnight – right or wrong.
The Stasi Museum.
The Holocaust Memorial (next to the U.S. Embassy and the Brandenburg Gate; also the nearby much smaller memorial to other groups (Roma, etc.) that were persecuted by the Nazis.
The main Humboldt University building on Unter den Linden, notable for Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Erwin Schrödinger, et al.
Babelplatz (opposite Humboldt), the site of an infamous Nazi book-burning escapade.
Tränenpalast (The Palace of Tears) outside Friedrichstrasse station. Exhibition in a preserved entry point between former east and west.
At the back of Friedrichstrasse station, the small bronze sculpture, showing two pairs of kids: The Aryan ones being sent to safety, versus those being deported from that station to death camps. I always seems to have a lot of dust in my eyes whenever I’ve stood there.
And (as above) the Jewish Museum. Interesting if you’re a fan of Daniel Libeskind’s architecture. But otherwise, an unremittingly grim reminder of millennia of persecution.
And maybe look out for Stolpersteine: Small brass cobblestones installed in the pavement outside many buildings, which are intended not so much to trip you up but (metaphorically) to trigger one’s conscience. Each one commemorating a former resident who was killed by the Nazis. Examples include one house where one couple were deported a few days apart from each other (the Gestapo literally took one, then returned later for their partner); and a house in (comparatively wealthy) Charlottenburg with 20 outside. Truly grim. But worth being aware of.
Fat tire bike tour was absolutely awesome.
Berlin is a fascinating city , with loads to do.
There are several alternative walking tours - art, graffiti , underground Berlin.
If you want a life changing experience - go to Saschenhausen - which is train ride to Oranienberg.
Potsdam is also worth a visit.
There used to be David Bowie/ Iggy Pop based tours as well.
Kruezberg os the Turkish area - so great food , a bit edgy - and. really great pizza place.
Some of the old gun emplacement are still around Berlin - and just worthwhile looking at because of their huge size ( and the fact that the have been demolished just built on / around).
And then there is the car park that used to be Hitler's Bunker.
Most of Berlin still bears the scars of the Battle for Berlin - if you look up, esp on the old East, lots of bullet and shell holes are still evident.
Research the history well, and then decide what you want to see. It is one of Germany's most multicultural cities, and often very left field.
Templehof airport was a eerie place - but the airfield is now a park full of German hippies sunbathing naked.
It is important , when in Berlin, to go to Konnopkes to eat currywurst - but it was invents as post war food in Charlottenberg - Heinz Ketchup mixed with Sharwoods curry powder allegedly. Now a German staple
^ sorry for the typos above!
Stolperstein started in Cologne by an artist, who felt it was a very small, but poignant way of remembering those who where murdered by the Nazis. They are quite humbling to stand and read. They are now found throughout most of the territory that Nazi Germany occupied. So don't just look at stuff around you, or up, also look down.
( and carrying on re the comments above - for many years the far right and far left lived very close to each other in Berlin. For a lot of Berliners, the Soviets coming in , and communist rule was not a bad thing. The great irony is that the museum re the Battle for Berlin has accounts from German one talking about the wholesale rape and murdering by Russian soldiers - as they came from the East. Supposedly done in response to the Nazi's behaviour going into Russia. Very sad that nothing has changed)
Are any of the ghost stations accessible?
Underworld Tour. I think we did Tour 3
https://www.berliner-unterwelten.de/en/index.html
EDIT: Also be warned, the sausages in Berlin are the wurst.
eat currywurst – but it was invents as post war food in Charlottenberg – Heinz Ketchup mixed with Sharwoods curry powder allegedly. Now a German staple
And then annoy the locals by telling them its essentially a British invention. British soldiers based in Berlin after the war gave some curry powder to the wurst woman to make the sausages more interesting.
Well, goodness - what a fantastic place. Thanks so much for all the suggestions, we took in as many as we could - and the ones we missed are just a reason to go back... 🙂 Some notes from our visit.
We stayed at the Intercitie near Hauptbanhof, probably the most central hotel we've ever stayed - not so great for interesting places right on the doorstep, but free train/underground ticket and having the station right to hand were fantastic. The Reichstsag is less than ten minutes, and Spreeboganpark was awesome on a sunny afternoon.
We booked a breakfast at the Reichstag, an expensive treat (we had the Dome breakfast at 26 painful euros a head) but a very nice, very filling breakfast - don't have to breakfast to take a tour of the dome itself, but it's fantastic to wander about and the audio tour was great for identifying landmarks.
We did pop to Markethalle Neun on Thursday, but it was the wrong end of a long day, would have enjoyed it if we'd been less footsore - went for a meal at the Panther instead, quickest service all week and great food. Food was outstanding the whole time - we didn't have a bad meal all week. We aimed for the Boxenhager Platz market on Saturdaytoo, but got there as everyone was packing up - dinner on the nearby Simon Dach Strasse was just fine.
The walking tour was brilliant, just randomly signed up with some dudes at Brandenburg Tor and it was great, a really enjoyable and informative way to find the key city centre landmarks.
They do not shy away from their history, do they? The Trains For the Living, Trains For The Dead statue was one of our first stops, and it was indeed dusty when we saw it - Topography Of Terror was grimly fascinating, standing where Gestapo HQ used to be, with a stretch of Berlin wall outside and the exposed Prince Albrechstrasse 8 cellers underneath. The Stasi museum, in contrast, did nothing for me - was very warm though, which didn't encourage lingering!
Did an evening at a Munich beer hall style place, really enjoyed what I remember of that but poor Mrs Pondo had to see me home.
Potsdam was just beautiful - we just wandered through town and the palace grounds, was proper idyllic, like a Disney German theme park. Went and paid respects to Bernd Rosemeyer and Ellie Bienhorn on the way back, nice to have that chance.
The memorials to the Jewish and Gypsy dead were sobering - not all observed with the gravity you'd hope for, but but the Jewish memorial in particular was striking. Got the chance to spit on the ground where Hitler killed himself.
The trains and underground we didn't find particularly intuitive, but once we sussed out how they work, travel became really easy, trains and underground pleasant and regular, and good for sightseeing from (even the u derhround, quite often!). The open plan and multi-layered Hauptbanhof was amazing, like something designed by Dali! Border control in Germany was significantly less painful than the UK, both inbound and outbound.
I'm sure I'll add more over time, but hearty thanks once more for all suggestions! 🙂
Has anyone suggested hiit training yet, where you struggle for air? 😉
