Honeymoon in Germany: Berlin (Day 12)

We reserved our final day in Berlin for visiting landmarks that were within the city area; and what better way to do than cycling? Cycling is relatively easy in Berlin due to its flat topography and allocated bicycle lanes on the roads. Exploring cities on bicycles is always something we try to include in our itinerary; just our way of injecting some healthy living amongst the gorging. We signed up for the All-in-One Bike Tour with Fat Tire Bike, which was quite highly rated on TripAdvisor and held every Wednesday and Saturdays during winter. No reservation was required, we just had to show up at the TV tower (Fernsehturm) at Alexanderplatz at 11am.

After around 10 minutes of waiting, they gathered us for a short briefing and dividing us into groups of fifteen-twenty; each group had a guide and ours was Tim from USA. We then selected our bicycles and check them for faults, for some reason they were really comfortable to sit on and easy to ride; totally unlike the ones in East Coast Park that makes your ass hurt after 15 minutes. Gloves and hats are essential as it can get pretty cold so make sure you bundle up!

For the first half of the trip, we rode by Museum Island and went to Humboldt University at Bebelplatz, French Cathedral at Gendarmenmarket, Checkpoint Charlie, the remaining Berlin Wall and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Then we took a long, leisurely cycle through the Berlin Tiergarten and had lunch at a beer garden.

explaining the mysterious pink pipes

Humboldt Universität

Französische Dom

redesigned piece of the wall

Tim doodle

Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Wall

Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas

Recharged, we continued on the second half of the tour visiting the Victory Column, Reichstag Building and Brandenburger Tor before ending the tour back at the shop. We paid at the end of the tour and the Berlin WelcomeCard gave us 25% discount off the tour prices (18€ after discount).

Siegessäule

Reichstagsgebäude

Brandenburg Tor

At each stop, Tim provided some historical stories and interesting facts before giving us some time to explore and take photos. According to him, each tour guide presents the information in their own unique way and Tim frequently used chalk drawings to supplement his stories. The tour lasted a comfortable 5 hours and it was well-paced, entertaining and informative; highly-recommended for anyone who is visiting Berlin and knows how to ride a bicycle!

Honeymoon in Germany: Berlin (Day 11)

For Day 11, we visited Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum which used to be a concentration camp for Jews during WWII, it has now been converted into a memorial to educate people on the horrors of what happened to the prisoners during the war. The place was pretty far out from the city centre but still accessible by their local train network. We took the S-bahn to Oranienburg station followed by another 15-20 minute walk with numerous signs guiding the way; if you don’t fancy the long walk, there are also buses that take you there from the station but they only arrive in an hourly interval.

Entry to the memorial is free and we paid 3€ for the audio commentary guides to help us understand the exhibits a little bit better. The amount of information provided by the audio guides was extensive; each exhibit have at least four sections to listen to and almost all of the sections included sub-sections such as interviews of the actual inmates describing the conditions of the camp during their internment.  It was heart-breaking to hear how the prisoners were treated, and we got really cold because of the strong winds so we couldn’t imagine how bad it must have been. The memorial now is mainly open space with only a few buildings preserved to show the cramped and inhumane living conditions of that time. We spent about 3 hours and we only managed to listen to about 60% of the guide; we went away humbled but very impressed by the efforts to dedicate this site to mourn and remember of those who have suffered.

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After the rather somber day, we made a visit to the Panaromapunkt. It was one of Berlin’s best lookout point to get a bird’s eye view of the rest of the city and our WelcomeCard gave us a small discount off the admission prices. We went up at a good timing as we caught a magnificent sunset together with the rest of the city view.

Finally, on a more joyful note, we visited Ritter Sport Colorful Chocoworld! Conveniently located near Brandenburg Tor, it was a Ritter Sport themed shop where we could custom make our own very own Ritter Sport chocolate bar. The chocolates here are slightly more expensive than the ones in Stuttgart and have lesser variety but it is a good alternative if you have lesser time in Germany.

3.90€

tons of flavours to choose from

special ingredients of the month

gift shop

free chocolates when you visit the cafe!

our masterpiece

simply delicious!

