Berlin, Germany

In this post, we’ll be sharing some images and beautiful places we visited on our recent trip to Berlin, Germany. I had travelled to Germany in 1996 and had visited several car enthusiast dream locations, including the Porsche factory and museum, the Mercedes-Benz factory, and the most incredible experience of all, the Ruf Automobile factory in Pfaffenhausen.

The visit to Ruf was especially memorable because it was a smaller company at the time, and our enthusiasm for the brand had enticed Estonia Ruf to take us out for a ride in a Ruf CTR2! This happened during a biergarten event they were hosting, so let’s just say, it was an exhilarating ride! I would later repay that friendliness by decking out my Porsche 993 Turbo with Ruf parts.

For this trip to Germany, we focused on exploring Munich and Berlin for cultural and photography opportunities. We didn’t make specific plans; we just wanted to walk around and enjoy the city as it came to us. It was the right decision since Berlin is a very walkable city that keeps unraveling with unique neighbourhood after unique neighbourhood, best seen on foot or by bicycle.

Air Conditioning 

About a week before the trip, we checked the weather forecast. Berlin was supposed to be between 10°C and 22°C. We packed warm jackets, sweatshirts, and one pair of shorts each, mostly for optimistic workouts. However, when we arrived, we faced the same situation we experienced in Munich—a heatwave!

Temperatures during the day soared to 33°C with completely clear skies and blazing sunshine. We were severely overprepared, but thank goodness for the hotel suite’s washing machine, which allowed my one pair of shorts to be used nearly every day.

It should be noted that many hotels, restaurants, the metro system, and several buildings don’t have air conditioning in Berlin. It will pay great dividends to ensure the hotel you are staying at has air conditioning if the weather is warm.

Precise Tale Hotel

We booked the Excelsior Suite at the Precise Tale Hotel, which had a separate bedroom, living and dining room, and a large area for the suite entrance where luggage could be stored. The location, within a few minutes’ walk of Potsdamer Platz, turned out to be a wonderful place to call home during our stay in Berlin.

We especially enjoyed having breakfast at the beautiful outdoor patio space. There’s always something special about having food outdoors in Europe. The patios are nicely decorated with a warm and cozy feel, with just the right amount of space to feel free, but not so much that you feel like you’re dining in a parking lot.

The final thing that we loved about this hotel was the view of the Berlin Tower and the Welt Balloon. The scenery was perfectly framed in the windows of our suite at sunrise and sunset. It was lovely!

Within a few minutes’ walk, we had the choice of Potsdamer Platz station (U-Bahn and S-Bahn) or Anhalter Bahnhof (S-Bahn) from which to explore the city. We were perfectly placed in the centre of the city.

U-Bahn and S-Bahn

The metro system in Germany can be a bit confusing when you first look at it. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn have a lot of overlaps, but once you realize the U-Bahn is more like an inner-city subway and the S-Bahn is more like a commuter railway, it becomes a lot easier to figure out.

We tended to favor the U-Bahn whenever possible, but we often took the S-Bahn when we needed to go further out from the city centre. However, if possible, we chose the S-Bahn because the U-Bahn was unbearably hot underground without air conditioning and decent ventilation. With the S-Bahn trains, we could open windows and get some fresh air in.

The full rapid transit network works well and is easy to follow on Google Maps. However, the times displayed on the boards are often wrong; they’ll count down to “2 Minutes,” go blank, and then revert to “5 Minutes” again. In some stations, we had to wait 17 minutes before a train arrived, so give yourself some slack time if you need to be somewhere at a specific time.

Berlin City Tour Card

Since we planned to visit many different areas of the city, we chose to buy the Berlin City Tour Card for €46 for six days. This allowed us to travel on any form of public transport within the A and B zones. The instructions on how to use the pass are a bit confusing at first, but they became obvious once we started using the system.

Once purchased, they will email you a digital pass. This digital pass does not require validation as the instructions indicate because there’s already a start and end date on it. The Berlin public transit system is honour-based, so there’s nowhere to scan the pass or show it to an attendant.

You board the trains and then show the pass only if the train police check for it (we never saw anyone being checked, but I always recommend following the rules 100% when visiting a foreign country). The freedom this pass gave us was wonderful; we boarded trams, S-Bahn, and U-Bahn trains all over the city without having to worry.

