Berlin - What to see and do?
 

I've done a pretty good search and only have come up with three threads on Berlin really, and all are fairly sparse. Sirprisingly including the rest of flyertalk.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...eferrerid=6744
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...eferrerid=6744
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...eferrerid=6744

My friend Ron and I have got tickets for a long weekend Nov 24-29th, so 5 days and 4 nights. We are going with EBAB to find an apartment rental :
http://ger.ebab.com/index.php?lang=eng

So anyone who has been, even if briefly, name a club or restaurant you liked. A place you enjoyed seeing, or anything else that might fill up a long weekend there. I've really enjoyed the amount of information we've dug up on Columbus, which at this point I'm feeling like i know more about then my own home town! Let's see if we can do the same for Berlin.

Chris

I was in Berlin in in the spring of 2002 for 4 or 5 days, staying at a youth hostel. I found Berlin fascinating, particularly because of all the modern history in the city, and unlike Rome and Paris (which are great in their own ways), it felt very modern, young, and alive. Probably the highlights for me were The Jewish Museum andThe Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. Potsdam (a short train ride away) is quite pleasant if you want to get away from the buzz of the city.

Alex

what did you do in Potsdam? Any fun clubs that you liked?

I was there briefly a few years back and had a good time.

I don't really remember any specific places to go, I'd go to the gay area and talk with the local boys. That's what we did and it worked out pretty well.

I don't recall anything specific about the clubs... I am not a big club person anyway, so perhaps others can provide advice on that question.

As to Potsdam, the Sanssouci Palace was very pleasant, relaxing -- I went in April, so the gardens were green and the flowers were beginning to bloom; in November you will probably find an entirely different site.

Alex

I LOVE Berlin...it ranks up there as one of my favorite European city, despite feeling generally indifferent about the rest of Germany. I've visited about 3 times in the last five years or so, and it changes more and more each time I go back.

Here's my short list of things to do:
For sites, I like the Norman Foster designed Reichstag and the views of the city from inside the dome. The Pergamon museum is pretty good, too. Potsdam is a nice short side trip to see the old palace. I think you can go up on top of the radio tower at Alexanderplatz (although I have never been)...it's a notable part of the skyline. Kreuzberg has a lot of Turkish markets to walk around and see and there are some interesting neighborhood and streets in the old east Berlin that are rapidly changing. A lot of the old U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations are really cool, if you are into that.

For shopping, most of the big stores are on the Ku'damm near Zoo Station, including KaDeWe, the big Berlin department store with a great food court upstairs. Mitte has lots of new restaurants and stores - I generally like this area a bit more since it's a bit more offbeat.

For nightlife. There are two primary areas, although there are bars scattered throughout the city. Shoneberg is the west Berlin nightlife area with most of the bars around Nollendorfplatz and Motzstrasse. Here, you'll find the infamous Tom's Bar. The grittier bars (although it might be more glitzy these days) are in Prenzlauerberg, near Schonhauser Allee. You can find listings in the gay rag Siegesaule, which is free in most bars. It's in German, but the listings are pretty easy to figure out. Also, don't miss the nekkid parties at the Metropol (and other places throughout the city). Basically you pay about $5, dump (all) your clothes, minus shoes, in a trash bag, and have fun. The window for hours at these parties are pretty short - they usually run about 2 or 3 hours. No need to be fashionably late. Germans are efficient at getting down to business.

I like to stay near Zoo because it's the main transport point and it's easy to get anywhere in the city from there. I stayed at the Swisshotel the last time around and thought it was great. I believe there are two train lines that run 24 hours now and both of them go through Zoo - otherwise you'll have to figure out the nightbus system or spring for cabs. Get yourself a transit card from the BVG office - there's one right at Tegel, so you can start your trip off right. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn system are great and gets you everywhere.

Have fun!

thirdcoAAst gives many great suggestions. I particularly agree with this one; the Reichstag is definitely worth visiting, even if there is a long(-ish) queue as was the case when I was there. When I was there, it was open until 10pm, and the view at night was great.

Alex

We went by the new Sony Center at Postdamer Platz (home of the world's first traffic light) when there back in May and happened to run into Brad Pitt. Unfortunately, it wasn't that we just ran into him -- he was there and we accidentally ran into the world premiere festivities surrounding the opening of Troy. We were just there to find somewhere for dinner. Interesting new development, and there's a brick path in the ground in Potsdamer Platz where the wall used to be.

I liked the Zoo and Aquarium when I went back in 2001. Didn't go back on the most recent trip.

Checkpoint Charlie museum was really interesting, though I swear their price went up significantly with the deutch marks to euros conversion. We also liked going over to the East Berlin area and went to the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) to go up and look around.

For clubbing, we went to SO36 in the East Berlin sector (the name is an abbreviation of the street address) which was okay, but not really what we were interested in. Didn't try any of the clubs in the Motzstrasse or Nollendorfplatz area.

wow, i'm so excited all of this is great advice..basic question. What is the best way to get from the airport to downtown? Do you have to take this "Express Fly Bus".

Chris

I'm gonna assume TXL. It's not on the U-Bahn line, but just take the bus to the U-Bahn line and then ride off to your destination. I haven't flown into Berlin, so I've never done it. I've always flown into Frankfurt on the 330 from PIT or CLT and taken the trains around Germany.

Their web page: TXL airport connections

yeah we are flying into TXL..you take the train from FRA to Berlin? that's quite a hike..i looked at the DB site and its like 8 hours to do that. We are flying over on the A 330 outbound and the 767 on the return. I wanted to do FRA both ways, but it had a 3.5 hour layover so I didn't think that was worth it.

The airport bus thing is very easy and inexpensive. Basically the fare is less than $2 from TXL.

There is a decent inexpensive hotel on Motzstrasse called Sachsenhof. It's not luxurious, but clean and centrally located in the gay area.

Different bars are crowded on different nights and there is often a fetish theme of some sort. Many of the bars have "dark rooms" in the back or downstairs. The saunas also have bars in them with some light food service too. A good restaurant for people watching in Schoneberg is Cafe Berio. The Sony Center at the Potsdamer Platz is also very nice. Berlin is one of the most exciting gay destinations in Europe and I'm sure you will have no problems finding interesting things to see and do.

The "TXL" bus (regular public bus) will take you from TXL to the area around the Reichstag/Brandenburg Gate in about 20 mins. This bus also passes the S-Bahn at Westhafen (on the ring line), and the U-Bahn at Turmstrasse (U9 can take you directly to Zoo station). There is another bus that takes you to the U6 line, but it's less quick. You can buy a one or three-day pass at the airport from either the machines, or the people at the transit ticket office (BVG office).

As far as gay spots, as mentioned above the area around Nollendorfplatz has many establishments. There's also a Gay Museum in Berlin that will apparenlty open a permamnent exhibit on gay life in early december. Have not been to the museum, so don't know how it is.

Berlin is really cool, you'll like it!

The fastest trains from Frankfurt Airport to Berlin take 4 hours, 20 minutes. The slower ones take about 5 hours.

cool. i'm a big fan of germany anyway, the little "details" there always seem to go so smoothly, trains on times, bathrooms that are clean, etc. but I'm starting to think that Berlin will be a bit crazy!