Honeymoon in Germany: Berlin (Day 10)

The first half of Day 10 in Berlin was a day trip to Wolfsburg. It is the site of the Volkswagen headquarters and also the world largest car plant. The Autostadt, is an attraction just next to the Volkswagen factory and features automobiles as their main theme of attraction. Taking the bahn out of Berlin Hbf, we reached Wolfsburg Hbf in about 2 hours. Afterwards, it was an easy 10 minutes walk to reach the Autostadt.

VW factory!

VW factory!

walkway to Autostadt

all terrain track

The Autostadt is made up of several areas and buildings and a number of tours are available as well. We opted for the car tower ascent tour which was a tour of how manufactured cars were stored automatically. The museum featured a few of vintage models of the Kombi, our favourite vehicle. It was also possible to purchase a Volkswagen and arrange to pick up the car (with the odometer at 0.00) at the plant, where you get complimentary access to the Autostadt and a free tank of petrol. If you have a European or international license, you can try some of the all terrain track driving experience or the safety training driving track. Since we did not have international driving licenses, they kindly gave us three rides to experience the driving technology in newest models of Volkswagen cars in the Ausfahrt.

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We headed to the Sony Center for the Potsdamer Platz Christmas Market. Sony Center is the only place in Berlin to catch the latest blockbusters in English and they had a large display of Smaug guarding his pile of gold from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug! There was also a Legoland Discovery Centre with a number of Christmas themed Lego-made statues in its vicinity. As we walked along the streets filled with Christmas markets we found ourselves within walking distance from the Brandenburger Tor!

Potsdamer Platz Christmas market

Sony Center

Smaug

Christmas pyramid

Christmas tree

Brandenburger Tor

Finally, we visited the Gendarmenmarkt, the only Christmas market that required a nominal entrance fee. It was located in a square surrounded by many landmarks and seemed to be extremely popular as proven by the massive crowd.

Gendarmenmarkt

Konzerthaus

Neue Kirche

Honeymoon in Germany: Berlin (Day 9)

We arrived in Berlin Hbf around on Christmas Day and quickly located the automated sales machines to purchase the Berlin WelcomeCard that gave unlimited rides on all buses and rail lines within the Berlin area. As with most travel passes, you can purchase cheaper options if you are not planning to travel too far out of the city center. We purchased the card that included zone C, this covered locations like Schönefeld Airport and Potsdam. The WelcomeCard includes discounts for tours and admission tickets and even restaurants, so it’s quite a good deal for its price.

welcome to Berlin!

Alexanderplatz: an important interchange

very large Hbf

The city bahn network is very extensive but not as easy to navigate as the previous cities. Due to the division between East and West Germany back in the Cold War their transport systems were developed separately and independently.The government has tried their best to unify the transport systems but there are still kinks to work out. Which means the platforms of the U-bahn and S-bahn of a particular station may or may not connected; for these instances we would have to exit the station and look for the other.

waiting for our train!

We made our way to Maria’s apartment at Schonhauser Allee which was a charming old estate area populated by mostly young immigrants; wall art is a common feature in the neighborhood. It was Christmas Day but luckily thankfully, after some prior research, we knew that the Berlin Zoo will be open. In addition to the zoo, animals can also be viewed in a separate location know as the Tierpark Berlin. The Zoo-Aquarium was located within the zoo and can be visited by getting an additional discounted ticket. There was tremendous biodiversity in the zoo’s exhibits, and the animals were housed in large natural enclosures.

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Berlin has tons of Christmas markets and luckily for us, some of them are open for a few more days after Christmas. The first one we visited was the one at Charlottenburg, just a few bus stops away from the zoo. We also visted a small Christmas market within walking distance from the zoo, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Christmas market.

Charlottenburg Christmas market

Charlottenburg

Christmas pyramid

salmon burger stall

salmon burger

one more Christmas mug in the bag

currywurst

Polish bratwurst

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche in the distance

We had our dinner at The Bird, touted as Berlin’s best burger place and they were open on Christmas Day too. We made reservations through email to avoid the long queue. The burgers were juicy, the portions were huge, so make sure you come with an empty stomach! We were stuffed and re-energized, so we decided to visit yet another Christmas market at Alexanderplatz.

