Hey!
Last week, I spent five days in Berlin with my family. I had a really wonderful time, the only thing I wasn't prepared for was the weather. It hit over 30 degrees every day so it was hot! We worked around the weather pretty well, going back to the hotel in the afternoon and take a break before going out in the evening to do more sightseeing.
We stayed in
Scandic Berlin Potsdamer Platz which was a beautiful hotel in the middle of the city, it had everything you would need wifi, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, a hairdryer and of course, air con. For the five of us, it was around €40 per person per night for 2 rooms. It was a walking distance from everything and we only needed to get public transport to and from the airport.
The rooms were very spacious and comfortable. I got the short straw and had to sleep on the couch bed but surprisingly it was very comfortable. The hotel is also pet-friendly which is cool, I saw loads of people with their dogs in the lobby.
The first place we headed to after we dropped off our bags at the hotel was
Topography of Terror which is a museum in the area where the SS offices used to be. We didn't fully realise how hot it was going to be and after twenty minutes outside looking at the outside exhibit, we sheltered from the sun within the actual museum. I really enjoyed walking around and learning about what went on in this area of land and it was quite shocking. Tired from being up at 4am and the lack of AC, we ventured back to the hotel for a rest. We did return in the evening time one of the other days to do the outside exhibit and we just got it done before one of the employees clapped at us as a sign that it was time to go.
After a break from the heat and some food in our bellies, we headed for Tiergarten which is a large park. We spent the evening wandering around and just taking it easy. We also returned on our last day to see the Pride parade but unfortunately, we had to catch a flight home.
To get a better idea of where everything is in Berlin, we did a bus tour. We were going to do the typical City Sightseeing but we opted for
Der Tempelhofer. We spent the morning going around seeing all the monuments and enjoying the beautiful views of the city.
In the afternoon, we went to the
DDR Museum which was about the lives of the people living in East Germany. I would recommend buying your ticket online as there was a huge queue to buy tickets but thankfully, I had bought them online and avoided all the queueing in the sun. This museum is interactive and if you aren't a fan of reading loads of information, it is the place to be. It also has AC!
Throughout our stay, we went to many famous monuments. We went to Brandenburg Gate, East Side Gallery, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
We went to Brandenburg twice, once in the afternoon and another time just before sunset and I will say going to it in the evening is much nicer as it isn't as crowded and the photos are beautiful with the sunset in the background.
I feel like the East Side Gallery is one of the must-see attractions in Berlin. It is a part of the Berlin Wall that was painted by different artists. Some murals showcase political issues and of course, a few about the actual falling of the wall itself.
The Jewish Memorial was another very interesting one, as we walked around it everyone was quiet as a mark of respect. The architect didn't state what is the meaning behind this monument but there are many interpretations some saying that it represents graves or that it aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. Both interpretations I agree with.
Checkpoint Charlie is another spot that is very famous and of course, we had to stop to have a look. I learned that the reason it was called Checkpoint Charlie is due to the phonetic alphabet. We went to the Museum of Checkpoint Charlie but I found it quite boring as there was nearly too much to read and also, there was no AC.
German Spy Museum was another one of the numerous museums that we went to. Like the name, this museum showcased the history of spies from Egyptians to World War Two to spy movies. It contained many interactive exhibits and didn't have too much to read in it. It also had a piece of the digital age with companies obtaining our information and using it to sell ads and the infamous fake news.
My mam and I went to
Gemaldegalerie, an art gallery showcasing 13th-18th-century paintings. I hadn't been to an art gallery in years and I found it relaxing walking around with my audio guide learning about different paintings. We concluded that all paintings was in one of three categories, religion, nudity or violence and sometimes even all three!
How can I forget about shopping? I went to both the
Mall of Berlin and Potsdamer Platz Arkaden. I spent a larger amount of time in Arkaden mainly because it was five minutes from the hotel and it was much smaller and quieter than the Mall of Berlin which had an Eastside and Westside Mall.
I really enjoyed my trip to Berlin and how the city still shares their history of what happened from pre World War Two up to the falling of the Berlin Wall. It was eyeopening to see how many people were affected by this sixty-year time frame.
This won't be the last post about Berlin, I will be putting up a post next week about the best places to go to and if I have enough interest I might do a post about the places I ate at.
Please let me know if you would like the foodie post as I would happily do it.
Have you ever been to Berlin? What did you think of the city?
Thanks for being awesome,
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