Berlin, Germany

The flight was very long, routing through Hong Kong then Helsinki before a final short leg to Berlin. Finnair was good and everything went smoothly, and we even got fast tracked through immigration (there was a huge queue) because of the short transfer time in Helsinki.

We landed at 5pm jumped in one of the very nice Mercedes Benz taxis and headed to our Airbnb. We booked a place in the centre of town – Mitte. The unit was nice, a quirky little loft apartment in an area called Scheunenviertal, a bit like Redfern, with lots of students around. It was a Jewish slum area, but is now considered a hip area for creatives, students, and weary bloggers😜.

We realised later that Mitte is quite big and being closer to Alexanderplatz would have been a better location to access the main sites, but it was still a nice spot.

That evening we checked out the area, bought supplies (tea, milk, cheese, wine) and grabbed some dinner before crashing.

Tuesday morning we were up (very) early so jumped on the underground, bought a travel pass and headed to Alexanderplatz for breakfast.

The coffee was good and the train system is fantastic. Very easy to navigate, and there are great apps to help.

At 10am we joined an all day Fat Tire Bike tour of the city. It was a great way to see Berlin, learn about the history, and shake off the jet lag.

The tour starts at the famous Needle (television tower) and in front of the Red Town Hall, and then winds through many of the sites (many of which have been restored since the war)

It was an incredibly enlightening day. We both learned so much about how Hitler had come into power, the persecution and war that followed, and then the splitting of Germany, and Berlin, post the war, with the establishment and then destruction of the Wall. Such an amazing city.

With the tour done it was time to relax and join the Oktoberfest festivities! We had picked our timing perfectly and there was a mini festival running in Alexanderplatz.

To wash down the beer we tried a few of the local dishes – currywurst, bratwurst and then finally some local eisbein – pigknuckle. It is boiled so Bel wasn’t impressed by the lack of crackle.

Wednesday morning we headed back to Alexanderplatz for Brunch in the Needle.

The Fernsehturm is a Television Tower that was built by the communists in East Berlin as a show of power and intimidation, because at 368m tall it looks over all of Berlin. Which makes it a great spot for us to check out Berlin and have lunch.

The day was quite overcast so the view was a bit grey, but luckily a lot better than the photo we took of it shrouded in mist the day before.

It is still the tallest building in Berlin and we were able to get a great perspective on the places we had ridden to yesterday. Our favourite was the view that ran up the main road pass the palace, through the Brandenburg Gate, and into Tiergarten. It would have been the scene of many victory marches.

For lunch we shared meals and tasted a few traditional dishes, Potato soup, Meatballs (basically a big meat patty with lots of mustard onions and potato salad), Beef Roulade with mash, and French onion soup (it was surprising to learn that Berlin has a large French influence due to the 17th century Huguenot refugees).

After a heavy lunch we needed to walk! The forecast was for showers so we headed to Museum Island and spent the afternoon exploring the Neuse (new) Museum, which focuses on Ancient Egypt and other ancient cultures.

It’s claims to fame are the bust of Nefertiti.

And an ancient Golden Hat that depicts the 19 year cycle of the sun and moon.

After 3 hours of exploring our legs were done and it was time to join the Oktoberfest activities again!

Thursday was our last day in Berlin. First stop was the Topography of Terror, a museum that was built on top of the ruins of Gestapo HQ. It is along side a large section of the Berlin Wall that was preserved and has photographic and historical descriptions telling the story of Hitlers reign of terror and more. The outside display changes and this time was all about Warsaw, the invasion of Poland and ultimately its liberation from Russia as part of Solidarity. Very moving, and highly recommended – we could have spent a day there.

Next we caught an Uber to the Reischtag for our lunch booking and a walk around the Dome.

The security in was very tight, you needed passports and there were the usual bag scans. To get into the building you went through a type of airlock system. Once in we headed straight up to the Kafer restaurant.

Lunch was great, the Lobster Bisque was the best we’ve ever had!

After lunch we did the dome tour, using the self guided headsets. Another great view over Berlin.

Our final destination for the day was planned to be Charlottenburg Palace. Walking to the station we discovered a new form of busking that really impressed Belinda.

We caught the train out to Charlottenburg station and then discovered it was a long way from the actual Palace! It was getting late in the afternoon and we were too tired to be bothered figuring out how to get there so we headed back towards our unit, stopping at Tiergarten on the way to check out one of Josh’s old haunts.

Once we were back in Scheunenviertal we decided to check out the local bars and restaurants to enjoy our last night in Berlin.

We had had an amazing time, and learned so much. The public transport is excellent, there are bicycles everywhere, and the people are so friendly and polite. A great way to start our journey.