Berlin, Germany: Where the Past Lingers and the Future Shines

We arrived in Berlin, Germany's capital and largest city, on a record hot day (40° C which is 104°F) only to discover surprise, our 6th floor apartment didn't have any air conditioning! (Thankfully it cooled off overnight) The only thing to do upon arrival in the heat: Head out into the lively streets with its outdoor cafes and bars and start enjoying. So that's what we did. And we quickly discovered that we love Berlin. This spirited, upbeat, and young city has so much going on and everyone was outside having fun. How could you not love a place whose signature beer is Berliner Kindl, complete with a logo of a baby popping out of a mug of beer? Our first super cold bottles in Berlin—so cute, delicious, and refreshing! We couldn't wait to see what else the city had in store!

During World War II the allies dropped 67,607 tons of bombs on Berlin, destroying 80% of the city. So, it's amazing to walk around and see how Berlin has combined the old and the new, it's history and its modern role as a place filled with culture, art, greenspaces, and wonderfully friendly people. The Spree and Havel rivers run through the city and create a backdrop for what remains and what has been built since the war, and also make a beautiful thread of continuity throughout Berlin.

We stayed in the Berlin Mitte-Gartenstraße area and it was a great spot to call home during our time in Berlin. We walked a lot and loved the Ampelmännchen, fun, red and green cartoon-like figures with big heads and short legs that tell pedestrians when to cross and when to stay put (the literal translation of Ampelmännchen is “little traffic light men”). They were created in 1961 for East Berlin, and were part of a road safety education program for kids in the 1980's. They became so popular, they are on pedestrian walkways all over the city—they definitely make waiting for a green walk light no so boring!

Everything was within walking distance from our apartment, from Alexanderplatz to Museum Island to public transportation (Berlin's public transport is easy and super nice, although lucky children get biked around in comfort by their parents, these cargo bikes are everywhere!). This is a great location to experience the city.

The food in Berlin is not the meat and potatoes fare we've come to expect from Germany. There were so many options that we never actually ate any traditional "German" food, unless you count soft pretzels and beer! We had some incredible international meals, from Japanese and Indian to Peruvian and even Georgian. Who knew? Our Airbnb host recommended Nauta, a restaurant that draws its inspiration from Peru and the Amazon. The dishes were creative and delicious and we were more than a little surprised at how much we loved our meals (we'd go back in a heartbeat). A few other favorite discoveries include:

Kin Za, a Georgian restaurant around the corner from us, was always packed so we decided to give it a try (we already knew we loved Georgian wine so we figured at least that part of our meal would be good). It was fantastic! Now we are also fans of Georgian food! Our favorite Indian restaurant was Amrit, where the service and food were both wonderful.

Of course, we also visited all the sites. Berlin is super walkable and there's plenty of public transportation so you can get to just about any site in 15 minutes. We started in Alexanderplatz, which was a "must see," but honestly just a plaza with food stands. We quickly moved on to Neptune Fountain, a beautiful baroque water sculpture between St. Mary's Church and the Red Town Hall.

This spot is right below the Berliner Fernsehtrum (that's Berlin TV Tower to the rest of us). Yes, it's just a big TV tower but it's supposed to be a big deal because you can go to the top and get a 360° panoramic view of the Berlin skyline and there's a restaurant up top, if that's your thing. It sits in former East Berlin and was constructed by the East German government not only as a functional broadcasting tower, but a symbol of communist power.

We skipped this because there was so much to see on the ground right around us, including the cool Marx-Engels-Forum, a public park named for Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, authors of The Communist Manifesto of 1848 (those of us college government majors know them well). Right nearby is Museum Island, a fabulous complex comprised of the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode-Museum and the Pergamonmuseum.

We decided to visit the Alte Nationalgalerie to see the collection of 19th century paintings and sculptures, but the entire island is one stunning building after another with sculptures dotting the grounds.

The centerpiece of Museum Island is the imposing Berlin Cathedral, the largest Protestant church in Germany and the second largest in the world. Its iconic dome (Berliner Dom) is inspired by Italian Renaissance and baroque styles and crowned by a lantern with a golden cross and four towers. It's both stately and quite beautiful.

As you depart Museum Island and walk toward the Brandenberg Gate, the 18th century monument that is one of the best-known landmarks in Germany, you leave art and begin to delve into Berlin's sobering past. The gate is actually a towering neo-classical sandstone monument that, after the construction of the Berlin Wall, was considered a restricted area that could not be visited by either East or West Germans. Once the wall was torn down in 1989, the gate became a symbol of German unity. Nearby, the Reichstag Parliament Building, built in 1884, is where the Bundestag (“Federal Assembly”) meets, but it has quite a past. It was the site of a fire in 1933, just one month after Adolf Hitler rose to the chancellorship, and the event triggered Hitler’s assumption of dictatorial powers in Germany.

Today the building is restored to its glory and a glass dome was added to the center in 1999 to symbolize transparency and openness in government and represent the reunification of Germany and democratic values. You can visit the roof terrace and dome to get spectacular views of the parliamentary and government district and Berlin’s sights, but you need to register in advance.

