Berlin, Germany

see also:

• Frankfurt, Germany
• Munich and regions, Germany
• Prague
  • 4hrs by car via Dresden, 4.5hr by train, 50min flight
• budapest
  • 12hrs by train
• vienna
• paris
• Reims and the champagne region of France
• photographs of Berlin:
  • my blog posts:
    • index of my photography blog posts by region
    • Potsdam and the Schloss Sanssouci Palace of Frederick the Great
    • Berlin's mixed architecture
    • Postcards from Berlin: reflecting upon the Holocaust
  • HDR dusk imagery by Domingo Leiva
  • Street photography Berlin

• Berlin
  • The Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor)
  • Museum Island allow 1-2hrs plus museum visiting time - you could probably do 3 museums a day, and the Museum Pass allows free entry for 3 days.
    • Old Museum (Altes Museum) - Crown Jewels and other royal treasures
    • New Museum (Neues Museum) - Nefertiti
    • National Gallery
    • Bode Museum of antiquities - in particular, renaissance religious art works
    • the Pergamon with its spectacular reconstructed historic buildings from the Middle East
    • Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie) with its fine collections of 19th-century paintings
  • Berlin Wall Memorial and Checkpoint Charlie - allow 15-30min
  • Berlin skyline from rooftop ¹⁾
  • Berliner Dom, James Simon Park ²⁾
  • Oberbaumbrücke, Universal Studios - Berlin's most beautiful bridge (sth-east) ³⁾
  • 17thC Charlottenburg Palace and Park - Berlin's oldest and largest Prussian estate
  • Unter den Linden - lime tree avenue from museum island to Brandenburg Gate, and see the Humboldt University, the State Opera, the State Library, the German Museum of History and embassies, allow 30-60min
  • The Gendarmenmarkt - one of Berlin's largest squares, is dominated by three large historic buildings - the Konzerthaus, the French Cathedral (Französischer Dom), and the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom), allow 45min
  • Alexanderplatz is one of the busiest squares in all of Berlin - Socialist architecture, buskers, and nearby 14th century Marienkirche (St. Mary’s Church) and Rotes Rathaus and Neptune Fountain allow 2hrs BUT area is known for pickpockets and bag grabbing thefts
  • The Rebuilt Reichstag
  • Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church allow 30min
  • The Nikolai Quarter - the heart of the old city
    • Knoblauch House, built in 1760 and representative of the former homes of the city's wealthy Jewish merchants and tradesmen
    • Ephraim Palace, built in the 1760s and housing exhibits relating to Berlin's rich artistic and cultural history (be sure to visit its exquisite grand staircase)
  • Grunewald Forest
  • Grosser Tiergarten and the Berlin Victory Column in its centre
    • 600 acres forest gardens - allow 1-2 hours at this location for photos, just walking from one side to the next takes around 45 minutes, in addition for the Victory Column, 15-20 minutes if you’re not going to climb the tower if your going to climb the tower 1-1 ½ hours.
  • East Side Gallery - remnant of Berlin wall covered in graffiti
  • Hamburger Bahnhof - contemporary art
  • Jewish Museum
  • Teufelsberg eerie dilapidated buildings and street art and crazy acoustics inside the radomes; man made hill, the highest hill in Berlin - 12km west of Berlin - €15 (for the once-daily ‘history’ tour by squatters) ⁴⁾, and nearby Olympiastadion
  • wikipedia sights
• day trips from Berlin
  • Potsdam & Schloss Sanssouci, Dutch Quarter, and Babelsberg castle and park
  • Communist memorial at Treptower Park 5km south-east
  • Neue Heimat 14km south; part street food, part cocktail bar, part biergarten in a former railway depot, with artists performing live music and a pop-up market every Wednesday
  • Dresden & The Saxon Switzerland National Park
  • Hamburg
  • The Baltic Sea
  • historic small town of Brandenburg an der Havel
  • Frankfurt an der Oder on the Polish border 75min by train
  • Spree Forest, Lübbenau
  • Bayrischer Wald forest
  • grit of the Ruhr cities
  • the wild Nothern sea islands

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin

Dilapidated Teufelsberg and radomes

Olympiastadion Nazi architecture

• Rostock
  • 230km north of Berlin (2.5hrs car, 3hr by 2 x trains)
• Nienhagen 15km NW of Rostock
  • Gespensterwald coastal salt affected ghost forest ⁵⁾
• Jasmund National Park
  • 130km east of Rostock (2hr drive)
  • famous for the largest chalk cliffs of Germany, the so-called Königsstuhl. These cliffs are up to 161 m high above the Baltic Sea. The beech forests behind the cliffs are also part of the national park.⁶⁾
  • Sellin
    • lovely pier at night ⁷⁾
• Hamburg
  • “Wasserschlösschen”, located in the Hafencity in Hamburg ⁸⁾
  • Speicherstadt, river canals

• Dresden
  • 193km south of Berlin, 2.5hrs by car, 2hrs by train, and 2/3rds of the way to Prague from Berlin
• Amselfallbaude nature park on Czech border, 3hr drive and 240km from Berlin
• Elbe Sandstone Mountains
  • Bastei bridge

Bastei bridge

Dresden

Görlitz - Saxony on the east border with Poland

Gosler, 3hrs, 300km west of Berlin