Museums: an architectural wonder, the Jewish Museum is an absolute essential. Don’t reckon on doing anything frivolous for a few hours afterwards. The DDR museum though less famous is also absorbing.
Checkpoint Charlie is worth a walk-by and an hour or so by the Brandenburg Gate – checking out the preserved Soviet tank, and another sobering experience nearby at the Holocaust memorial, is also pretty essential.
If you feel like queuing and braving the door police then there’s the worlds most famous techno club Berghain for later on.
Neukoln is the Berlin equivalent of Shoreditch, full of trendy bars and hotels and on the front line of gentrification and anti-tourism activism. Enjoy!
Seconded, Thilo is a fantastic tour guide, well worth doing.
Check out Lokal in Mitte for some great seasonal local food. Also Themroc on Torstrasse, Henne in Kreuzberg, Schwarzwaldstube – what do you want to eat?
Museums – go to Museum Island. All the big ones are there
I live in Mitte – drop me a line if you need anything!
If you like, try the Neues Museum: it’s not so large as to be overwhelming, but you can see wonderful exhibits like the Queen Nefertiti statue and a mysterious Bronze Age headdress made of gold.
All of the major museums are gathered on Museuminsel and you can get a ticket which covers them all as I remember.
I haven’t been for about 5 years, and was fairly Luke warm about the city when I went, so my only other tip is to chthe ck out the German version of Trainline before taking a trip on the U Bahn or S Bahn. Some of the stations are huge and confusing, so knowing which platform you need in advance will save a lot of bother.
Jewish Museuem, Stasi Museum, Spy Museum in Potsdamer Platz. My son lives in Neukoln and it’s a funky place, cheap Turkish food if you like that kinda thing. Public transport is cheap and frequent.
Platten Pedro is the only record store you need. I was there in June 2017 and spent about three hours having one of the most fun record rummaging experiences ever. Got about a dozen albums on vinyl for €100, including, 80s/90s records that aren’t readily available: Jellyfish’s Bellybutton, Michael Penn’s March, XTC’s Oranges & Lemons. I now recall I also got No Regrets by The Walker Brothers, which will get a spin tonight.
The owner is this inscrutably cool German who has been in the same site since the seventies and was amused by my excitement about seeing Tefifon tapes for sale and how execrable my German was. Man, I’d love to go back there.
It’s *tiny* by the way, and some records can only be reached by a ladder. What a place.
I’d forgotten all about Platten Pedro! Back in the Nineties, I used to have to spend a couple of weeks in Berlin every year with work and always sloped off to Platten Pedro for a couple of hours if I had a bit of downtime. Great city.
It’s years since I first went, shortly after the wall came down. I got off the train in the east at Alexanderplatz and walked to the west through the Brandenburg gate. It was like that bit in the Wizard of Oz when it goes from black and white to technicolour. I doubt it is like that any more.
One place which left a mark was a small basement museum which had been used as a torture chamber by the SS. Meat hooks on the ceiling and so on. It was somewhere near the Reichstag, if I remember correctly. Not fun, but thought-provoking.
Mrs duco and I were in Berlin for 4 days in May 2017. Had a great time.
2 Restaurant recommendations:
1. Katz Orange
This is an incredible place. Probably the best dinner I’ve had in the past 5 years. for the standard of the food, I’d say it’s also good value. Cooking of this calibre would cost a lot more in London and Stockholm. Advance booking essential.
This is in a slightly lower price category. Traditional food from south-west Germany. The restaurant has a really friendly, neighbourhood feel. Extremely popular with the locals. Again, booking essential. Cash only. No cards.
All of the above and…
The Holocaust Memorial is well worth a visit (unlike anything I’ve visited before) as is the Topography of Terror (cool building too).
Public transport is plentiful and cheap, we had an afternoon at one of the parks, with loads of sculptures in (but can’t remember the name, tragically). There’s bits of the wall in Mauerpark (recommended to me by the very wonderful Roxanne de Bastion) and the Kreuzberg area is worth a visit.
If you want to eat without tourists at the next table, busy taking photos of their food, I’d recommend these:
POW WOW on the corner of Dieffenbachstrasse and Grimmstrasse in Kreuzberg
Best burgers in town.
