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HOTELS AND APARTMENTS
- Friedrichstrasse Apartment near Gendarmenmrkt – Great location and a very comfortable 1bedroom apartment. Highly recommended
- Urban Apartments – Berlin – small group of apartment rentals. Very easy to work with.
- Way to Stay apartments – Good selection in Berlin
- House Trip – Apartment or rooms in many European cities
DESTINATIONS
- Visit Berlin – the official website from the Berlin Tourism Board
- Berlin Web Portal
- Slow Travel Berlin – how to relax and have a great time in Berlin
- Museums of Berlin
- Alte Nationalgalerie (classical art)
- Neues Museum (Egyptian and more, reopened in 2009)
- Pergamon Museum – including the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus and the Ishtar Gate
- Neue Nationalgalerie (modern art),
- German History Museum – a really great historical museum
- The Memorial for Jew, Gypsies and Homosexuals killed during World War II – There are many War memorials in Berlin. I strongly recommend to visit these
- The DDR Museum – The Museum of former East Germany with exhibits from 1949 – 1991 when the wall came down
- Potsdam and the Sanssouci Palace of Friedrich the Great – it’s a short train ride from Central Berlin
- Fat Tire Bike Tours – Berlin is a perfect city for bicycles
- City Segway Tours – This was the first Segway tour we ever took. Our guide Walid was very entertaining and the tour was grand. Yes, you look really silly to other people but who cares what they think.
- Context Travel Berlin – Guided walking tours with art and architecture historians
- Trabi Safari – We saw the line of classic East German Trabants on the Unter de Linden. It looked like a lot of fun
FOOD AND RESTAURANTS
Many German foods are popular in countries world wide. There is sauerbraten (pot roast cooked in vinegar and spices) and it’s usually served with either a healthy helping of broad egg noodles, french fries, Spatzle(pasta grains made with lots of egg yolk) or Kartoffel Knödel (dumplings made of bread and potatoe and either boiled or fried). The German version of ravioli is called Maultaschen. In the springtime it’s Spargel (asparagus) season and Germany is famous for the sweet, white asperagus.
The best for me is wurst. Germany is home to some of the best sausages in the world. I am also partial to Austrian sausages but there always seems to be a larger variety of them here in Berlin. You have a choice of bratwurst and Rostbratwurst (grilled sausages) and the really tasty Thüringer Rostbratwurst, Blutwurst (blood sausage), Schwarzwurst (black sausage), Weisswurst (white sausages), Bockwurst (typical franfurter/hot dog), Knockwurst (usually all beef) and the local favorite Currywurst (bratwurst in a red curry flavored sauce). Currywurst is the national food of Germany.
I love the choice of German bread, black bread, pumpernickel, rye bread and the best soft pretzels in the world. There are bakeries almost at every corner.
The star of the desert menu is the Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte (the Black forrest cake with cherries). There are also the Berliner, a Berlin donut.
If you’re a beer drinker this is the place for you. From Pilsner to and Hefeweiss to Octoberfest, Bock and Doppel Bock the range of German beer can be very confusing. The local Berlin beer “Berliner” even makes a really good style made with lemonaide. There is much more to German beer than Lowenbrau, Paulaner, Becks, Spaten and St Pauli Girl. If you really want to know more about German Beer while you’re traveling in Germany, take a look at this German Beer site.
- Hackescher Market – is a great place for lunch and people watching
- Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt – This is a beer house and restaurant near the Gendarmenmarkt and a 5 minute walk from our rental apartment on Friedrichstrasse. The food is excellent and the beer is cold and refreshing. We went back many times