A weekend away

[Tail End Charlie]

Well we met in Tesco coffee shop, first date we went to see Back to the Future and favourite pre children spot was probably a car park just on the outskirts of our home town, it had a nice view. Now that would be a cheap 25th anniversary do!
However, a decision has been made and it is.........................................









Berlin self catering . So we know who to blame if it's crap! We're booked and paid for from the 1st to the 4th of May so I've got two months to learn German.
Thank you to everyone for your suggestions and advice it really was appreciated and a big help

Good choice, at least I hope it is as I'm off there on Monday for three nights, never been before, looking forward to it.

 

[Mugshot]

Good choice, at least I hope it is as I'm off there on Monday for three nights, never been before, looking forward to it.

You'll have to give me some tips when you get back (as will everybody else that's been) Which area are you staying in?

 

[postman]

[QUOTE 4687763, member: 259"]Lisbon, Lisbon, and Lisbon. Fantastic city, lovely climate, chilled people, and great food for reasonable prices.[/QUOTE]



View: https://youtu.be/e7ON3mMMFSs
A must for half of Glasgow.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

You'll have to give me some tips when you get back (as will everybody else that's been) Which area are you staying in?

We stayed in a hotel near the Kurfurstendamm. Great location.
From the airport, it was a 45 minute train ride (one change) which cost 3.40 Euros each (remember to stamp your ticket before you get on!). The train, tram, metro system is pretty easy to understand once you get your head round it (like most European cities the lines are denoted by the end station) and the same ticket can be used on all of them.
That said, we didn't use the public transport much because we hired bikes. I think there is a Boris bike system, but it's not much in evidence, but everywhere there are hire bikes for 12 Euros a day (50 Euro deposit), generally locked up outside snack bars, restaurants, or even hotels and you just go in and hire them. They are "Dutch" bikes so perfect for whizzing around. The cycle infrastructure is very good, there are separate cycle lanes, the roads are wide and the drivers very considerate. Even pavement cycling doesn't seem to cause bother. We hired from a local snack bar which closed at 8pm, which was fine for us, but if you want them later then you'd have to hire from a restaurant.
If you want to visit the Reichstag you have to prebook, which we did before we went. We went early in the day, but I would quite like to go up at night (it's open till 10pm or so) as then you'd have the city lights etc.
Some of the museums are free, I can say which we visited if you wish, but you're probably interested in different things.

Eating out is a bit pricy, the snack bars are great for lunch, but evening meals are a little more than over here. The beer is a bit more aswell, but I'm not a great drinker so not a problem.

I really enjoyed the trip, it was fun trying the decide if I was in West or East Berlin, if you see what I mean. Much of the history is sobering stuff though.

 

[Mugshot]

We stayed in a hotel near the Kurfurstendamm. Great location.
From the airport, it was a 45 minute train ride (one change) which cost 3.40 Euros each (remember to stamp your ticket before you get on!). The train, tram, metro system is pretty easy to understand once you get your head round it (like most European cities the lines are denoted by the end station) and the same ticket can be used on all of them.
That said, we didn't use the public transport much because we hired bikes. I think there is a Boris bike system, but it's not much in evidence, but everywhere there are hire bikes for 12 Euros a day (50 Euro deposit), generally locked up outside snack bars, restaurants, or even hotels and you just go in and hire them. They are "Dutch" bikes so perfect for whizzing around. The cycle infrastructure is very good, there are separate cycle lanes, the roads are wide and the drivers very considerate. Even pavement cycling doesn't seem to cause bother. We hired from a local snack bar which closed at 8pm, which was fine for us, but if you want them later then you'd have to hire from a restaurant.
If you want to visit the Reichstag you have to prebook, which we did before we went. We went early in the day, but I would quite like to go up at night (it's open till 10pm or so) as then you'd have the city lights etc.
Some of the museums are free, I can say which we visited if you wish, but you're probably interested in different things.

Eating out is a bit pricy, the snack bars are great for lunch, but evening meals are a little more than over here. The beer is a bit more aswell, but I'm not a great drinker so not a problem.

I really enjoyed the trip, it was fun trying the decide if I was in West or East Berlin, if you see what I mean. Much of the history is sobering stuff though.

@Tail End Charlie that's fabulous, thank you so much for taking the time to post that. As for the museums, I'd be more than happy to hear which ones you visited

 

[Haitch]

The DDR Museum is very interesting.