PARACAS at Friedrichstrasse 12 (in Kreuzberg near Hallesches Tor)
South American food
STIEGE at Oranienstraße
Oriental/World food in very atmospheric old Berlin pub
As for museums – don’t miss the Ramones Museum (yes, really)!
And if Platten Pedro is too overwhelming, go to Space Hall in Zossener Strasse, which also has the town’s second best comics shop two doors down (the best one is on Oranienstrasse…).
If you still got money go to Dussman – a five storey megastore with books, records and DVDs – on Friedrichstrasse (near the train station).
Alternatively you could leave all the consumerisms behind and go to Treptower Park by the river Spree. Visit the Jugendinsel (Island of youth) for outdoor cinema and concerts, and don’t miss the Soviet War Memorial nearby, a grandiose, Stalinist park with a big monument and the story of WW2 carved into big stone plates. Also nearby is the “Spreepark”, an abandoned amusement park, with a ferris wheel and other big rides – and a whole “English Village” – rotting in the grass.
Oh, and go to the Currywurst Museum if you want to make a fool of yourself.
We went to where the Ramones Museum was supposed to be, but there was a sign on the door saying that it had moved. I got so annoyed that I wanted to be sedated.
Fairly regular visitor as my wife’s maternal family are Berliners. Love the city.
Go on a walking tour from Brandenburg Tor.
Make sure you try a currywurst from one of the imbiss littered throughout the city.
The wallw museum is possibly one of my favourite museums of all time.
Glienicke bridge also a must and a fun day out would be a boat trip to Potsdam which is a cool relaxed city with great shisha bars.
In the old place somebody posted some recently-unearthed training images showing Stasi officers how to dress when going undercover. The guy in the pictures looked unnervingly like Van Morrison.
Going to Berlin (& Leipzig) to visit eldest daughter in early June.
Any members of the Massive care to add any updates to this existing excellent thread?
(I’m assuming there may have been some significant changes since COVID).
Cheers!
I take it you’re not looking for techno clubs, but if you are it’s obviously the holy land.
Went to a club called About:blank a few years ago – we arrived at about 3am and thought it was a bit dead. Turned out we were just a couple of hours early. Left at 3pm the following afternoon – we weren’t the last ones there by a long stretch. It’s probably still going on.
Otherwise, another shout for the holocaust memorial, quite an unreal experience. An anti-shout for the Barbie museum, but we were on a stag do so not really the target market.
Currywurst and beers on Alexanderplatz also enjoyable.
There must be a German word for ‘I do actually like the sound of that, but can’t see it ever materialising in a million years’, but appreciate the heads-up nonetheless – THAT is a proper night out!
I went there as a yoof when the wall was still up & had a ball. I imagine it’s virtually unrecognisable, so I’m envisioning 3 or 4 days to get a flavour of the sites with some nice scoff & drink thrown in. It’s inevitably going to be quite a lot less freewheeling than before, but still think there’s scope for fun.
Museums: an architectural wonder, the Jewish Museum is an absolute essential. Don’t reckon on doing anything frivolous for a few hours afterwards. The DDR museum though less famous is also absorbing.
Checkpoint Charlie is worth a walk-by and an hour or so by the Brandenburg Gate – checking out the preserved Soviet tank, and another sobering experience nearby at the Holocaust memorial, is also pretty essential.
If you feel like queuing and braving the door police then there’s the worlds most famous techno club Berghain for later on.
Neukoln is the Berlin equivalent of Shoreditch, full of trendy bars and hotels and on the front line of gentrification and anti-tourism activism. Enjoy!
Never actually been myself, but this would be on the top of my list……
https://www.musictours-berlin.de/de/hansa-studio-tour
Seconded, Thilo is a fantastic tour guide, well worth doing.
Check out Lokal in Mitte for some great seasonal local food. Also Themroc on Torstrasse, Henne in Kreuzberg, Schwarzwaldstube – what do you want to eat?
Museums – go to Museum Island. All the big ones are there
I live in Mitte – drop me a line if you need anything!
Well, how about a pint? Or whatever Germans do for a pint.
Careful feller – in no time at all you’ll be nailed to a car while hypnotising chickens.
My wife is French, so I’m kind of used to that. It’s just another Friday.
Sacre bleu!
Neela, sure anytime!