Car and Bicycle Friendly City

Something I never would have expected in a densely packed German city was how car-friendly it was. For every 25-minute transit ride, we saw Google Maps indicate a 12-minute car ride. When testing Uber, we found this to be accurate. The lack of major traffic and ample places to stop came as a real surprise. If you’re short on time, an Uber makes a lot of sense in Berlin.

Another option is to rent a city bicycle. One of the first impressions we had when we stepped out onto the sidewalk in Berlin was the rapid increase in heartbeat as bicycles whizzed by on the sidewalk at Formula 1 speeds. Most cities I’ve visited have a dedicated bicycle lane, but in Germany, the bicycles ride on the edge of the sidewalk, and you’re constantly having to interact with them when you’re walking on the sidewalk or want to cross the road.

It wouldn’t feel so dangerous if it weren’t for the seriousness with which Germans ride their bicycles. They’re full-on with these things, decked out in race gear, often going faster than the cars on the actual road! Since I didn’t see any dead bodies strewn across the sidewalk, I assume people get accustomed to this.

Bees, Bees and More Bees

Perhaps it was the month we went to Berlin, but there were bees everywhere. They were aggressive too, going after our food. Every morning at breakfast, we would sit on the outdoor patio, and the bees would come out in force to extract tiny circular pieces of our breakfast cheeses.

When going into bakeries, we couldn’t help but notice the bees in the window cases with the pastries we were about to buy. Since we didn’t see any Germans baulking at this, we decided to go with the flow and continue to enjoy the pastries! I wonder if this was something unusual due to the heatwave, or if this is normal. If you happen to know, please leave a note in the comments section below.

Welt Balloon

One of the coolest things we did was to take the Welt Balloon to see Berlin from 150 meters above the city. While it was a short ride at about 15 minutes, the views were worth the €30 price. The way they manage the balloon ride is pretty cool too; there’s a “waiting room” and a boarding time display. There’s also an “arrivals lounge.” You’ll see what I mean when you do it.

They designed the mesh in the cage so that you can easily get images without the mesh showing. The captain also rotates the balloon at the top, so everyone can get the view they want. Our cage was nearly empty with only six people, so we had lots of room to move around and take several images of Berlin from above.

I would recommend buying the ticket on-site since the online version still required swapping the voucher for a ticket. There was no time savings by using the online voucher. The captain did say that they will not go up in bad weather, so keep that in mind if you are thinking about going when there are storm clouds or high winds.

Berlin Culture

Many cities that I visit around the world have a culture that is becoming a bit generic, with everyone copying each other on social media. When it comes to wealth, for example, we could be in almost any major city and see people walking around displaying their wealth in the typical ways: toting luxury bags, driving luxury cars, and wearing high-priced watches.

Berlin, however, has a totally different vibe. It was hard for me to pin down exactly what it was, but we noticed few displaying any wealth in obvious ways. It seems like wealthy Berliners feel no need to flash their wealth in other people’s faces and have found the inner security that so many of us around the world yearn for.

Clearly, people in Berlin can be very wealthy; we saw amazing residential homes and could see stunning apartments even from the street. However, finding someone flashing any wealth was incredibly difficult. Even in some of the fancy restaurants we went to, the clearly wealthy clients were subdued in how they dressed.

I loved this aspect of Berlin. It seems like a city where it’s cool to look great while spending the least amount of money. I can imagine complimenting a Berliner on their clothes and them replying, “Thanks, €30 euros!”

The other aspect we loved about Berlin was the chill vibe that everyone has throughout the city. No matter if it’s a high-end or casual place, everyone exudes this calm and confident demeanor. It naturally soothes you and brings your own anxiety down.

This chill vibe extends to the nightlife, where it’s “live and let live, without judgement.” You can do anything you want in some of the nightclubs in Berlin, as long as you go in with the right attitude, not to judge others and to let yourself be free.

I also loved how Berlin embraced its past and put it on display so that future generations can continue to learn from history and hopefully not repeat the bad parts of it. The super cool pedestrian traffic lights were a nice touch to indicate if you’re in the former East or West German parts of the city.

