Berlin in March

Third_Echelon

Heading to Berlin over Easter weekend in March. I have my flights and accomodation booked.

Just wondering what are the must-see spots/attractions in Berlin. I'll have about 2 and a half full days to see stuff, so any suggestions would be welcome...

thanks

ferdi

the wall.

i've been there but didnt have time to see anything than the usual sight-seeing stuff which can be boring.

therecklessone

The Reichstag.
Brandenburg Gate.
Unter Den Linden (the avenue on the far side of the Brandenburg Gate)
Checkpoint Charlie musuem (ultra-touristy, but worthwhile all the same)

Make sure you check out The Topography of Terror www.topographie.de which is an outdoor exhibition on the Nazis. Its a real eye-opener. Its also right behind the only remaining part of the Wall.

Also try and get to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Kurfurstendamm, to see the really haunting charcoal sketch Stalingrad Madonna (which was done by a German soldier during the seige of Stalingrad...its mentioned in Anthony Beevor's book about the campaign). While you're there, try the Europa Center down the road for a bite to eat, there used to be a fairly reasonable restaurant on the first floor, did a mean asian menu.

If you're still bored, try the Soviet War Memorial on Strasse des 17 Juni (walk through the Brandenburg Gate from Unter den Linden and keep going straight ahead, its on your right hand side.

Third_Echelon

cool, thanks lads...

Im really interested in WW2 and all that type of thing, so visiting these types of things in Berlin is a must for me, and there seems to be plenty of it... That topographie exhibition sounds interesting.

Cheers...

Also looking for some tips on good bars/nightspots as well....

Von Manstein

Don't forget to see the newly renovated Reichstag - Lots of history there
Also if your interested give this webpage a try for places to vist...

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/berlin.htm

Enjoy

therecklessone

Third_Echelon wrote:

Also looking for some tips on good bars/nightspots as well....

Can't recommend a techno club called Tresor highly enough. Not too sure its still going, but when I was there three years ago it was quality. Mad techno in the basement, but relatively listenable house on the ground floor (I'm a strictly guitars man myself, but had a ball). Nit too sure if its "legal" either, AFAIK it was in a squat that looke dlike an old bomb shelter during the day.

Think they open on a Wednesday and if you get your hand stamped on the way in you can get in the following two nights as well. We left it at 9am and there was still people coming in... :eek:

Nightlife is great, I'm told bars only have to close for one hour a day, and they all close at different times. You'll have a ball.

Oh, check a restaurant called Zur Nolle if you can, very good food at reasonable prices and its in part of an old train station, so a really interesting interior.

p.pete

Info on Tresor nightclub - www.tesorberlin.de was there about 4 years ago - don't remember much but it was good. They still seem to have a club listing so I guess they're still going - they're also a label like cream so it's a well established club.

The wall (not in it's former glory) is just beside ost-bahnhof train station. Get off there and look for directions (there's (was?) also a nightclub there called tempodrome) which was quite interesting - had an outdoor central area and a few different areas spreading off that. Not sure if I should recomend it though - think we arrived there at about 5 in the morning having been at the love parade all day and not having slept the night before so judgement was lacking.

There's also another area of the city that's cool to walk around. I don't think it's a million miles away from the Brandenburg (which is close to the Reichstag <edit> I've looked it up, Unter Den Linden strasse </edit>). The town hall and some museums are around that area (maybe I should look at a map to get a street name...) and it's just generally impressive to walk around.

Also the zoo (tiergarten) is pretty cool if you're any way interested in that kind of thing.

Cool city, enjoy

journeyman

In addition to the other recommendations, if you have time, a trip out to Potsdam is recommended - visit the remarkable Sanssouci Palace and it's beautiful gardens. You can do it in a half day, but a full day would be better. The cheapest way to get there is to buy an "all zones" metro ticket in Berlin - Potsdam is just within the outermost zone. You can then catch a tram to the palace.
Museumsinselm ("Museum Island"), in East Berlin, is home to 5 major museums, which are slowly being renovated. It's actually a UNESCO heritage site. In particular, I recommend the Pergamonmuseum.

On the club front, I vote Tresor too - was there last April, and it's still going strong. Actually, the weekend I was in Berlin, there was a special promo on, where one could buy a wristband which allowed entrance into several different nightclubs all over Berlin - a sort of a "nightclub crawl" (a great idea, BTW). We ended up going to 4 different clubs, Tresor being the last and by far the best ! Music-wise, it's techno - the soundtrack of modern Berlin.

WMF ( http://www.wmfclub.de/ ) is also supposed to be good (didn't get a chance to go there) - the spiritual home of the Sonar Kollektive ( Jazzanova et al.), if you are into this sort of music.

it's a great city ! enjoy !

journeyman

Third_Echelon

cool.. thanks for the info lads... that nightclub sounds really good from all the recommendations anyway...
I dont mind techno music. When its good its good, so i reckon when in Rome (or in this case Berlin), do as the romans do....