Here’s what to do if you want to experience Berlin in one day

…or maybe two…

In October 2013 Oonagh, a colleague of mine, asked me for some touristic hints on Berlin. She said she only had one weekend, so I promised her to create a plan, so she could make most out of her weekend and experience “Berlin in a nutshell”. I lived in Berlin for about 10 years, so I dare to say I know the city. Not every detail – but most of it. In terms of tourist attractions maybe even more than Berlin-born friends.

Walking tours

Here’s a map of this walking tour:

Click here to see it on Google Maps!

Part 1 (Day 1 if you have an entire weekend)

• start at Berliner Fernsehturm, called “TeleSpargel” by the Berliners, which literally translates to “TV asparagus”
  • reserve your tickets so you don’t have to wait in line for hours like a tourist 😉
    http://www.tv-turm.de/en/reservierung.php
• when leaving the TV Tower (or starting your tour at Alexanderplatz) head towards Marienkirche, which is the church right next to TV Tower
• head towards the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) which is the biggest protestant church in Germany
• now you’re already “Unter den Linden” (Berlins Champs Elysee)
  • one side-track might lead you to Gendarmenmarkt with the State Opera
• walk and enjoy until you reach Brandenburg Gate
  • there are actually several “gates” in Berlin
  • Brandenburg Gate was the outside (!!!) border of Berlin towards Brandenburg (a city in the surrounding federal state of Brandenburg)
  • you can see a new “version” of Frankfurter Tor on your bar-trip
• pass the gate
• pass by the highly secured US embassy (probably now the NSA knows about this blog post now)
• stroll through the Holocaust Memorial in devout silence
• head towards the skyscrapers at Potsdamer Platz
  • if you want enjoy one more amazing view from the new york style skyscraper: http://www.panoramapunkt.de/en/panoramapunkt.html

Part 2 (or Day 2)

• from Potsdamer Platz stroll through Tiergarten, which was entirely chopped down after WWII, because people needed wood to heat their bombed homes
• seek the Siegessäule (“Victory Column”) in the middle of the Tiergarten, it gives you a wonderful view on the whole city and a nice panorama including the TV tower
• from there head to S-Bahnhof (train station) Bellevue (if you make it two tours, you can also go via Bellevue to the Siegessäule
• take the train to Hauptbahnhof (Berlin Central Station)
• exit towards river Spree, pass the Berlin white house (Helmut Kohl, German chancellor for 16 years called it that, when talking to Bill Clinton I think), where the chancellors work, head towards the Reichstag building
  • many people still call it Reichstag, which literally means the institution “parliament of the Reich” (!) but since there is no “Reich” anymore it’s called the Reichstags-Building, seat of the German parliament “Bundestag“

I think one can’t see more of Berlin in one/two days. At least not more efficiently than with these walking tours. And especially since the city is covered with Bus- (and train-) stations you can at any time stop your walk, head home and relax 🙂

Going out

Check out this tour that leads you from Frankfurter Tor via Simon-Dach-Kiez (as I would call it now “Little Dublin” (because like in Dublin there are lots of bars/pubs in a row) down to Kreuzberg.

• take the U5 from Alexanderplatz -> get off Frankfurter Tor
• head towards Boxhagener Str.
• walk the whole Simon-Dach-Str.
  • until here you should have already found a cocktail bar
  • this street is awesome for hopping from one bar to the next, some even have live music
• if you don’t find anything continue south towards Oberbaum Bridge, which is more impressive by day and also worth seeing
• cross it and enjoy Berlin Kreuzberg, the most multicultural of all Berlin districts
  • you’ll find cocktail bars and exotic restaurants here

Museums & places to see outside the walking tour

• Jewish Museum Berlin
  • http://goo.gl/maps/4HAPN

• Berlin Wall Memorial Site, Bernauer Straße, Berlin, Germany
  • http://goo.gl/maps/QPtvN
  • don’t miss: the wall itself is quite boring seen from one side (see boring picture), BUT there is a viewpoint some 100m along the street from where you can see the whole WALL (which is actually two walls and a death strip with mines and dog patroles inbetween, so once people had passed one wall they had to overcome this, which nobody did…)
• Pergamon Museum
  • http://goo.gl/maps/AkhNI
• New National Gallery (modern art AFAIK)
  • http://goo.gl/maps/ab4KT
  • also a nice option if you split up the walking tour -> you could walk here from Potsdamer Platz
• East Side Gallery
  • http://goo.gl/maps/09jPO
  • painted parts of the wall, real pieces of contemporary art, actually the longest and last original part of the wall that’s still standing