Neighbourhoods 

We did a lot of walking in Berlin (along with using the S-Bahn and U-Bahn) and loved discovering all the unique neighbourhoods that make up the city. In many ways, it reminds me of Toronto, where crossing the street can bring a totally different look and vibe. Staying in Mitte helped, as it became our central base to explore the city.

Mitte/Museum Island

For our first day, we walked around Museum Island, which has an incredible mix of old and new architecture woven together seamlessly. There are endless photography opportunities for any focal length. You could spend days in this one area alone, capturing architecture and street photography.

The images I’ve shared on this blog don’t come close to capturing how beautiful the city is. It’s so hard to encompass all of it in a single image because it’s truly all-encompassing.

We especially loved the Government District with its striking architecture and the river flowing through it. I only wish we could have come at different times of the day to capture the scenes during the golden and blue hours. Being on a tourist timeline doesn’t always allow getting the best image.

The city was preparing for a major anniversary, 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, so many of the buildings were under restoration or repair work. This made it tricky to get great images, so you may see several major buildings missing from the gallery; there was no point in taking an image of large fences around the building.

We walked around the area near the Berlin Tower and found some fun angles to capture this iconic architecture. The area however was a bit sketchy and I was keeping an eye on my belongings in the park under the tower.  

Friedrichshain/Kreuzberg/Neukolln 

We loved the edgy feel of Kreuzberg and the vast selection of coffee shops and restaurants. The diversity of Berlin was on full display in this area. While it appears somewhat sketchy on the surface, we never felt unsafe. The most intense interaction we had was with a rough-looking guy who approached us asking if we “wanted some,” which we assumed meant drugs.

We took the train to Warschauer Station and then walked north along Warschauer until we reached Kopernikusstraße. We then roamed the streets south and east of this area for several hours, stopping for coffees or drinks at several local shops.

When we finished exploring that area, we headed southwest again along Warschauer and took a slight detour west to see the East Side Gallery and the famous two men kissing mural on the Berlin Wall.

Continuing south, we headed across the bridge to have lunch at a famous Burgermeister location, situated in an old public toilet! Burgermeister Schlesisches Tor is a very cool place to hang out, but it’s right in the middle of two roads, so there’s a lot of traffic noise and some air pollution too. The burgers were excellent, although the fries were a bit dry.

We again walked extensively around this area, particularly enjoying exploring the roads around Skalitzer, heading south towards Gorlitzer Park. We sadly ran out of time that day to explore the park, but read good things about it. I should note, however, that even during the day, the area near the park felt a bit unsafe with some rough-looking guys hanging about. For a future trip, we will set aside some time to explore it and report back.

Schöneberg/Wilmersdorf

With Berlin having a reputation as the gay capital of Europe and perhaps even the world, we were excited to see what the gay village would look like. To our surprise, the village was pretty small and sparse. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise because the most progressive cities no longer have villages as the community is accepted and embraced throughout the city, with the freedom to live anywhere without fear.

This area again reminds me a lot of Toronto, where there was once a mighty gay village on Church Street, but it has now gentrified, and the village is but a shadow of its former self. Regardless, Schöneberg still has many interesting shops that you won’t find in many cities like leather, rubber and other S&M fetishes. It’s fun to look through these stores and see how accepting society can be to people’s inner desires.

Charlottenburg

One area that we thought we would love, but ended up finding just average, was Charlottenburg. With its wide avenues, beautiful old buildings, and high-end boutique shops, it should have been a perfect place to hang out. However, what ruins the experience is the grotesque displays of wealth by the visitors or residents of the area.

There was a constant stream of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Porsches revving their engines up and down Kurfürstendamm. I’m a car guy, inside and out, but even I was annoyed at the ridiculous amount of engine revving to drive a block up the road. They were intentionally creating a spectacle to draw attention to themselves. I should note that I didn’t see a single person who looked German driving these cars.

Restaurants, Bars and Cafes

Berlin has an awesome tapestry of restaurants, bars and cafes to choose from. There are foods from all over the world and the interior design to go with them. I’ll barely scratch the surface here, but I want to highlight a few truly exceptional experiences; we really enjoyed Berta, Yuna, Mama Monti (best pasta we’ve had outside of Italy), and having drinks inside the Humboldt Museum central courtyard.

