Recommendations for Berlin - where to stay/visit

[Ladygooner]

Planning a weekend to Berlin early in March. Does anyone have any good suggestions for hotels? Anywhere that is a must visit? Recommendations much appreciated! Also is Easyjet the best way to get there from Gatwick?

[DulwichFox]

Must Visit Pergamon Museum formerly East Berlin.

Bodestra?e 3, 10178 Berlin

Opening times | Every day: 10am ? 6pm | Thu: 10am ? 8pm

The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Ishtar_Gate_at_Berlin_Museum.jpg/220px-Ishtar_Gate_at_Berlin_Museum.jpg

http://iihc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/toplight.jpg

In the Summer a visit to The Strandbad Wannsee.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/2012BerlinWannsee1.jpg/220px-2012BerlinWannsee1.jpg

Kreuzberg Turkish Quarter

http://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/kreuzberg-in-berlin.jpg?w=468

KaDeWe The Harrods of Berlin

http://www.berlin.de/orte/sehenswuerdigkeiten/kadewe/kadewe11_360_270.jpg

DulwichFox

[Ladygooner]

Thanks Dulwichfox - Pergamon museum looks great!

[Townleygreen]

You must take a bicycle tour on your first day - it's ideal for getting your head around what's where in this amazing city.

The Stasi museum is also a must-see.

[Michael Palaeologus]

I go to Berlin quite often. Easyjet from Gatwick is my preferred option, although their Southend service seems cheaper at the moment (50 mins from Liverpool St). The S-bahn service into central Berlin is cheap and easy. You can get a Berlin metro map as an app, which I find useful.

I stay with friends, so my hotel knowledge is sketchy, but I understand that Berlin is one of the cheapest cities to stay in. It is a medium sized city and easy to get around, so any central Hotel will be convenient.

Kurfurstendamm (Ku'damm) is good for eating and drinking, this leads into the Zoo area (where KaDeWe is) - good for shopping and the Zoo itself. The Zoo has a panda which seems to do little more than eat bamboo and excrete bamboo.

You can walk through the Tiergarten to the Brandenburg Gate and then up Unter den Linden to the Museum Island for the Pergamon Museum, Berliner Dom and Neues Museum (for ancient Egyptian stuff). The German History Museum is on Unter den Linden as is the SeaLife Centre, cafes and large souvenir shops.

From the Brandenburg Gate you can also go North to the Bundestag (ex-Reichstag) or South to Potsdamer Platz, the latter takes you past the Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitlers Bunker and the site of the Gestapo HQ - this is left as a patch of waste land with a photographic exhibition called The Topography of Terrors.

Potsdamer Platz brings you near to Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall museum and other such cold war relics. Potsdamer Platz itself reflects Berlin history, pre war it was very racy, flattened in the war, in no-mans land in the cold war and is now an ultra modern area of corporate HQs with the Sony Entertainment centre providing a cinema (most films in English) bars and restaurants.

To the west of Potsadmer Platz you can find two of the major art galleries - the Gemaldergalerie and the Neue Nationalgalerie, both excellent.

Otherwise, alternative Berlin has largely moved to Prenzlauer Berg and is good for bars, restaurants and cafes.

Charlottenberg has its Palace, there is a great flea market near Tiergaten station. The Jewish Museum is thought provoking, the Bauhaus Museum fascinating, as is the German Technical Museum - if you like planes, trains and automobiles.

Further afield the Berlin lakes can be accessed by S-Bahn and Potsdam is a nice place to wander around, have a coffee and slice of gateau.

Look out for the patched old buildings, especially the Bundestag, in the back streets they haven't bothered patching and the bullet holes remain as testament to the fighting in the last days of WW2.

Eating is good in Berlin. Italian food to the Berliners is Indian food to Londoners, universal. There are some good Chinese and Thai restaurants, although the central Berlin Indian restaurants have always disappointed. If you like spice go to Prenzlauer Berg, there are some great South American restaurants and cafes and the Meena Kumari Indian restaurant, which is pretty good.

Henne Restaurant only does roast chicken with a piece of brown bread, sauerkraut and potato salad. That's all, but it is the best roast chicken you will ever have. Its in the Kreuzberg area and is worth seeking out.

If you look at Berlin on Googlemaps you will see most of the above is all relatively close.

[MrBen]

I was going to say...when it comes to Berlin and the forum....you won't get much better than Mikey P's tips.

[Ladygooner]

Thanks for the info Mike - looks like I will need more than a weekend to see it all! Do you fly into Schonefeld? I have booked this route as friend coming in from Barcelona to there with Easyjet.

[DulwichFox]

Nice review Mike P.

I haven't been to Berlin Since late 70's.

Was a bloody big wall there back then. :)

And David Bowie had a Studio there.

In late summer 1976 David Bowie & Iggy Pop started their work at legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin Kreuzberg district - directly at the Berlin Wall in the so called no man?s land

Not sure if they still do the Studio Tour but if you are a Bowie Fan.

http://www.musictours-berlin.com/bowie-tour

DulwichFox

[Michael Palaeologus]

Schonefeld is Easyjet's airport, the S-bahn station is 5 minutes walk away along a covered walkway (turn left as you leave the airport building), the S-bahn is cheap. Buy your tickets at machines in the platform access underpass, don't forget to stamp them in the machines on the platforms.

A day ticket for zones A, B and C costs E8.10 (Schonefeld is in zone C) on non flight days A and B are all that will be needed, a day card for these costs E6.90. The same machines sell single and day card tickets. They are multi-language, just press the flag of your choice. They give change too. There are aren't any ticket barriers only plain clothed ticket Inspectors who show no sympathy to the unwary tourist. So always stamp your card on the platform when you start to use your ticket.

A taxi will cost about 30 to 40 Euros into central Berlin.

BA fly into Tegel and Tempelhof has closed and is now a public park that is worth a visit.

If you want to see a Berliner cry, ask them about the Brandenburg airport debacle. Brandenburg airport has been built, it is on the other side of Schonefeld, as you will see.

It is still not open, there have been so many cock-ups.

The DDR Museum is on Unter den Linden and gives a great and well balanced insight into life in East Germany/ East Berlin. It wasn't all bad.

The "Ostalgia" movement was started as a reaction to the feeling that all of the East German traditions and institutions were bad. Their biggest victory was the pedestrian crossing lights. In West Germany the red and green men are like ours, in the East they had a brimmed hat. After quite a fight with bureaucracy all new pedestrian crossing lights have the men in hats.

Souvenir shops are full of T-shirts, mugs etc bearing the hat-wearing men.