Berlin questions
 

And I hope they are minor questions.

His Beardedness (husband) and I will be in Berlin on Friday morning, staying for a week.
We have instructions for public transport to our hotel, breakfasts and lunches mostly accounted for and a few sightseeing items taken care of. Most of this seems fairly straightforward and easy for us.

So, the questions are:

Where do we purchase the 7-day public transport card, is that a machine at the airport? (ARN-TXL, arriving 9 a.m.-ish) Or would it be better to get to the hotel first and then look for the 7-day card in town? We'll be in the city center for our stay, aside from airport days.

Recently ran across a get2 card for Berlin, claims we eat two-for-one at cafés and possibly two-for-one admissions to some museums. Really? And where do I get this, other than ordering online?

And finally, dinner prices? I'm seeing some online that appear a little above our price allowances. Because there is no KFC in Sweden, His Beardedness has planned at least 4 lunches there. I'm not objecting. But dinner? We are generally allowing 60 Euro per day each (per diem from Sweden) but I'd like to think I can do a lot better than that. Can I expect to get away with 30 Euro each at dinner? We aren't big on wine, he might have a beer or two, I'll probably drink sodas, so alcohol won't be a huge expense. Tea and coffee, however...with our intake on that, we might be going through 60 Euro each. ;)


Our German skills are ... well, he'll be okay and I am seriously out of practice. Not really too worried on that part, until we get to dinner menus. I'm fairly confident we'll be okay.

Anything else we should know or be aware of?

Thank you to anyone willing to share insight!

Get it at the airport .There is a ticket office right by the bus stops at TXL.

Get it at this ticket office. However, if there is a long line (yesterday I saw probably 50 people waiting) there are vending machines outside that do the same trick....

Regarding the ticket: You might wish to consider the more touristy offers. There are two tickets for five days, that include quite a bit of discounts.

http://www.bvg.de/index.php/de/3786/...ebersicht.html

Both are availabe at the machines, too.

Dinner: KFC probably is one of the more expensive budget choices (considering value for money). There are plenty places where you can get away with 10 to 20 Euro incl. wine depending on your choice. Perfect (still central) regions for dinner are eg. Savignyplatz and Oranienburger Straße. You might wish to check places like the restaurants below. All these places are places Berliners like (and I am there frequently):

http://www.12-apostel.de/restaurant.php?idr=1
http://www.amrit.de/v2/index.php
http://www.hasir.de/
http://www.goodtime-berlin.de/goodtime_main.html

And if you are into fastfood, visit the German websites. Several chains have cupons. I do not know about KFC, but I am positive about Burger King.

You might wish to check Gutscheinbuch.de which offers several 2-4-1 offers and offer good value if you are in a town like Berlin for quite a few days.

http://www.gutscheinbuch.de/cgi-bin/...zipCity=Berlin

Thank you both for your responses!

He's put three different apps for Berlin on his iPhone, we've printed out several things we found online, and yet we missed all three of those great links to restaurants above! Many thanks!

KFC is truly only because there is not one in Sweden. A week in Bulgaria a couple of years ago, 4 times to the KFC, just to get him over his need for 11 herbs and spices. :D
It's okay, I don't mind that and we'll certainly get the local paper and look for some coupons.

I just don't want fast food for dinner, generally. We are just as likely to eat 6 times a day at cafés as we are to have only 3 meals in restaurants in one day.

Thanks so very much, I don't mind one or two of our dinners to run in the 75-100 Euro per person range, but I don't want that every night we're there.

More notes on the map now! Thanks!

The linked map shows the location of the BVG ticket office referenced by cph_flyer:

http://www.berlin-airport.de/EN/Reis...DownloadEN.gif

Once you have your ticket or pass in hand, you exit via the adjacent door to the area where the bus stops are located.

Oh, you can have a good dinner for 30€, definitely!

I'd add Kastanienallee, Danziger Strasse, Simon-Dach-Strasse...or why not Schöneberg just behind Nollendorfplatz,

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.5 (Microsoft Windows; PPC; Opera Mobi; U) SonyEricssonX1i/R3AA Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Happily in Berlin, one oversized early KFC lunch done.
He is going through some of the links now - thank you all.
Travel ticket, easy. Bus to town, easy. Lunch at 10 am, easy. Deciding dinner for tonight will be a little harder, but thanks for all the input. You are all much appreciated.

Good to hear ! Whereabouts are you staying ? You might get some nearby suggestions for dinner.

I would have problems spending 30 for dinner. Most Berlin eateries are way below that.

Aside from a few places where my phone would actually find a network, my laptop was all but useless.
We are home now, but we had a GREAT week in Berlin. Thank you for your input here!

We stayed in Kreuzberg at the DieFabrik hostel. Not bad, though by the 4th day, I was tired of two flights (make that 4 sets of stairs) up to sleep every day. Not a fan of hostels. That's my second stay in a hostel, my first was only a month ago. I do not like going down the hall for a shower, minimalist furnishings and questionable internet. I'm much more spoiled than that, generally. But I will give them credit for cleanliness, ease of entry at all hours and close to transportation. There was an attached café/restaurant, so even my late evening munchies were taken care of quickly. Maybe at age 50, I'm getting picky, or maybe I just think my princess self should have better. But I can definitely recommend it to those who are backpack oriented and those who wish clean, safe and quiet. My mom would be quite happy there, as would mom-in-law. They cope better than I do.

Most of our days, as kind of expected, we did the eat-every-few-hours-at-a-café deal.
One very lovely (and huge portions!) dinner at Aquila, but the total there was less than 30 Euro for both of us. We had a lot of hand-held food during the day, but in the evenings, I much prefer a restaurant. And there were indeed plenty!

Thank you for the links, and cph_flyer, if I'd been able to be online more than a few minutes at a time, I might have come back before now - but thank you. Thank you ALL for your assistance!