A Travellers Guide to Berlin

BVG App and Transportation

Berlin runs on public transportation and walking. Taxis tend to be expensive at 23,21 EUR for 6 miles. You can always try renting a car but those prices range from $29-79 per day. By far the public transportation available is the cheapest way to get around the city.

They have plenty types that can get you almost anywhere in the city or at least within walking distance of your target. For the most part there are uban, sban, trams, buses, and trains. Unlike many Canadian public transportation systems the ones in Berlin run in a straight line. At the end of each line you must exit as directed by the drivers and broadcast systems. Good news for all the English speaking tourists, almost every bus driver I spoke to knew how to speak English fluently and the broadcast systems also have English instructions.

As an important note buses run about every 20-30 minutes while the ubans and sbans run about every 3-10 minutes. For even more assistance most buses and bans have screens with the next stop and 4 upcoming stops for those who don't speak German. Most of these screens can easily be seen from anywhere you sit or stand. The sban and uban often have signs posted allowing you to see both the direction that train is headed in and the stops on that line in an easy to follow, color coded poster.

But fear not, anyone who doesn't want to go through the hassle of always looking up transportation routs or constantly buying tickets, there is an app. This app lets you purchase tickets online, tells you which transfers to take, allows you to adjust time references for when to leave/get there by, tells you when to leave to get to the bus stops, what time to get off, and how many stops before your exit. It really is the best tool for your journey. The app allows you to know which way you need to be travelling and is easy to follow for those who aren't used to taking public transit. This app is compatible to any phone and completely free.

Architecture

Berlin has a lot of great architecture all over the city. It plays with colours and pattern on it's more modern buildings which is a stark contrast to elegant and artful pre-war buildings they're placed beside. The whole city is an artful mastery of bringing the old and the new together. Truly all one has to do is pay attention to the city to see beauty in the simplest buildings all over the city. Here is a small display of that.

Art

Art is a huge part of Berlin. You can see it plastered on the side of buildings, on fenses, benches, and gates. Pratically everywhere you turn there will be either city sanctioned art or grafiti. Sometimes a mixture of both.

Social

Dress Code

Berlin has a sort of undercover strict dress code that we don't normally see in North America. Where we have a "whatever you want within reason" Berlin tends to go in a more formal way. The lowest form of dresscode that we see here is business casual. This can be very challenging for some to know what to wear. The best bet to go with is jeans with no rips. You can very easily class up jeans in any situation. Pair it with a nice shirt and shoes and you'll have the perfect buisness casual outfit.

For women dresses are always a good option as long as they're modest and the skirt comes down to either top of th knee or about mid-thigh. Pencil skirts and dress suits are also a good fit. If you decide to go with a dress suit or any suit really then wear the jacket open or even no jacket at all. For men I would suggest a a suit without a jacket or tie. V neck sweaters are another good idea when dressing business casual. Here's an example of different looks for business casual:

Public

When out in public DO NOT swear. Strangely enough for us North Americans who use swear words as a unit of measurement no one in Berlin swears in public. If you do, people look at you like you've just commited a horrific crime.

Drinking in public is okay. And yes, even on public transportation. Drinking at almost any time of the day is okay actually. In fact, there's smoke and drink shops on what seems like every corner. There's even alcohol for sale in every convenience store, at fairly cheap prices too. Drinking age in Berlin is 16 for beer and 17 for spirits.

Weather

Berlin is a very grey city. And what I mean by that is the whole country has this grey-ish tint to it as the sun hides behind clouds. It's a surprisingly warm place, compared to Canada.

• January averages at a high of 3C and a low of -2C with rain for about 9 days.
• February averages at a high of 4C and a low of -1C with rain for about 7 days.
• March averages at a high of 9C and a low of 1C with rain for about 8 days.
• April averages at a high of 14C and a low of 5C with rain for about 7 days.
• May averages at a hight of 19C and a low of 9C with rain for abtu 8 days.
• June averages at a high of 22C and a low of 12C with rain for about 8 days.
• July averages at a high of 24C and a low of 15C with rain for about 8 days.
• August averages at a high of 24C and a low of 14C with rain for about 8 days.
• September averages at a high of 19C and a low of 11C with rain for about 7 days.
• October averages at a high of 14C and a low of 6C with rain for about 7 days.
• November averages at a high of 8C and a low of 3C with rain for about 8 days.
• December averages at a high of 4C and a low of 0C with rain for about 10 days.

Sites to see

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum. Located 45 minutes outside Berlin you can get there on the S-bahn with a C ticket. The site itself has audio-tours you can go on or there's many walking tour companies that do tours in many languages. While most of the camp was destroyed, there are still bunkers that you can walk through and monuments like the one above that can be seen. Part of the original camp is off-limits due to it still being functional as a training facility. This is a good spot for anyone interested in history or wishing to remember the fallen in the wars.