 

[User169]

For beer:

Vagabund in Wedding (depending on your tolerance for beards and plaid)
Hopfenreich in Kreuzberg (depending on your tolerance for shouty 20 year olds)

There's also the new Stone place, although it's a bit of a trek from the center of town.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

@Mugshot
At Checkpoint Charlie there is a museum (which we didn't go in) and a display close by (which is free) and another exhibition (5 Euros) which had films, photos etc about the wall and its fall.
300 yards away there's a stretch of the wall and a museum, Topographie des Terrors (free), on the site of the Gestapo HQ. The display are a series of photos and captions about the Nazi Party rise and the subsequent atrocities. Very interesting but a lot to take in.
The Cathedral, Berliner Dom (7 Euro each), was splendid, and you can climb the 200 or so steps to get a panoramic view of the city. It is opposite the DDR Museum mentioned above (which we didn't visit).
The Deutsches Historiches museum (8 Euro each) takes you through the formation of the country from the Dark Ages to the present. It's a more formal museum with exhibits (clothing, guns, swords etc) as well as photos and films.
The Holocaust memorial (free) takes you through the holocaust and follows the fate of several families, through family snap shots etc. As you can imagine, it's not a bundle of laughs.

Obviously things like the Brandenburg Gates should be seen, there's a memorial to the Soviet dead nearby which is good, because I've never been so up close and personal to a T34 tank before! The first two T34 tanks into Berlin are on display there.

I was actually quite struck by how many old buildings had been restored and by how old certain parts looked. When you see photos of Berlin in the aftermath of the war I was expecting only 1950s buildings.

As a wacky aside, I have an interest in old lamps, and near the Tiergarten station, in the park, there's a display of 90 old gas street lamps, which get light at night. Some have been damaged but the effect is magical.

 

[Haitch]

WOAH!! STOP RIGHT THERE!!!

Just round the corner from Checkpoint Charlie. First street on the right walking towards the Brandenburger Tor if I remember correctly, is a museum to the greater glory of Berlin's pre-eminent contribution to body and soul. Hands-on, interactive bilingual displays, audiovisual entertainment, educational material and a bar! Fun for all the family. And the price of admission includes a sample of the delicacy itself.

 

[Mugshot]

The DDR Museum is very interesting.

Funnily enough I had a trip in yesterday from Germany that said exactly the same thing.
Thank you everyone for all the info too, it's very very much appreciated!!!

 

[Mugshot]

Funnily enough I had a trip in yesterday from Germany that said exactly the same thing.

A trip? How about a rep!!

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Yebbut... it's full of Scots....

Don't be too sure about that.

 

[oldwheels]

Yebbut where I live in Scotland is full of English.

 

[Doseone]

Porthgain?

There's lots of great suggestions on here and Berlin does sound excellent, been wanting to go there for ages.

You could do a couple of nice places in the UK eg a couple of nights in Bath then on to Oxford or London for a couple of nights.

 

[Mugshot]

And we're back.
Flew to Berlin from Bristol on Monday and back yesterday. Flight times meant we had two full days plus a few hours for a quick wander on the Monday and Thursday.
Really enjoyed it as did my wife, so thank you all your help.
We booked through Expedia, flew with Easyjet and stayed in Frederics serviced apartments (thank you @ClaireSaud for the self catering idea, I recognise your avatar now too!) in Hackescher Markt, which was superb. Hackescher was about 30mins train from Schonefeld airport. We had a hearty breakfast each day in the apartment which basically saw us through to our evening meal which we had in one of the restaurants in the square by the Hackescher train station.
Transport was fabulous, we got a visitor card which covered us for the time we were there and jumped on and off various S trains, U trains and trams, zipping around the city to Friedrichstadt, Alexanderplatz, Potsdamer and so on and basically just having a mooch around. Soooooo many bikes and sooooo little congestion that you'd almost think there was some correlation.
So we went to the TV tower which was ok, the view was fabulous, although unfortunately it was raining that day, but the queue for getting through the security check must have taken about 45 minutes. We went and had a look at the Gendarmenmarkt, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Topography of Terror, Checkpoint Charlie and various bits and bobs that we wandered past on our way round. The only museum we went in was the Topography of Terror which we spent an hour or two at but frankly with the amount of information that was there you could have easily spent all day and I would imagine that would be the same at many of the others.
Just around the corner from our apartment was a place called Curry61 which is a hole in the wall type cafe which apparently serves the best currywurst in Berlin, judging by the pemanent queue along the street for it it would appear that this reputation is not unfounded, and it was blooming gorgeous. According to my wife who's been to Germany on a number of occasions and sampled various currywursts this was head and shoulders above the rest
Anyway, fabulous place, loved the transport, fascinating history, too much to take in in just a couple of days, I'd be happy to go again.