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ATM: Berlin

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Hi folks, me and GLW are planning a few nights in Berlin, somewhere we’ve always fancied a look at. We know nothing. Any good places to stay, tips, things to do you can recommend? Thanking you in advance.

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    • A bit of history (Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust memorial etc), good veggie friendly places to eat. Really need advice on best way to get around, any decent, reasonably priced hotels round your way (proving very tricky).

      • History – it’s everywhere but off the top of my head, the DDR Museum near Museum Island is a great accessible intro to everyday life in East Berlin during the DDR. If you want to get deeper into the dark side, the Stasi Museum is worth a visit.
        For the Wall, head up to the memorial site on Bernauer Strasse, portions of the Wall have been preserved, as have old guard towers and there are very good screens, ground markings and information points to give a sense of the scale and dimensions of the Wall structures.
        For Nazi era history, the Topographie des Terrors is very well done and evokes the grim reality of that era to sobering effect. You’re also right by the Holocaust Memorial.

        Easy to get around with a 3 day card. No ticket barriers, so get your card in advance, get it validated and keep it with you, as well as some form of ID in case plain clothes BVG inspectors do a spot check. The U-bahn is usually pretty effective, although there’s a lot of construction work at the moment, so some lines/stations are effective. Trams and S-Bahn (Overground) are also included in your ticket. Get the BVG app beforehand and a BVG map to help navigate.
        Hotels – I don’t really know tbh but a friend of a friend is in town this week and is staying at the Leonardo hotel near Greifswalderstrasse and says it’s fine, 3 star. You can also try the Circus in Rosenthalerplatz, which people I know have stayed at and liked. If you want an apartment, I know the owner of a nearby bar, my local, who has nice holiday apartments above. https://www.karlito-apartments.de

        Food – people never really used to come here for the food but loads of places have opened up in recent years, reflecting the increasing diversity and expectations of people here. Off the top of my head, do make a trip to Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg, a sort of food hall with loads of stalls. Lokal on Linienstrasse is also well worth a trip, sort of a locally sourced German cuisine place, stylish and cosy, with good veggie options. There are tons of vegan/veggie places around town, I’ll ask around for some recs!

        • Many thanks again SB, sadly the Apartments aren’t available. We also stayed in a grim Leonardo hotel in Antwerp where the TV and half the lights didn’t work. Will investigate the Circus.

          • Ha, sorry about that TrypF – my friend’s friend was in the Leonardo here and did say it was basic but decent. Depends on the budget, but Circus is generally reviewed well. Also try Gorki Apartments on Weinsbergweg near Rosenthalerplatz. I stayed there a couple of nights while my apartment was being renovated and really liked it.

  4. Years (decades) since I went but one of the (many) highlights was the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which is just along the road from the Topography of Terror.

    The Bauhaus Archive is closed for refurb but there’s a temporary collection near the opera house.

    The walk from the Brandenburg gate to the Victory Column.

    • Yes shame the Bauhaus is closed but incidentally if case you were here on Aug 28/29 Kraftwerk* are playing at the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, an hour or so away.!

      *Ralf Huttter And Three Other Blokes

        • Ha seems staying on the autobahn as long as possible is the best way to keep the coffers full.

          The Bauhaus Museum in Dessau is facing cuts at the moment, so I think KW playing there is intended to show solidarity

  5. All of the above, plus, if you fancy a slight change of scene, we took a train/bus trip out to Potsdam which is a very pleasant little market town, to see Schloss Cecilienhof, where the 1945 treaty was signed.

  6. @TrypF just search the site for ‘Berlin’ and there are three or four threads on things to do, including one from me. Only one that might slide by, and obvs @slotbadger has the local inside track, is the Soviet War Memorial. Not the one by the Brandenburg gate with the T-34 but the one in Treptower Park. Worth a S-Bahn trip. It’s scale is unbelievably vast and when we were there a couple of years ago there was one other person, a citizen of Russian extraction I am guessing, as he was livestreaming excitedly his visit.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_War_Memorial_(Treptower_Park)
    The Soviet memorials in Berlin are the subject of renewed controversy (I gather @slotbadger is this so) due to the Ukraine invasion.

      • During my first visit in 1991, I stumbled on a basement which had meat hooks hanging from the ceiling, in a side street somewhere near the Reichstag/Brandenburg gate, which the Stasi had used for “interrogations”.

        I’ve never felt a chill like that before – that place was evil. Luckily I was with someone else. We had to go for a stiff drink afterwards.

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