I went on a tour booked through Tripadvisor with Berlin Walking Tours for $17.00 CAD. If you go by yourself then admission to the camp is free with a price of 3 euros for the audio tour. Guided tours and group prices vary. I would suggest a guided tour just because they give you more information then an audio tour might. The opening times are: March 15-October 14 8:30am-6:00pm, and October 15-March 14 8:30am-4:30pm. It's open 7 days a week.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church of West Berlin aka the Decayed Tooth. This wonderful church is located in the heart of West Berlin, right by the zoo. It was broken by bombs in WW2 and was originally supposed to be torn down and rebuilt. However, a few forward thinkers decided that the church should remain as it is as a memorial for the war. As a reminder of all that Germany did and all that the people endured. The two grey, windowed buildings both in front of and behind the church are also part of this memorial. The tall one behind the church is called "the lipstick" while the smaller, wider one in front is called "the blush". According to one tour guide I found, most of the older generations aren't very fond of the addition.

The church earned the nickname "Decayed Tooth" due to the bottom of the church appearing to almost be two giant stone archways supporting a mostly hollowed out church. It also has two giant circles above these arches that are also "hollowed out" so you can almost see through it if it wasn't so high off the ground. This site is rather historical and very easy to locate with being surrounded by other points of interest. The clock on the church still works and is a beautiful feat of architecture. Something worth checking out if you're at all interested in history or art.

The site of the church also holds a memorial site. On December 19, 2016, it was the site of a tragic terrorist attack at the Berlin Christmas Market. A truck was deliberately driven into the busy market killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. A memorial was erected on the steps where it happened with the names of all those killed and a line of gold cemented into the ground following the driver's original path to the steps. A thick barrier is now placed around the memorial and all Christmas markets as a precaution for any further attacks.

Berlin Story Bunker

The Berlin Story Bunker is tucked away in an area that is very easy to overlook. This is likely why they have signs posted around leading you to the site. It's located at Schöneberger Str. 23A, 10963 Berlin, and the hours of operation are (Mon-Sun) 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. with the last admission at 5:30 p.m. This bunker includes Hitler- How Could it Happen and the Berlin Story Museum. Both are worth checking out but as I only went to Hitler- How Could it Happen that's what this section will be about.

Ticket price is 12.00 EUR and has an audio tour for an additional 1.50 EUR. The audio tours are available in DE, EN, FR, ES, IT, NL, DK, and RU and run about 2 hours long. In order to truly enjoy the experience you really have to get the audio-tour as it has in-depth information as well as a brief history of the site itself. When I went in March there where deals on where you could get the audio-tour for free and admission prices were marked down. Also, since the tours tend to run long they have lockers for you to keep any bags in.

The tour does not allow any photography and runs through a history of Hitler, his rise to power, Germany's socioeconomic landscape at the time, both World Wars, Hitler's political party, and closest members, and his final days. This covers some very heavy topics all of the rooms either include donated items or black and white imagery of what is being talked about. I'd personally recommend bringing some tissues as some of the material can be very hard-hitting.

The tour is very easy to follow and has benches or chairs in the hallways and some rooms. The entire thing is completely at your own pace and you can easily have a rest before moving on to the next section. The benches and chairs become more frequent the further into the exhibit you get. The exhibit itself runs through multiple levels of the building which are separated by fire doors and small stairwells.

Broken Chain

The Broken Chain sculpture is located in Tauentzienstrasse, Berlin or West Berlin in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It was built by Brigitte Matschinsky-Denninghoff and Martin Matschinsky in 1987 to symbolize the closeness and isolation between the two sides of Berlin during the years of the Berlin Wall. The two sides of the statues loop together but never touch showing how the city and it's citizens where together yet terribly apart all those years. The sculpture is made of steel-reinforced with concrete.

The statue is also known as Berlin and was originally built as one of eight in a 750th anniversary celebration called Boulevard of Sculptures: Kurfürstendamm or Skulpturenboulevard Kurfürstendamm. In this event, commissioned by the city of West Berlin, sculptures were allowed to erect their art anywhere in the city. However, of the eight original sculptures, only three where allowed to remain standing after the anniversary year was over.

When asked about the significance of the sculpture Brigitte Matschinsky-Denninghoff said, "The sculpture is accessible from all sides and thus perceivable to viewers. [What is] emphasized is the direction West-East and East-West. Our sculpture is specifically designed as a big, 'organically grown' gate, forming a double arch which is not just necessary and practical, [but an] invigorating emphasis ... we are trying to communicate something of Berlin's situation in a symbolic way."

Berlin Zoo

The Berlin Zoo is the oldest zoo in Germany and opened in 1844. The zoo is located in downtown West Berlin or Tiergarten. It covers 35 hectares and is home to about 1,380 different species and over 20,200 animals. This is a huge place located within walking distance to a bus terminal, s ban station with shops, a mall, lots of food places, and many other tourist sites. The zoo offers day and annual tickets. Day tickets have two options, children ages 4-15 are 8 EUR and adults are 16 EUR. The zoo is open from 9am-6:30pm Monday-Sunday. When finished with the zoo you can grab a drink at the Monkey Bar, a bar overlooking the zoo.

Nightlife and Restaurants

Berlin is full of amazing nightlife and food from all over the world. My favorite area to get a bite to eat or have a drink is the two-block radius around Schlesisches Tor station. This is located on bus routes and the station has stops for U1 and U3 (u ban). When you leave the station turn right and cross the road. Along that block is where I spent most of my nights eating dinner. Italian, Indian, Mexican, Belgium, German, it's all right there at the tip of your fingers. For those who wish to check out a more familiar dish, there's a McDonald's just two blocks down from the u-ban station. If you want a real plus then McDonald's always has different menu items in different countries.