In time for the World Cup: Berlin

Berlin is a fascinating city definitely worth a visit. The city has not yet caught up the more frequently chosen locations Paris and London.
Museums, theatres, music – in these departments Berlin has much to offer, arguably more than either Paris or London. In other regards the city is not yet stable enough; it is changing rapidly. The upside for tourists is that the city is rather cheap. Five star hotels offer rooms for prices in-line with the rates for no-frills places in other European capitals.
At the first glance it is an incredibly green city. Almost like a forest with a few roofs poking through, Up close it still shows the difficult history. Most obviously in bullet holes, craters and bunkers. Less obviously in the infrastructure: it is either too big or too small; before the war and recently things were built for a five-million city. In the divided Berlin, the plans usually were for two one-million people cities.
As a result, almost nothing is built in the right dimension for the actual three million Berliners.
The existing city mixes Imperial baroque with the distinct Nazi architecture; the west-Berlin rounded corner style with the equally ugly eastern slab-architecture. And mixed in it, postmodern glass palaces and Stalinistic confectionary style buildings.

I see this article as a stub to be expanded on demand.


Arriving in Berlin
By Train
The new Central Station will leave exactly nowhere. It’s not yet really connected to the U-bahn part of the public transportation network. If you don’t have much to carry, you can consider starting your visit with a walk through the governmental district to the Brandenburg Gate.
Otherwise, use the S-Bahn to get as close to your hotel as possible or take a taxi.
Anyway, enjoy the vertigo-inducing multi-planar architecture; just think of it: the first time the Paris-Moscow trains and the Copenhagen-Istanbul ones can be – theoretically – be seen in one room together.

By Plane
Thanks to the effective taxi driver’s union, the subway passes underneath the Tegel airport without stopping. There is an express bus to the city center, but the only way to get away from the airport quickly is by taxi.
The old Tempelhof airport is connected to the public transportation network.

Upside: all three airports are tiny: hard to get lost there.

Getting around town


The number one mean to get anywhere is public transportation. Pretty much any given point can be reached in half an hour.
The system is at follows: tickets have to be bought AND voided before entering a train. A normal ticket stays valid for two hours after being voided.
The price depends on the Zone: the normal AB tickets are for the city center, ABC includes the suburbs.

There are no barriers stopping people without a ticket, but controls inside the trains are frequent and very unpleasant.

There are two independent train networks,: the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn. Both use the same tickets, so the only important differences are the stations.
The layout of the S-Bahn is a ring around the city with north/south and east/west connections crossing it like a crosshair; the U-bahn is a less systematic, but has more stations.


Safety

Berlin is a reasonably safe city. The eastern suburbs have a Nazi problem, the western districts have gang violence. The danger overall is low, but don’t be careless. In short: behave like you would in any big city.

A rather more important thing: Stay away from people playing the shell game. It’s a scam, you can’t win.
The crowds are usually part of the scam and won’t let you out, once you are inside; at the very least you can expect a pickpocket or two near the game. So: Stay away from them.

Eating
Most important thing first: Tip 10%.

Famines and an early conversion to Protestantism have ensured that Berlin has no traditional cuisine worth mentioning. The two major additions to the culinary world are post war fast-foods: the Currywurst and the Döner. The former being a fried sausage in ketchup, the latter a Turkish style sandwich. Both are affordable and usually quite edible. Also they are sold at every corner.
Recognizing the good stands is a science in itself; Döner should not cost less than €2.50 per serving, for currywurst the smell of the frying oil is a good indicator. Recommendation: get Döner at Saray at the Corner Seestraße/Müllerstraße; U-Bahn Seestraße. For those bold enough to try Currywurst: go to Konopkes under the Eberswalder Strasse U-Bahn station.

Beyond that, it is usually no problem to find good restaurants. Especially the places in the eastern districts are very informal. Even expensive places have no dress requirements, but you should not expect formal service either.

Berlin has more restaurants and bars than any other European city.
Most cuisines have only two or three really good representatives in Berlin, often near the respective embassies. Acceptable places are not too hard to find; buy a restaurant guide, if you want an overview. A hint: if you want Italian, look closely. Most places are run by Turks or Lebanese.