Since beer can be consumed on the street, I’d also recommend grabbing a beer from a corner store in a cool location and enjoying a casual sunset. We didn’t plan anything and instead just walked around and made reservations at restaurants we thought looked cool. The quality of food was so high across the city that we can’t recall having a bad meal or cocktail.

You must also try the classic Berlin street food, the ubiquitous döner kebab. We ate this staple all over the city; you can find various stalls selling it at nearly every metro station and around every second corner. I like the way Berliners serve it inside a pita bread in a sandwich formation. In Canada, we eat it like a cylindrical wrap. I think the sandwich way makes it easier to keep things neat and tidy.

Holocaust Memorial

I’ve watched an endless number of documentaries on the horrors of World War II and I thought I knew how it would feel to walk through the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, but nothing could have prepared me for the chills it sent down my spine.

One moment, we were in the hustle and bustle of Berlin, and then all of a sudden, we were surrounded by an intense quiet with only the wind rustling around the large concrete blocks. As we went deeper into the memorial, the silence became deafening, and the noises of horror filled our minds.

The deeper we went into the memorial, the more intense the feeling became. It’s remarkable how Peter Eisenman created this heart wrenching memorial with such simple materials. Furthermore, the Information Bureau below ground provides for extensive insight into the history of the horror that took place there.

Entrance to both the memorial and the Information Bureau were at no cost. We spent more than three hours at the site.

Deutsche Bahn Strikes Again!

As I wrote about in the Munich post, Deutsche Bahn cannot be relied upon to get you from point A to point B. We were to experience this again in our final leg back to Frankfurt Airport. We had a train booked for 6:30AM and arrived at the station at 6AM to find out the train had been cancelled. There was no email or SMS from DB notifying us of the cancellation.

As I wrote about in the Munich post, Deutsche Bahn cannot be relied upon to get you from point A to point B. We were to experience this again in our final leg back to Frankfurt Airport. We had a train booked for 6:30AM and arrived at the station at 6AM to find out the train had been cancelled. There was no email or SMS from DB notifying us of the cancellation.

By digging through the DB schedule, we found that we could take a train from Berlin to Hamburgh and then switch trains in Hamburgh to get to Frankfurt. We were under severe time pressures so everything had to go perfectly right for this route to work, but the alternative of taking a car would have introduced even more uncontrollable variables.

We boarded the train to Hamburg and hoped for the best. We couldn’t get any seats in our class, so we sat in the priority seats for their loyalty status members. When we were approached by the train security, we explained that we were from a cancelled train, and they seemed to accept that and moved on.

Frankfurt Airport Transportation

While it wasn’t a comfortable trip, we did make it to Frankfurt Airport Train Station with sufficient time to get to the gate. However, I need to talk about the ridiculously poor connection between Terminal 1 and 2 at Frankfurt Airport. There are two ways you can reach Terminal 2 from the train station: you can take a bus or the Airport Skyline.

If you’re taking the bus, the embarkation point is down a set of stairs that dumps you out into the rain with little signage or indication of what to do. There were 50+ people standing around, not sure where to go or what to do. It felt more like a developing country than Germany! An idling bus ahead did not seem to be providing any indication if we could board or not. With rain pouring down, we decided to make our way to the SkyLine, which turned out to be a bad decision.

The SkyLine is located deep inside Terminal 1, several floors up. Just getting to the SkyLine felt like we were rats running around a multi-level maze. The signage was shockingly poor for a major airport hub and required us to ask several people how to get to the SkyLine. It felt like an accomplishment to reach the SkyLine, even though the journey to get to the station took far longer than the actual eight-minute train ride to Terminal 2!

Conclusion

Berlin is a city that I want to visit again and again. I loved the vibe of the city, the paradox of German precision mixed in with absolutely no judgement in what people do in their personal’s lives creates an intoxicating environment like no other city I have visited before. 

The diversity of neighbourhoods we barely touched are begging to be further explored. I can imagine they constantly change, so even frequent visitors will find something new to explore. We barely touched on the amazing museums and galleries we visited and want to visit in future trips.

Berlin captured our hearts and soul in a way that few cities have. We barely scratched the surface of this amazingly diverse city. We will definitely come back again soon! I hope you have enjoyed this post; let me know what you think of this city. Where would you recommend visiting on our next trip to Berlin?