Near the gate, we walked further into Germany's past and a sobering reminder of the country's and Berlin's history, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust has an education center and group tours, but we just wandered silently through the Field of Stelae designed by architect Peter Eisenman.

The 2,711 concrete slabs, or stelae, are arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field that covers 19,000 square meters. It aims to evoke the sense of disorientation and loss experienced by Jews during the Holocaust through its abstract design, and when people walk through the field, they appear to disappear around corners right before your eyes. It is very eerie.

Another reminder of the war, the Topography of Terror, is located on the site where, between 1933 and 1945, the principal instruments of Nazi persecution and terror were located: the headquarters of the Gestapo. This indoor and outdoor museum is both a place of remembrance and a warning from history. It was surreal stepping over the permanent line delineating the Berlin Wall to enter this area and read, from start to end, how the Third Reich rose to power and the terror they reigned under. This is a must-see but can also be difficult to take in. It is brutal and horrifying and really takes your breath away.

Nearby, Checkpoint Charlie, the Western Block's name for the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin, represents the separation of East and West. After World War II, Berlin was split into East and West based upon an agreement between the Allied powers. Four occupation zones were created, each administered by one of the Allied nations. In 1961, as the cold war grew, the Russian-controlled East side put up the wall to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West.

Checkpoint Charlie was once guarded by soldiers to prevent East Berliners from escaping, and today there are large pictures of the two soldiers: One, the former US army tuba player Jeff Harper, the other an unnamed soldier in a Russian Federation uniform, not a Soviet one, who represents the Eastern Allies. The Wall Museum is where you can learn about the fall of the Berlin Wall directly at the site of its former death strip. You can even straddle East and West in areas where they've removed the concrete to show where the city was divided.

In Breitscheidplatz, the western part of central Berlin, you can see up close where old meets new. This bustling shopping area is home to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a famous landmark of western Berlin that sits among modern shopping and buildings. The contrast between the old church, which was damaged in a World War II air raid, and the glass skyscrapers surrounding it are a perfect example of how Berlin bridges the past and today.

We were lucky enough to be there when the Internationales Drehorgelfest was taking place, and the streets were lined with hundreds of people playing Drehorgels, which is a German term for barrel or hand organ that plays pre-programmed music using a rotating cylinder or barrel with pins. It was incredible!

The city has so much going on, it was nice to spend some down time in the 519 acres of forested and gardened grounds of Tiergarten Park. Formerly a hunting park for the Duke of Prussia, today there are lovely trails to walk and fountains and gardens. Our favorite spots were Luiseninsel, a small island situated in the center of Tiergarten park named after Queen Luise of Prussia, and the Rosengarten, established in 1909, with its flower beds and variety of roses.

But it's not all history and culture in Berlin, and there are so many fun, relaxing ways to spend time there. Everyone loves to hang out in parks until way into the night—the sun wasn't setting until after 10pm when we were there, which gave us lots of time to explore. And on Sunday there is open karaoke at the Bearpit at Mauerpark.

Anyone can get up and sing to the crowd in this open-air amphitheater, complete with speakers and background music teed up to their favorite song. It was so much fun to watch and cheer, and the enterprising people who sold Aperol Spritzes, Moscow Mules, Gin & Tonics, and even beer out of baby carriages stacked with ice give everyone a tasty way to cool down. A massive market also takes place in the park, so you can stroll the hundreds of stalls afterwards. Most of the talent was questionable but hundreds of people sang along and encouraged everyone, which made it a truly memorable experience. If you're in Berlin on a summer Sunday, absolutely check this out.

When we heard about Badedampfer—hot tub boats—we knew we had to spend an afternoon floating down the Spree River in our very own. We took a 40 minute train ride from the city and ended up in a beautiful part of the river with houseboats and waterside restaurants. The whole area reminded us a lot of Copenhagen (see the blog here), and even though it was a little out of the way, we later discovered that it's located in the gorgeous and lively area of Treptower Park area, which runs alongside the Spree in the district of Treptow-Köpenick, south of central Berlin. This was totally off our radar so we were really glad the hot tub boats got us out there. So, is a hot tub boat worth it? YES.

We arrived to a clean and newly filled hot tub, the flames roaring in a wood-fired oven, and water heated to 39 °C. They sell all sorts of beverages for your journey, provide a Bluetooth speaker, and we brought along a picnic lunch. For a few hours we made our leisurely way down the Spree in our own floating hot tub, past green parks and gardens, the Molecule Man sculpture (30-meter-high metal pieces by sculptor Jonathan Borofsky), and eventually turned back at the Oberbaum Bridge. This was an amazing way to enjoy a sunny summer afternoon in Berlin, and we highly recommend it.

We didn't know what to expect from a city with such a tortured past and both physical and cultural devastation. But what we discovered was a place where history is not forgotten, art is celebrated, and people enjoy themselves to the fullest. It's where old meets new, diverse cultures from around the world come together, and even when it's 104°F the German beer is still cold.

It rained our last afternoon in Berlin but it did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm for this modern, aged, and enchanting city that has definitely become one of our most favorite. We will be back. But, until the next time, Auf Wiedersehen!

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