Berlin

[Mrs Pingu]

We're going to Berlin for a gig in October. Not the best time in the week, we'll be flying over on Saturday and home on Tuesday.
The gig is Admiralspalast (Theatersaal), Friedrichstraße 101, 10117 Berlin.

Any recommendations for hotels, things to do, see, drink etc welcome 
As usual I expect we'll try to fit in a food tour, though getting one that's not all sossidges might be interesting.

[Nutbeem]

We went for a short break a few years back, had a great time. Lots of hotels to choose from, we got a very good price on a very posh hotel, arrived well before check in time hoping to be able to leave out bags and were shown straight to our room. We were in what was the West Berlin, if we go again we'd choose to stay in the East side.

Public transport is easy to use and cheap - get a multiday ticket at the airport.

There are plenty of things to do; open top bus tours, site seeing, etc. you won't be bored. Plenty of places to eat as well.

Our favourite activity, and highly recommended, was a walking tour of the city. It was very well planned, taking us to all the key sites and explaining all about the Berlin, the Wall etc. One of the most fascinating bits of the tour was being shown the site of the Bunker where Hitler died, which was a bit hidden away and not particularly publicized so you probably wouldn't find it without a guide.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your trip.

[phantasmagoriana]

I was there for a few days last week. It was rainy and grey, so much like home.

Our favourite activity, and highly recommended, was a walking tour of the city. It was very well planned, taking us to all the key sites and explaining all about the Berlin, the Wall etc. One of the most fascinating bits of the tour was being shown the site of the Bunker where Hitler died, which was a bit hidden away and not particularly publicized so you probably wouldn't find it without a guide.

Agreed - we did a walking tour with Sandemans (free, though they do encourage tips at the end, of course) and it was quite interesting. There were also some old buildings which had been totally rebuilt after the war - I'd never have realised unless I'd been told.

We explored the Tiergarten a fair bit (big park, nice for a walk away from the bustle of the city) mainly because our route from hotel to city centre went that way, and I kept getting lost. We were also in the West, but most of the things to see seemed to be in the East as PhilB says (though at least the walking helped offset the ridiculous cake consumption).

Also went for a coffee & cake at the Steel Vintage bike cafe, where I drooled at some very expensive old steel bikes.

We found a nice vegetarian curry place called Satyam in the West side, and went there twice as it was so good.

[phantasmagoriana]

Oh - just remembered, if you're interested in visiting any museums, most of them are closed on Mondays so bear that in mind!

[eck]

Sossidges you say? Get Mr P to tell you about the Hamburg audax, when McNasty told the wifie serving the soup at the Berlin control that he was vegetarian. 

[Mrs Pingu]

Sossidges you say? Get Mr P to tell you about the Hamburg audax, when McNasty told the wifie serving the soup at the Berlin control that he was vegetarian. 

Mr P appears to have no recollection of this incident, over to you!

[ian]

Friedrichstraße is right in the middle (I can often be found propping up the bar in the Mélia Hotel by the river on that very street). The last time we visited for leisure we stayed on the Kürfurstendam out west (as my wife was doing something with her magic trumpet at the Charlottenburg Rathaus – we got a cool tour of all the secret bits of place – oh and we found a shop with bondage teddy bears, so if you ever wanted to see a teddy bear with a large strap-on, well). I prefer the east normally. I'm a random unstructured wanderer. Everyone does museum island and the remaining bit of the wall (mildly underwhelming). Checkpoint Charlie is just tourists. Wander up past Alexanderplatz into the upmarket bit of what was communist Berlin, loads of Soviet architecture and they've managed to stop the tilework falling on people's heads. Currywurst! There's actually a currywurst museum. Prenzlauerberg to the north east is pretty cool – plenty of bars and restaurants, we stumbled across a cool bar in the park where showing movies on a big screen which a decent beer selection and had a very fine summer evening (I think it was in Ernst-Thälmann-Park).

[Auntie Helen]

I am very familiar with Berlin as I visit regularly and lived there for 5 weeks in 2007. I'll have a bit of a think and write some more anon. But you will love it!

[eck]

Sossidges you say? Get Mr P to tell you about the Hamburg audax, when McNasty told the wifie serving the soup at the Berlin control that he was vegetarian. 

Mr P appears to have no recollection of this incident, over to you!

Perhaps MrP had had his level-crossing incident before this?

Berlin control, a sort of outdoor sports centre, soup being served from a hatch.

Wifie hands McNasty a bowl of soup with a HBFO sossidge therein.
McNasty: "Ah'm vegetarian, missus."
Wifie takes back bowl, lifts out sossidge and returns the (now vegetatian) soup to himself. 

[Mrs Pingu]

I am very familiar with Berlin as I visit regularly and lived there for 5 weeks in 2007. I'll have a bit of a think and write some more anon. But you will love it!

That would be brill, ta 

[MikeFromLFE]

I was underwhelmed by Berlin, but I'm not a city person. I'd second the Tiergarten as a good place to get away from the crowd, and for some down time. We had a good meal in the revolving restaurant atop the TV tower with great views. The DDR museum was well done (but we were there at the same time as a bored school party....). You have to see the wall, but don't expect to get excited by it.