The Bird

doesn’t even look like a burger

eating with our hands is highly recommended

we ordered a takwaway of their napalm wings

Alexanderplatz Christmas market

ferris wheel

Christmas pyramid

Fernsehturm

Honeymoon in Germany: Freiburg (Day 8)

Christmas Eve is kind of a big deal in Germany; think Chinese New Year in Singapore when everyone goes visiting and it just becomes a ghost town. Anyone who visits Germany during Christmas season will face difficulties planning for activities on Christmas Eve; 90% of shops, restaurants and attractions will be closed by noon when everyone heads home to spend the rest of the day with their families. It was especially difficult since Freiburg was a small town but a handful of attractions were still open; the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Tier-Natur-Erlebnispark Mundenhof and Erlebniswelt Schlossberg.

On Day 8 we did some last minute shopping in Freiburg and took a leisurely walk to the Talstation of the Schlossberg-bahn. To get to the Bergstation we can either take the automatic tram up or a long hike; we decided on the former as we didn’t want to be too ambitious. From the Bergstation, we took a short hike further up to the Schlossberg-Turm to take in some panoramic views of Freiburg. Be warned: the tower may look small but it’s pretty tall and it gets scarily windy on the top!

Stadtgarten

Talstation of Schlossberg Bahn

view from inside the bahn

at the top of Schlossberg Turm

Schlossberg Turm

hiking trail

view from the top

Freiburger Munster

After the hike, we went back to the hotel and had lunch at a döner restaurant near our hotel, this was one of the few places that was going to be open on Christmas Eve! We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the hotel and waited excitedly for our overnight train to Berlin. Since the trip from Freiburg to Berlin will take around 8 hours, it was more time efficient to spend it on a sleeper train. The City Night Line (Sirius) leaves Freiburg Hbf at 9.58pm and will be scheduled to arrive in Berlin Hbf at 7.15am and it was our most expensive accommodation of our trip! We wanted to book the first class cabin initially as it came with a private bathroom but the Sparpreis tickets were released much later than the second class tickets; by then we had already booked the second class tickets. Darn it!

narrow hallway

tiny stairway

small but comfortable beds

breakfast is included!

We were not mentally prepared for the size of the second class cabin since we only had pictures on the website as reference; it was so tiny that one of us had to wait outside the cabin while the other changed. Our luggage was too large to fit in the cabin, luckily the conductor kindly offered to lock them up in another empty cabin. The bed however, was surprisingly comfortable and the gentle movement of the train rocked us to sleep in no time. We enjoyed the train ride very much, although I can’t guarantee the same experience for someone who is much taller or bigger than us.

Berlin Airbnb Review: BERLIN HEART OF PRENZLAUERBERG!

There are many many listings in Berlin, so it really depends which part of the city you would want to stay. We chose to stay in Prenzlauerberg this time round. The next time round we would choose to stay around Alexanderplatz or Potsdamer Platz, more so for the fact that it easier to get there via public transport. It was a quiet neighborhood with lots of displays of artistic talents. So it is a little scary at night. However, I’m pretty sure we were only a street away from all the shopping.

Spacious apartment with a well-equipped kitchen. The door had two different locks so it made us feel secure. Enough heaters to keep us warm. There was a balcony that we didn’t use as it was too cold. REWE is just a short walk away (there’s a bridge to the right of the apartment which leads you across the railway tracks). Great communication with Maria, she is always prompt with her replies. Great burger place called ‘The Bird’ nearby. WIFI was good although we needed to reconnect with the same password a couple of times.

The apartment was quite a distances from the train station and the pavement was bumpy, so it wasn’t an easy walk. There are no elevators but still manageable as it was on the 2nd floor. The whole apartment in general is very well used; while we were there the kitchen bulb blew, the kitchen tap was leaking a little. No point using the TV again since there were all German channels.

Use my referral link here and you can get $57 SGD off your first booking!