A personal recommendation is the Weinstein in the Prenzlauer Berg district: good, regional food and fine wines . It is not cheap, but prices are adequate.

Museums



Berlin can be called a museum capital. Almost 200 state owned and many private museums are located here. With that many to chose from, there can be no real “have to” list, but at least one thing can be said: Avoid the “Checkpoint Charlie” Museum – it’s a tourist trap. The real Checkpoint Charlie can be seen at the allied forces museum in the Clay Allee, the wall museum is at Bernauer Strasse.

Museums you really, really should see:
Jüdische Museum (2000 years of Jewish life)
Pergamon
Alte Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie
Gemäldegalerie
...

Museums which can be nice:
Technikmuseum /Technology)
Helmut Newton Exhibition
Guggenheim
...

Places of interest

Reichstag and other Parliamentary Buildings

The Reichstag Dome is definitely a must see, but there’s more. If you can spare the time, then you should apply for a guided tour through the Reichstag building (http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/info/besucherinfo/faltblatt06.pdf)


Holocaust Memorial
http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,370867,00.jpg
The Holocaust memorial is right next to the construction site of the American Embassy – which in turn is next to the Brandenburg Gate. The place of information is underneath and can be very crowded. Try to avoid the fast-food stands around the memorial – they are vultures trying to make money from the tourists without respect for the location and the implications.


Eastside Gallery
There’s not much left of the wall, but the acclaimed east side gallery is still – somewhat –standing.

Wall museum
The official museum about the wall is in the Bernauer Strasse, near the Nordbahnhof. Pretty much all other locations are scams.

Böse Brücke
If you are interested where the wall fell: it was on the Böse Brücke, the bridge above the S-bahn Station Bornholmer Strasse,

Alexanderplatz

The famous Alexanderplatz is just starting to shrug off its communist look. The impressive tower offers the best view over the city and the shops are OK.

Graves

It may not be for everyone, but many great people were buried in the city. If you want to pay your respect to Bert Brecht, Schinkel, Fontane, Marlene Dietrich, Willy Brandt, Helmut Newton, the Grimm brothers and many others, then you should check out the city’s cemeteries. Especially interesting is the Dorotheenstädter Friedhof in the Mitte district. (U Bahn Schwarzkopfstraße). A list of the honorerd persons can be found here: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/umwelt/stadtgruen/friedhoefe_begraebnisstaetten/downloads/eg-liste.pdf

Universities


Sure, in times of tight budgets, the Berlin universities don’t look like much. The Technical University’s historic main building is hidden behind a 60s façade (the impressive skyscraper is a recent addition and not the main building), Humboldt’s classicist main building is in need of repair.
However it is worth to venture inside these buildings, which housed the supreme Universities of the world 100 years ago. People like Einstein walked the floors; inventions like the electron microscope were first researched here. One might say: there was a time when Harvard and the MIT looked like community colleges by comparison.


Gendarmenmarkt

The Gendarmenmarkt with the two Cathedrals and the Opera house is considered to be one of the world’s most impressive places. Not even the communist-built surroundings can change that.

Shopping
All prices are including tax; you can get the tax refunded when leaving the country, ask in the shops for the needed paperwork.
Shops are closed on Sundays, with the exception of the malls at the Hauptbahnhof and the Ostbahnhof.

Berlin has three important Shopping streets: The Tauentzien with the KaDeWe and the Ku’damm in Charlottenburg and the Friedrichstrasse in the city center.
The nice department stores are the aforementioned KaDeWe at the Wittenbergplatz U-Bahn station and the Berlin branch of Paris’ LaFayette at the Stadtmitte U-Bahn station.

Schloss Charlottenburg
Well ... it's a palace.


The Olympic Stadium

Here for a concert/match? The Stadium is connected to both: the U-Bahn(u2) and the S-Bahn. The building and the ensemble offers the most realistic – and chilling – impression of darker days. It is a controversial building, still featuring a temple for Germanic soldiering. There are redeeming factors, but I can’t help feeling strange when seeing it.


To be continued…