Gendarmenmarkt | absolute honesty

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!

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!

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.