Berlin Recommendations

Off to Berlin for four or five days next week. We've got some plans for a few of the obligatory touristy things. Any recommendations for other must-see/must-do/must-smell experiences in and around Berlin?

We'll have a modest budget but have put some moolah aside for one or two fancy treats (most likely involving haute cuisine). We're big on contemporary and modern art, natural history, food of all possible kinds, thick cloudy beer, and bloody lovely looking sights.

We'd love to hear about some lovely places to eat and drink, and, as the wife has requested, where the best flea markets are.

Thank you, cultured globetrotters.

 

THE DARK RESTAURANT!!! - 10 of us went to Berlin last year for my birthday, this was the funnest thing we did and the food was really good. You eat in the pitch black, it's a real shock to the senses.

It's in Mitte district, i'll find the link.

Obvs there's all the tourist stuff too - Brandenburg gate, Jewish Memorial (harrowing but essential), Reichstag (good at night), wandering around Kreuzberg, East side gallery (Berlin wall) etc

In fact I have the Berlin lonely planet sat on my book shelf if you can be bothered to swing by kirkstall you're welcome to borrow it

 

Treptower Park is a must

 

Stasi Museum is great, some signs on the exhibits don't have English on them but its still totally worth a look, some bright spark decided not to mess up the offices of the bosses so they're all intact. It's closing for a few months from the 6th October though.
Prater garten is good for an outdoor beer in a massive beer garden.
Flea markets, Google berlin flea markets and take your pick, there's at least one site that lists them. Mauer park is the biggest, one side is all traders though, the rest is flea. Gets really busy. but worth a look. Moritzplatz is good too, small but more fun and lots of allotment type growing going on around it in supermarket and beer crates.
Bauhaus museum is excellent.

 

Go up the TV Tower! The panoramic views are incredible.

 

Spend a weekend in Berghain.

 

Get your walking shoes on and spend a day walking round.

A walk I suggest is as follows, you can take in a lot of the sites with this. We didn't even plan it we just walked out of our apartment and wandered around all day and it was brilliant. It was in April and it was 24 degrees though so that helped!

Start at Checkpoint Charlie, head over to the museum called the Topography of Terror (you can see where the headquarters of Gestapo and the SS were, and see a massive section of the Berlin wall.)

From there, walk up to Postdamerplatz, worth visiting the film museum if you are interested in it. Whilst we were there, there was a and then walk all the way up past Tiergarten (up Eberstrasse) to the Brandenberg Gate. (You can divert to the Reichstag from here too, go up it for a good view of the city, its free, which the TV tower isn't.)

Then walk all the way up the Unter den Linden (the wide avenue that goes through the gate) past all the beautiful buildings that apparently Berlin doesn't have (here is Museum Island and the cathedrals are here too) and you will then reach Alexanderplatz where the TV tower is....its a bit empty from the front - go round the back of it and a short walk to the right is where all the shops are. Around the back of the TV tower they have mini trampolines in the street..I had great fun on those!

Other than that...guide book, plan your own adventures. Don’t plan where you’re going to eat…just wander round and find somewhere you like. Oh and Kreuzberg is where all the cool kids hang out.

 

I was there at the weekend for the marathon, only really had a day to look around and reckon the walking idea is a good one (the public transport is pretty good/easy to use too).

Definitely the Eastside Gallery, it's a 1.5km stretch of the wall that they commissioned a load of artists to paint and is now a giant, free, outdoor gallery. Starts at the Ostbahnhof or at the other end at Warschauer Strasse.

The island with all the museums on is great.

Checkpoint Charlie is a bit underwhelming and was SO BUSY every time I walked past on Sunday and yesterday

The photoautomaten are worth seeking out (only a couple of euros and pleasingly old-fashioned) http://www.photoautomat.de/standorte.html

the Topography of Terror thing is well worth a look, pretty depressing and sombre.

The Holocaust memorial is good (near the Tiergarten/Brandenburg Gate)

You can go up into the Reichstag dome for free if you book in advance (do it online)

The flea market(s) looked mega but I was all knackered from running so didn't properly check them out.

Oh and what was Tegal Airport is now a giant public park so you can go and run/walk/ride a bike around, again definitely worth a visit, even if it's just to marvel at the weird Soviet-ness of it and to dash about on a runway.

 

Cheers guys!

 

Visited Berlin a couple of years ago and had a great time. Hire a bike if you get time and cycle along the river towards Treptower Park. On the way back if you cross the river there are some great bars in abandoned warehouses along the way.

We ended up here:

http://www.bestclubsin.com/berlin/cassiopeia

 

That Russian War Memorial in Treptower park is absolutely crackers. I went before dusk and there was hardly anyone around. Thoroughly recommended.

 

Ramones Museum Berlin
Address Krausnick str 23
10115 Belin Mitte.

Admission 3.50 Euros
Open 7 days a week 12 to 10 pm

Cant think of anywhere better to visit in Berlin Hyrax.
Planning of going next year myself.

 

this thread is great for showing just how diverse this fantastic city is. It is many many different things to many different people.

the neon crazy golf in Gorlitzer park is fun! watch out for the weed pushers tho....

"the bird" is great for burgers, prenzlauer berg or now in X berg

 

It's tempelhof airport, not Tegel. And yes, totally go there, it's brilliant, take a few beers and a picnic, play art mini golf, have a look at the "early adopter" (squatters who must have seen big empty field and thought we'll have some of that before the developers move in, in non council speak) allotment area, and marvel at how it's not been turned into housing or some such. It's big mind, the terminal looks small, but is about 1km long or something. It takes longer than you might think to walk across an airfield. There's a couple of old planes still scattered about and loads of people kite boarding.

 

Templehof is mint on a comedown, just mong out for a day, watch the weirdos rollerblading.

 

I went to Berlin a few years back to watch Rammstein. Was blown away with the architecture (new as well as old).
The Cathedral was spectacular with vaults downstairs.
I also saw a naked lady in a shop window. She was laying down. I think it was something to do with art.
The public transport system (trains) was first class.

 

Agree with the sentiments about Checkpoint Charlie. its crap and you can't move for groups of tourists taking photos of themselves in the middle of the street.

However, if you do visit....don't go to see that, go to seek out the fantastically rude memorial that is on a wall down the road to the left of c.c (as if you were coming from Kreuzberg). You'll need to look around for it, but its worth seeking out.

 

That sounds absolutely terrible. Why would you want to eat in the pitch black? ha. I like to see what I'm eating or I don't trust it.

 

Burgers at White Trash Fast Food.

 

White Trash has really gone down hill since it moved location. It's near Kreuzberg now, went a couple of times a few months ago and the food (and general 'vibe' :amish isn't quite the same since they moved the place. I was pretty disappointed as it was one of the best bars I visited the first time I went a few years ago. It's probs still worth going to for drinks on a night out as the place is near a load of other good bars etc.

Agree with a lot of other posts in this thread especially with going to Treptower park etc. Also if you're in and around Mitte at any point, grab a burger or a kebab from this place between beers - https://www.facebook.com/Voener . It's all vegan and all delicious.