Places to visit in/near Berlin?

Question

Thanks to a previous answer, I decided to spend the 4.5 days I have in Germany all in or around Berlin. I might take a day trip to Hamburg or visit a castle in Dresden, but besides the Berlin Wall, what else should I do with the 3 days I have in Germany? I'd prefer cultural/historical over debauchery.

Answer 1

Well, why you don't buy yourself a good travel book for Berlin (or for Germany in general) in a local bookstore in your local library???  

Or search for Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden or Germany at Google/Yahoo....I really have no idea what you're interested in and what you're looking for.  Berlin is such a big city and you can do lots of things in Berlin -- but, what are your preferences?  I don't know.

Before I give you any wrong advices & tips, you better should inform yourself with some good travel books, a search machine or go on the tourist website of Berlin at http://www.berlin-tourist-information.de... (also in English). Or go to http://www.germany-tourism.de

And what you can discover in a country like Germany for 4-5 days only???  Not much, I would say.   Try to stay 1-2 weeks or more over here...that's much better.

Again, Berlin is BIG and I have no idea what you're looking for.

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Edit:  But, I am willing to help you - if you have more detailed and specific questions, you can email me - just go on my profile and leave me an email.

Answer 2

Well, that's what we go for with our visitors in Berlin when they have about one week here:

- three days are reserved for the museums. And that's because there exists a three day ticket for just 15 Euro (reduced only 7,50, for example for students) with which you can visit all the state museums of Berlin ( http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/smb/index.p... ).

My Top eleven museums of them (alphabetically):

- Alte Nationalgalerie (19th century paintings)

- Berlinische Galerie (berlin related modern art)

- Bodemuseum (old sculptures, 11th to 19th century, and some paintings, great architecture)

- Brücke-Museum (paintings of and related to the "brücke"-group, expressionism)

- Gemädelgalerie (paintings gallery, 15th to 18th century, really great collection)

- Hamburger Bahnhof (museum for contemporary art)

- Jüdisches Museum (jewish lifestyle, art, and their life during hitler's dictatorship)

- Museum Berggruen (collection of picasso paintings and related artists)

- Museum for photography

- Neue Nationalgalerie (modern art)

- Pergamonmuseum (antique architecture/sculptures)

Of course you cannot do more than two or three a day, so you have to make a selection. Pergamonmuseum/Alte Nationalgalerie/Bodemuseum are really close by at museums island, which is at the end of famous street "Unter den Linden", which you can visit on the same day (including Friedrichstrasse, and, very important, Gendarmenmarkt). Neue Nationalgalerie and Gemäldegalerie are also nearly next to each other near Potsdamer Platz, which is also good to visit. Take the third day to explore some of the other ones (jewish museum and Berlinische Galerie are also close to each other).

The first of the other days is reserved for exploring city west, including: Kurfürstendamm, KaDeWe (at Wittenbergplatz, which is one of the oldest Metro stations) and Gedächtniskirche and last but not least the famous Castle (Schloss) in Charlottenburg.

On the second (and unfortunately your last) it's a good idea to stroll all around Hackescher Markt, Sophienstrasse, Alte Schönhauser Strasse, Rosenthaler Strasse, Oranienburger Strasse and Auguststrasse. Many small shops, cafés, bars and galleries are located there, as well as some nice buildings of 19th centurys. Also a good location if you wanna do something in the evening!

Have a nice trip!