Even a half-day layover in Berlin is long enough to enjoy one of my favorite cities in Europe.
I first fell in love with Berlin in 2006, the first time I visited the city. It’s an amazing city with a rich history, beautiful architecture, and great food. While the largest German city by far, it is still a very walkable city.
I arrived into Berlin about 11:00 AM from Athens and had a connection to Copenhagen at 7:00PM, giving me about eight hours on the ground.
After spending the first couple hours working in the Lufthansa Lounge, I decided to head into town at about 1:00PM. An express bus departing every 10-15 minutes from Tegel airport makes it quite easy to get into the heart of Berlin quickly.
What to do? There are so many possibilities. I considered visiting the STASI museum, something I’ve wanted to do for years and a place that takes on greater meaning after watching the Cold War espionage series Deutschland 83. There was even a docent-lead tour available. But I decided to save that visit for a day in which I had more time.
Then I thought about checking out progress on Brandenburg Airport. Not only would it make for an interesting story, but I am genuinely curious on what is going on with this airport project, now nearly a decade late.
But ultimately I just decided to go on a long walk through the Tiergarten, ending up at the Brandenburg Gate and Bundestag (parliament).
Hotel Adalon, the green roofed building above, offers excellent coffee. I ate at the Kempinski Adlon during my first trip to Berlin and still have fond memories of it.
And that was it. I took the subway to the central train station then returned to the airport where I resumed my work.
CONCLUSION
You can see a lot of Berlin in even a few hours. I am so glad I left the airport and got some fresh air. Berlin remains one of my favorite cities in the world. Even if you just go for a long walk, it is worth the effort.
You’ve seen “The Lives of Others” I presume. If not give it a whirl.
I was there in July and I really enjoyed using the e-bike share from Uber that is branded as Jump Bike. I know that the subway system of any city is part of the feel but I like being above ground to see the place and the e-bike allows one to really cover some territory.
Have you seen The Lives of Others ( drama)or Goodbye, Lenin ( Black Comedy) ? Both East Berlin themed and well worth watching.
I love Berlin ( so long as I don’t have to arrive on Lufthansa)
Matthew, Peter and I visited the STASI Museum last month with our daughter who lives in Berlin. We took a tour led by an English-speaking docent, a young man specializing in his studies in the history of that period. Some of the German language tours, though, are led by former prisoners. You might seek out one of those tours. I do recommend a visit! Alison
I’ve seen both. And cried.
If you want to see stasi HQ you don’t need to pay for a tour, you can do it yourself and it’s easy.
Take U5 from Alexanderplatz to Magdelenenstrasse and when you come out of the station on to Frankfurter Allee you cannot miss the enormity of the Normanenstrasse complex. The museum only takes up a tiny part of the site these days and the rest is offices. The way into the museum is clearly signed and entry costs very little and a little more for a guide book in English. The exhibition is very well done and there are some constants and other things change from time to time. Allow a couple of hours to see it all.
If you want to dig deeper and see more go on the the stasi prison at Hohenschoenhausen, take tram M6 again from Alexanderplatz to Genslerstrasse and it’s a short walk. There is a tour (you can’t visit on your own) in English each day at 14.30 and if you’re interested in that period of history it’s worth doing.
Great food? Could you please elaborate on that a bit further? I know it is all about preference but German food comes way behind Italian, French, Greek, Spanish and Portuguese food when talking about European food. Just look in global cities the number of restaurants serving food from the countries I named vs German restaurants. Don’t take my comment the wrong way but I just want to hear your thoughts about what you call great food in Germany.
Currywurst?
On a serious note, I’ve enjoyed great German, Italian, Persian in Berlin plus steak.
Berlin will always have a special place in my heart; it was the first place I used my points to travel business class, and stay at the courtyard on points.
So what you did took about 4-5 hours?
Im about to have a similar connection in a few weeks and Ive never been to Berlin, so I also want to spend some hours there and Im looking for ideas.
I’d say 3.5 hours. Enjoy your layover!
Matthew,
Somehow without knowing I always click on your posts in the BoardingArea common feed. Maybe it’s because we share training (lawyer here) and interests (Berlin).
Today a tip for you (what I did in Berlin for my birthday two years ago): if you check up Spreepoint on google you will find a boat rental company. What I did was rent a motorboat and see Berlin from the water.
The practicals:
– it’s really not expensive (around 120 eur/day);
– no permit needed for quite speedy boats (you get a map with speed limits and corridors, and there is a restriction past a certain bridge in the center, and also if you’re not up for the self-operating sluices you can avoid them just fine);
– there’s some nice infrastructure: businesses that have spare docking spaces where you can just tie your boat take a break and eat something.
For longer stays, they also run a scheme with a training of around 1 hour that gives a local permit so you can get a sleeping-berth boat (family-friendly) and just navigate the lakes and canals of the largest inland system in Europe spanning East Germany and Western Poland. Prices same (around 170 eur/boat/night including fuel and insurance).
Maybe I gave you a nice idea.
Keep up the nice and realistic posts!
What a great idea! Thanks for bringing this to my attention Lucas. I will certainly look into this next time. I think my son would love it too.