[snail]

Go back again in January! Me and a friend went this year to the Six Day races at the Velodrome. Fantastic atmosphere and worked out cheaper than going to London for it.

Hotel - we stayed at Hotel Gat Point Charlie which was very cool. It's an old Stasi building.

The Holocaust Memorial has to be walked around to be understood. Go in amongst it.

We found a fab pub called zum Nussbaum in the Nikolaiviertel, very popular with locals. We got invited onto a table with a German couple - onto the "Stammtisch" which is the table for locals - they didn't speak English and we were immediately challenged to explain Brexit. My friend could only say "leider ja" and I surprised myself by being able to maintain some kind of conversation. Germans don't do smalltalk much! Anyway check the pub out, some good food there.

We liked it so much we are going back next January for the Six Day races again.

[De Sisti]

Go to the Kladow district and visit the old RAF Gatow (spent two great years posted out there).
Oh, and go the east of the city and dine in the the revolving restaurant in the tv tower called the Berliner Fernsehturm.
Kurfürstendamm for shops. Teusfelsberg (for the former RAF listening station).

[Auntie Helen]

I think it is welł worth visiting Olympiastadion where the 1933 Olympics took place. There is a tour which is very worthwhile.

The Fernsehturm (TV tower) at Alexanderplatz is also worth a visit.

There is a spy museum at Potsdamer Platz which i think is new. I haven't visited but would like to on my next Berlin visit.

Schlachtensee is very beautiful to visit and walk around (takes 1.5 hours). That's near Zehlendorf which is the posh bit of Berlin.

Wannsee has the Haus der Wannsee Konferenz where the Nazis decided on the Final Solution.

You can also visit Oranienburg to the north and tour Sachsenhausen concentration camp. I found it very moving and a worthwhile visit although of course the opposite of fun.

Lots of green spaces and woodland around Berlin, and Tempelhof Airport is now a park. I had a great time there with my trike a few years ago riding along the runways. Also worth a visit.

The Jüdisches Museum is definitely worth visiting. I have been 4 times I think now. It's slightly tricky to find but the building itself is great and the exhibits also interesting (with English translations).

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

 

Olympiastadion where the 19336 Olympics took place.

Tiny correction there

What a difference 3 years made.

[snail]

There is a spy museum at Potsdamer Platz which i think is new. I haven't visited but would like to on my next Berlin visit.

The Spy Museum was fun - very fresh, definitely new, lots of hands-on stuff to do. It was refreshing. We did spend a lot of time at some very challenging museums, and of course, they can hardly make those places "fun" and "interactive" due to the subject matter. The Spy Museum wasn't necessarily the biggest or the best but it was a very welcome change. You can do a mission-impossible thing where you try not to break the laser beams across a room, all that sort of thing.

We took a tram out to Spandau which felt very Eastern Germany. I wouldn't recommend it in January (!!) but at other times of the year it would be worth a look. The Citadel was large and gloomy, which I loved, being small and gloomy myself.

[Bledlow]

I really ought to pay a visit. Last time I was there it had a wall.

[Aunt Maud]

Nice pizza is served in the restaurant by the boating lake in the Tiergarten and a trip up the tower in the middle of the roundabout looking down to the Reichstag is fun too.

[Auntie Helen]

That's the Siegesäule on Straße der 17 Juni.

[Mrs Pingu]

Any accommodation recommendations? And cake opportunities?

[Aunt Maud]

That's the Siegesäule on Straße der 17 Juni.

That's the one. Celebrating a poke in the eye for the Danes.

[Auntie Helen]

Any accommodation recommendations? And cake opportunities?

cake opportunities everywhere.

Accommodation is of course more to personal taste. I used to stay at the Hilton in Gendarmenmarkt which was great - and relatively cheap - but it's now pricey. I tend to choose a Ferienwohnung (apartment) rather than hotel. It's worth being somewhere near a U-Bahn station but that's almost a given. Hotels in Friedrichstraße have perhaps the best location and transport links.

I guess I would choose to stay in Mitte or Prenzlauer Berg or Tiergarten or Charlottenburg areas by preference. Wedding is a bit far out to me and East of Mitte seems a bit rougher.

[Blodwyn Pig]

must say when I went to Berlin, I was very underwelmed, didn't enjoy it at all, but it was x-mas time, and all the markets were heaving, but I just didn't get it! if you know what I mean. When compared to Amsterdam, it was horrible. Glad I went, but wished I hadn't bothered.

[snail]

I don't think Berlin is a place you can "enjoy" in the same way that I enjoyed Bremen, for example. It helps to go with a purpose, not as a "fun" city break. When you land at an airport usually you are greeted with big tourism posters advertising all the great family activities and the wonderful heritage and history of a place ... Berlin can't do that. It is naturally muted, reserved, pensive. You have to go out and find the things, as they will not be advertised to you. I'm a history nut, and my friend is a museums educator, and we went mainly to see a band and to see the track cycling - we visited the museums too, but we were probably approaching it all slightly differently to a casual weekender. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone as a destination.

Bremen, though - it's underrated, but adorable.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Bremen is wonderful. And so is its beer. Or was back in 1998. Never been to Berlin though so can't help there!