If you like, try the Neues Museum: it’s not so large as to be overwhelming, but you can see wonderful exhibits like the Queen Nefertiti statue and a mysterious Bronze Age headdress made of gold.
All of the major museums are gathered on Museuminsel and you can get a ticket which covers them all as I remember.
I haven’t been for about 5 years, and was fairly Luke warm about the city when I went, so my only other tip is to chthe ck out the German version of Trainline before taking a trip on the U Bahn or S Bahn. Some of the stations are huge and confusing, so knowing which platform you need in advance will save a lot of bother.
The Museumsinsel is currently a big building site, but the museums one by one will be opened again this summer.
If you must take a selfie, go to Frank Zappa Strasse!
Jewish Museuem, Stasi Museum, Spy Museum in Potsdamer Platz. My son lives in Neukoln and it’s a funky place, cheap Turkish food if you like that kinda thing. Public transport is cheap and frequent.
Platten Pedro is the only record store you need. I was there in June 2017 and spent about three hours having one of the most fun record rummaging experiences ever. Got about a dozen albums on vinyl for €100, including, 80s/90s records that aren’t readily available: Jellyfish’s Bellybutton, Michael Penn’s March, XTC’s Oranges & Lemons. I now recall I also got No Regrets by The Walker Brothers, which will get a spin tonight.
The owner is this inscrutably cool German who has been in the same site since the seventies and was amused by my excitement about seeing Tefifon tapes for sale and how execrable my German was. Man, I’d love to go back there.
It’s *tiny* by the way, and some records can only be reached by a ladder. What a place.
https://m.facebook.com/Platten-Pedro-108723809158280/
Overall, Berlin is a blast. I Love it there.
I’d forgotten all about Platten Pedro! Back in the Nineties, I used to have to spend a couple of weeks in Berlin every year with work and always sloped off to Platten Pedro for a couple of hours if I had a bit of downtime. Great city.
Some vintage kraut would be nice.
Still no Tangerine Dream museum?
Which No Regrets? The Newkie Brown album from 1975 (very patchy) or the sponditious compo from 1992?
If you get lost remember to ask “Where are we now?”
It’s years since I first went, shortly after the wall came down. I got off the train in the east at Alexanderplatz and walked to the west through the Brandenburg gate. It was like that bit in the Wizard of Oz when it goes from black and white to technicolour. I doubt it is like that any more.
One place which left a mark was a small basement museum which had been used as a torture chamber by the SS. Meat hooks on the ceiling and so on. It was somewhere near the Reichstag, if I remember correctly. Not fun, but thought-provoking.
I really enjoyed the Bauhaus museum as well, but it appears to be closed at the moment.
Murphy’s law.
That and the fact that that the doors snd windows kept blowing open.
Yes, the exhibit where a Northampton goth sat in a black leather chair listening to a very loud Maxell tape was a the highlight.
Both of you @gary and @moose-the-mooche
Good work!
@gary
Belated chapeaux (or whatever the German equivalent is)
PS. I see I’ve already commented!
Overwhelmed by all this. Thank you and keep them coming! We’ve got three full days. Will try to squeeze as much as possible in.
Mrs duco and I were in Berlin for 4 days in May 2017. Had a great time.
2 Restaurant recommendations:
1. Katz Orange
This is an incredible place. Probably the best dinner I’ve had in the past 5 years. for the standard of the food, I’d say it’s also good value. Cooking of this calibre would cost a lot more in London and Stockholm. Advance booking essential.
https://www.katzorange.com/
2. Schwarzwaldstuben
This is in a slightly lower price category. Traditional food from south-west Germany. The restaurant has a really friendly, neighbourhood feel. Extremely popular with the locals. Again, booking essential. Cash only. No cards.
http://www.schwarzwaldstuben-berlin.com/
All of the above and…
The Holocaust Memorial is well worth a visit (unlike anything I’ve visited before) as is the Topography of Terror (cool building too).
Public transport is plentiful and cheap, we had an afternoon at one of the parks, with loads of sculptures in (but can’t remember the name, tragically). There’s bits of the wall in Mauerpark (recommended to me by the very wonderful Roxanne de Bastion) and the Kreuzberg area is worth a visit.
