Hello, Dopers!
In July, I will be in Berlin for a few days.
My only huge to-dos so far are the Jewish Museum and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I’m also considering one of the guided tours of the Berlin Wall, which a friend told me is quite interesting.
Beyond that, I would love suggestions from Dopers for things to do, must-sees, etc. Thanks in advance!
Lucky you! We may get to go in the fall, so I’ll have to keep an eye on this.
I highly recommend the Pergamon Museum. I also had a lot of fun exploring the KaDeWe department store. There’s a gourmet food hall on the top floor with great views of the city.
This company has a lot of different bike tours that give a good overview of the city: Explore Berlin | Bike and Segway Tours | Rentals | Fat Tire Tours I definitely recommend it. When I was younger I liked to go on the bar crawls also, but it’s definitely a young crowd. A day trip to Sachsenhausen concentration camp is worthwhile.
Berlin’s great for contemporary art galleries, beer and sausage/currywurst - not necessarily in that order. A possible schedule:
Day 1 - Discover Berlin tour details the city’s history from the ground up. http://www.berlinwalks.de/public/
Day 2 - Alternative Berlin tour. Travelling the city like a local and discovering the hippy, creative communities that were a reaction against the modern history covered towards the end of the previous days tour. Berlin's secrets: a treehouse built beside the Wall
Also by Alternative Berlin, the anti pub crawl. Good fun and civilised - like Berlin in general, this isn’t a tour for rowdy stag parties - and appears popular with people of all nationalities. A trip around some interesting bars with a drink at each place included in the cost.
Day 3 - Museum in the morning and then shopping and a walk through the fantastic contrasts of Tiergarten and Potsdamer Platz via the Brandenburg Gate.
If meeting at Zoologischer Garten for the Discover Berlin tour, (and it is long so take comfortable footwear) prepare for the day ahead by having breakfast at Brot & Butter http://www.brot-und-butter.de/laeden?laden=berlin
Go early and have breakfast in the revolving restaurant half way up the Fernsehturm (giant tv tower visible from all sorts of unexpected places) at Alexanderplatz. It gets much busier later in the day.
We found the Markisches Museum very interesting, with a nice secluded courtyard for coffee! It focuses on the history of Berlin itself.
And if you like zoos but not crowds, try wandering around Berlin’s other zoo, the Tierpark, which is in a big old estate in what was East Berlin, with a huge range of animals to see.
Get a travel pass for city trains, trams & buses at the airport and validate it at a machine on the tram platform before you get on, then you don’t have to do any more than have it with you for the rest of your stay (unless it runs out!). We found getting around by public transport very easy. And it may be historic, but the Brandenburg Gate will be mobbed and isn’t particularly exciting.
If you’re still looking for a place to stay, we found the Circus Hotel very nice and close to good transport links.
I came to recomend the Pergamon Museum. I spent a day looking at Churches, but perhaps that’s more of a minority interest.
Have lunch at the KDW deli, so many choices so little time. See the Check Point Charlie museum.
The Potsdam day trip looks awesome. I am trying to convince my travel companion to do that with me.
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! I am also putting the Pergamon on my want list and will consider everything else as well.