When I say Berlin what do you think of?
Do you think of its history? The legacy of the Third Reich and the Berlin Wall?
Do you think of its reputation for crazy parties and nightclubs that stay open for days?
Or do you think of currywurst and beer?
All these things, and more, are part of Berlin and when I was there I managed to see how much variety the city really has to offer. My trip was (just about) four days long and a whirlwind mix of social, food and culture, the perfect weekend trip! I managed to cram a lot into four days and still didn't feel like I was rushing around manically trying to do everything in the time. My friend and I took a relaxed approach to our sightseeing and even scheduled in a morning to recover from Berlin's infamous night-life, but we still managed to hit most of the top sights. Overall we spent 3 days in Berlin and then spent the fourth day in Potsdam, about an hour outside of Berlin.
Each of our 3 days in actual Berlin can be given a theme to cover one aspect of its diverse personality as a city; day 1 was culture and history, day 2 was the cool subcultural side of the city, day 3 was the relaxed post-night-out day to relax and take in the last few sights, and day 4 was Potsdam.
I was going to cram everything into one post, but then as the post got longer and longer it seemed to make more sense to separate it into 3 distinct posts in a sort of Berlin mini-series.
So here it is, day one: Culture.
We actually arrived at Berlin Schoenefeld airport late Thursday night, so woke up refreshed and ready to make the most of our first day in the city. With this in mind we decided to orientate ourselves by walking around the centre of the city and ticking off some of the top sights on the way; but as we walked the wrong way down the road, and realised how tiny the centre of Berlin really is, we decided to broaden our ambitions and tour the entirety of the centre by foot in one day - and yes, that is definitely possible to do!
Do you think of its history? The legacy of the Third Reich and the Berlin Wall?
Do you think of its reputation for crazy parties and nightclubs that stay open for days?
Or do you think of currywurst and beer?
All these things, and more, are part of Berlin and when I was there I managed to see how much variety the city really has to offer. My trip was (just about) four days long and a whirlwind mix of social, food and culture, the perfect weekend trip! I managed to cram a lot into four days and still didn't feel like I was rushing around manically trying to do everything in the time. My friend and I took a relaxed approach to our sightseeing and even scheduled in a morning to recover from Berlin's infamous night-life, but we still managed to hit most of the top sights. Overall we spent 3 days in Berlin and then spent the fourth day in Potsdam, about an hour outside of Berlin.
Each of our 3 days in actual Berlin can be given a theme to cover one aspect of its diverse personality as a city; day 1 was culture and history, day 2 was the cool subcultural side of the city, day 3 was the relaxed post-night-out day to relax and take in the last few sights, and day 4 was Potsdam.
I was going to cram everything into one post, but then as the post got longer and longer it seemed to make more sense to separate it into 3 distinct posts in a sort of Berlin mini-series.
So here it is, day one: Culture.
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| Checkpoint Charlie photobomb! |
Day 1: Culture
- First we went to Checkpoint Charlie, probably the most famous checkpoint along the Berlin wall, which separated the communist run East Germany from the Ally controlled West Germany. The checkpoint itself is relatively unimpressive with it's uniform clad Germans posing with tourists but the Checkpoint Charlie museum is well worth a visit. It gives a look at how the Berlin Wall came about, but the most interesting thing for me was the documentation of how people managed (and often didn't manage) to get smuggled across the boarder from East to West Berlin.
FUN FACT: It is called Checkpoint Charlie from the Military alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.).Checkpoint C equals Checkpoint Charlie!
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| Checkpoint Charlie |
- Next we walked about 10 minutes to the Topography of Terror, which is a timeline style exhibition about the rise of the Nazis and atrocities they committed across Europe. It is a sombre experience, but essential viewing. Poignantly it is located on the site where the the SS headquarters and Reich Security Main Office used to stand, the site where it is likely some of the worst atrocities were thought up.
- From the Topography of Terror we walked to the Brandenburg Gate via the Jewish Memorial. The memorial itself isn't particularly well posted, and you may not realise what you are looking at. It is made up on large grey blocks placed in rows that create a sort of maze, there are various interpretations and it does create an uneasy feeling when standing in the centre of it. There is also an information centre underneath the Jewish memorial, which documents the experience of Jews during Nazi rule and also holds the names of 3 million Jewish Holocaust vicitims. The stories of what happened to specific families and excerpts from letters written at the time are particularly heart wrenching.
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| The Jewish Memorial |
- The Brandenburg Gate is probably one of the most famous sites in Germany and it's a prime spot for taking selfies! According to my teenage notes from a Berlin school trip, the horses on top of the Brandenburg Gate were stolen by Napoleon, as well as some other horse statures from Venice, giving him the nickname of Napoleon the Horse stealer - the things we learn on school trips!
- Next was the Reichstag, the centre of German government. It is possible to go up into the glass dome of the Reichstag building, but this requires planning as tickets need booking long in advance. The views from the dome are nice but you're not missing out on too much if you don't manage to get tickets.
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| The Reichstag Building |
- Finally we finished our day with the Berlin Wall memorial, unfortunately in the pouring rain. The memorial exhibition itself was interesting and gave an idea of what life was like living in the shadow of the wall, from both the Eastern and Western sides.
After a long day of walking we jumped onto the U-Bahn to avoid the torrential rain and headed off to meet our friends for a catch up dinner. We were well and truly cultured out!
Culture ✓
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| Brandenburg Gate |
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