And make sure you get a currywurst…
If you want to eat without tourists at the next table, busy taking photos of their food, I’d recommend these:
POW WOW on the corner of Dieffenbachstrasse and Grimmstrasse in Kreuzberg
Best burgers in town.
PARACAS at Friedrichstrasse 12 (in Kreuzberg near Hallesches Tor)
South American food
STIEGE at Oranienstraße
Oriental/World food in very atmospheric old Berlin pub
As for museums – don’t miss the Ramones Museum (yes, really)!
And if Platten Pedro is too overwhelming, go to Space Hall in Zossener Strasse, which also has the town’s second best comics shop two doors down (the best one is on Oranienstrasse…).
If you still got money go to Dussman – a five storey megastore with books, records and DVDs – on Friedrichstrasse (near the train station).
Alternatively you could leave all the consumerisms behind and go to Treptower Park by the river Spree. Visit the Jugendinsel (Island of youth) for outdoor cinema and concerts, and don’t miss the Soviet War Memorial nearby, a grandiose, Stalinist park with a big monument and the story of WW2 carved into big stone plates. Also nearby is the “Spreepark”, an abandoned amusement park, with a ferris wheel and other big rides – and a whole “English Village” – rotting in the grass.
Oh, and go to the Currywurst Museum if you want to make a fool of yourself.
We went to where the Ramones Museum was supposed to be, but there was a sign on the door saying that it had moved. I got so annoyed that I wanted to be sedated.
Did you go mennnnn-tal?
https://www.tripadvisor.de/Attraction_Review-g187323-d604458-Reviews-Ramones_Museum_Berlin-Berlin.html
Fairly regular visitor as my wife’s maternal family are Berliners. Love the city.
Go on a walking tour from Brandenburg Tor.
Make sure you try a currywurst from one of the imbiss littered throughout the city.
The wallw museum is possibly one of my favourite museums of all time.
Glienicke bridge also a must and a fun day out would be a boat trip to Potsdam which is a cool relaxed city with great shisha bars.
Two things stood out from our visit to Berlin:
1 The Design Panoptikum – broadly speaking a museum of industrial design, but crammed with the weird and wonderful
https://www.facebook.com/Designpanoptikum-surreales-Museum-f%C3%BCr-industrielle-Objekte-164829883543984/
2. Clarchens Ballhouse for a night out, an amazing survival of pre-WW1 Berlin, trading on past glories of course but huge fun.
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jun/03/clarchens-ballhaus-ballroom-mitte-berlin
BTW, I’ve already been twice. But have gotten quite some advice here of things I’ve missed. Nice!
Love Berlin. Have a thing for the Cold War and am fascinated by the absurdity of Stasi. A guided CW-walk was so fascinating my brain was popping.
Wife is a first time visitor. Will take her to the Queen Nefertiti thing someone mentioned. She has a thing for Ancient Egypt.
Restaurants not swamped with tourists is nice. Thanks for those recommendations!
In the old place somebody posted some recently-unearthed training images showing Stasi officers how to dress when going undercover. The guy in the pictures looked unnervingly like Van Morrison.
Going to Berlin (& Leipzig) to visit eldest daughter in early June.
Any members of the Massive care to add any updates to this existing excellent thread?
(I’m assuming there may have been some significant changes since COVID).
Cheers!
I take it you’re not looking for techno clubs, but if you are it’s obviously the holy land.
Went to a club called About:blank a few years ago – we arrived at about 3am and thought it was a bit dead. Turned out we were just a couple of hours early. Left at 3pm the following afternoon – we weren’t the last ones there by a long stretch. It’s probably still going on.
Otherwise, another shout for the holocaust memorial, quite an unreal experience. An anti-shout for the Barbie museum, but we were on a stag do so not really the target market.
Currywurst and beers on Alexanderplatz also enjoyable.
There must be a German word for ‘I do actually like the sound of that, but can’t see it ever materialising in a million years’, but appreciate the heads-up nonetheless – THAT is a proper night out!
I went there as a yoof when the wall was still up & had a ball. I imagine it’s virtually unrecognisable, so I’m envisioning 3 or 4 days to get a flavour of the sites with some nice scoff & drink thrown in. It’s inevitably going to be quite a lot less freewheeling than before, but still think there’s scope for fun.