What should we do in Berlin?

[leavesthataregreen]

I thought it was a place I'd always wanted to go but when I was about to book flights, I suddenly got cold feet and thought, 'yeah but why?' and couldn't answer my own question.

Please tell me what the highlights of a weekend in Berlin might be. What's unmissable? What to do in the day and at night. Just DH and me, no DC. We love art, music, cabaret, dance, history, food and love weird and wonderful quirky museums or things to do.

East side Gallery, Topigraphy des Terrors (old gestapo HQ), Templehofer airport, mitte

Olympic stadium, ku’damm (Kurfürstendamm), KaDeWe, potsdamer platz. Alexanderplatz and tv tower, friedrichstrasse, neukolln has a lot of interesting places and restaurants.. neukolln and kreuzberg seem to be popular with tourists. Both quite hipster.

I used to live in Berlin so these are the main tourists places to see. If you want any more local spots and neighborhoods then let me know.

The spy museum at Potsdam we platz is interesting.. also the Salvador Dali museum is interesting

www.designpanoptikum.com/

Book breakfast in the TV Tower for your first day. It's lovely in itself, but it also helps orient yourself in the city. The view from the revolving restaurant is unbeatable.

tv-turm.de/en/restaurant/#

Have a look on Trip advisor, you can then plan a route. We went for 4 days and it wasn't enough. Christmas time is amazing. oh and their cafes do white hot chocolate to die for.

This all sounds brilliant. Thank you so much. Definitely breakfast in the tower. And both of those museums. And I do like a mooch around hipster areas are there still sections of the wall and old checkpoints to visit?

The Panoptikum mentioned upthread is a weird and wonderful place. Sounds right up your street. The guy that runs it is very interesting and it's worth asking him for recommendations,

This place is also good fun and certainly fulfils the "quirky" requirement.

www.me-berlin.com/wunderkammer/

It's not far from the Ramones museum which is a great place for cake and coffee (even if you aren't a Ramones fan)

@leavesthataregreen

This all sounds brilliant. Thank you so much. Definitely breakfast in the tower. And both of those museums. And I do like a mooch around hipster areas are there still sections of the wall and old checkpoints to visit?

Mooching is the best part. I fell in love with a hobbycraft style shop and went back daily. You can go to Checkpoint Charlie. The Reichstag with a lovely restaurant at the top. Museum Island. The DDR / GDR museum was fantastic. The parks are great. You can even find information on where the bunker system was if you are into history. The best thing is that it is all flat, well-designed and you can walk for hours.

Checkpoint Charlie has an interesting and quirky museum about how people used to try and cross the border etc!

Also the Holocaust Memorial, near Brandenburg gate:

www.stiftung-denkmal.de/en/memorials/memorial-to-the-murdered-jews-of-europe/

Schaubuhne theatre:

www.schaubuehne.de/en/start/index.html

Definitely the DDR museum. A long lazy breakfast somewhere (German style with all the trimmings, bread rolls, eggs, charcuterie, cheeses…). And a boat trip from or to Museumsinsel. You’ll find endless quirky bars and restaurants and flea markets, too. I lived there until 2003 and so much has changed since so can’t recommend any specific bars but hopefully someone else can.

Oh, and cabaret. Definitely that. Friedrichspalast is the obvious one but not necessarily the best… Bar jeder Vernunft was my favourite.

www.visitberlin.de/en/cabaret-comedy-theatres

Then go out for cocktails and stay out until all hours, pubs and bars have no closing time!

Berlin is fantastic - loads to do (as others have said!) so you'll have a great time! Great public transport for getting around too. Very easy!

Is the number 100 bus still a thing? It used to take you past a lot of the sights.

Liebskind’s Jewish museum and the reichstag-not sure if you can still tour inside with the Russian graffiti preserved within the walls of the restored parliament and climb the dome, but if you can, do!

We found it really easy to get around, loads to do.
We went up the tv tower late in the evening and asked at the restaurant if we could sit for desert without a booking and they let us, as I think most of the diners had gone by then.
If you like Japanese food, Zenkichi is a wonderful romantic little restaurant, you sit in your own little private booth and the waiters open and close a bamboo blind to serve. A private booth probably felt more special pre-covid tbf…but it was a lovely find!

The zoo, obviously, and a canoe and a beer on the lake! But my ABSOLUTE highlight of Berlin is that totally ridiculous Currywurst Museum. I would fly back just for that. (I may or may not have been under the influence but would still recommend).

We hired E scooters and got around the city that way (on the cycle lanes).

Our favourite bits...
Berlin Wall Memorial Park
The artwork along the river (on a stretch of remaining wall)
Hop on Hop off bus
Berlin victory column
The library memorial (empty library underneath where they burnt the books)

Checkpoint Alpha (although that isn't in Berlin...its where you passed from West Germany into East Germany on the Autobahn).

Mauer park is a good place to go on Sundays. Lots of food trucks and music. All around general relaxed vibe and people just sitting in the park with friends. It’s also a pretty good ice cream place near there too.

I’m assuming it’s still going on after the covid.

DDR museum, Stasi museum or prison, potzdammer plate for a Bowie moment, Tiergarden is a beautiful park.
Easy side gallery is always worth a walk.
You can do a Trabbi tour which is great fun too

Lots and lots of recommendations so I won’t put anymore but wanted to say Berlin is fabulous for a city break.
I have been 5 times now including for the Xmas markets and still intend to go back more than once.
Go on then I will mention my particular favourite sights they are the stasi prison and museum, DDR museum, topography of terror, the Reichstag, East side gallery I could go on and on, you will not get bored in Berlin and there is also fabulous shopping.
The public transport system is also amazing always on time and cheap.

My DH has just come back from Berlin, so I asked him. He recommended The Museum of Things - a quirky collection of random household objects from the last 100 years.

Berlin is my favourite city! Just popping on to suggest the Friedrichstraße station museum (AKA the palace of tears) rather than the Checkpoint Charlie one- loads of amazing DDR escape stories and really interesting!

www.hdg.de/en/traenenpalast

And if you want some wall views alongside escape stories, a less obvious place to go is Bernauer Straße - there's an old S Bahn station there too somewhere nearby which does tours I think...

www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial-12.html

Both free to visit and a little further off the beaten tourist track!

We did a walking tour as we do with every city we visit which was great for giving us ideas of places to visit for the rest of our trip.

DDR Museum.

I'm glad I went to Saschenhausen concentration camp, but it is a harrowing experience. I had to cut my visit short.