It is a bit unfortunate that a city as amazing as Berlin has ended up being largely defined by the Berlin Wall. That said, this was a pretty stark division of a city in living memory and its traces are still everywhere, not just in the city’s architecture but also in the minds of its inhabitants. Astonishingly, even today Berlin votes as if it were two different cities. Those in West Berlin still support their traditional and somewhat conservative parties such as the CSU (or Christian Socialists) while those in the East are far more likely to support left-wing parties such as Die Linke (the left) or the Pirate Party.

When was the Berlin Wall Built?

The official start date of the construction of the Berlin was was 13 August 1961, but the truth is that the division of the city had started long before with an agreement between the victorious Allied forces (America, Britain. France and Russia) to divide the city into four sectors at a conference held in Potsdam in 1945. In May 1949  the Federal Republic of Germany (what we think of as West Germany) was established with Bonn as its capital city. It prospered whereas the German Democratic Republic, or GDR (East Germany), which was established later that year, struggled along. As the West grew richer, people crossed the borders as refugees, flowing in growing numbers from the east to the west. Finally in 1961 and literally overnight the East Germans set up barbed wire barriers across Berlin and started building the wall.

The wall initially went up overnight but was then continually strengthened and reinforced over the following 28 years

Facts About the Berlin Wall

How long is the Berlin Wall?

 The wall running around West Berlin stretches 156.4 kilometres in length; the border between West and East Berlin accounted for 43.7 kilometres of it.

How long did it take to build?

The wall went up officially on 13th August 1961. On that day the main roads and traffic routes (including public transport) were cut. But it took several days before it was completely finished. In the first chaotic days people managed to wander across and escape.

How long did it take to destroy?
The demolition of the internal city wall started on 10th November 1989 with the opening up of new border crossing points. It was officially completed on 30th November 1990. In the surrounding area of Brandenburg the last sections disappeared in November 1991.

What is left of the Berlin Wall?

Some of the sections of the wall can be found today in different places throughout the world. The US Secret Service, the CIA, secured a few artistically decorated segments of the wall for its new building in Langley, Virginia. A few segments of the wall with St. Michael’s Church painted on them were erected in the Vatican Gardens in August 1994. Another piece of the wall is on view in the House of History (‘Haus der Geschichte’) in Bonn.

How many people were killed crossing the Berlin Wall?

The most definitive numbers are from the Centre for Research into Contemporary History (‘Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung’) – Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Memorial Site . They think that between 1961 and 1989 at least 136 people were killed on the Berlin Wall . Most of those killed were escapees trying to get across from East Germany to the west.  More than half of the 136 casualties met their deaths in the first five years following the building of the Wall.

What is the best place to see the Berlin Wall?

A memorial showing where a section of the Berlin Wall once ran alongside Bernauer Strasse.

The best place to see the Berlin Wall as it once stood is along the East Side Gallery. This is a 1.3km section of the Berlin Wall that runs alongside the Spree river. It has been transformed into an international memorial for freedom and has 106 works of art covering the old concrete of the wall.

Another site to visit is the Berlin Wall Memorial and Documentation Centre. This is much closer to the centre of Berlin and is situated on a part of the old wall where it cut right through neighbourhoods, separating friends and families. It gives a vantage point over the border strip that runs alongside Bernauer Strasse and conveniently runs right up towards the Mauerpark, which was also once part of the death strip alongside the wall. It also shows a section of memorial that has been constructed to show where the wall ran (pictured here).

Where can I see the Berlin Wall’s Ghost Stations?

Guards at a ghost station underneath the Berlin wall.

An exhibition at the  Nordbahnhof  station displays some of what happened below ground when Berlin was divided by the wall. It talks about how some stations on the old underground rail network were closed where trains crossed between East and West Berlin. A friend of mine was there when one of these was first re-opened after the wall came down and told me how she found old train tickets with stamps dating back to 1961 lying on the platform. Many of these stations were considered security risks by the East German state, so it guarded them to prevent escapes. Many of the guards were themselves blocked off from the tunnels with only small viewing ports to look through to ensure that they too didn’t sneak out and try to escape.

Other parts of Berlin’s underground were also closed off to prevent escape. This included the sewers, where bars were inserted into the tunnels to prevent people from sneaking across the dividing line.

What is the Best Berlin Wall Documentary?

There are several really good documentaries on the Berlin Wall. A very good one that shows the extent of the fortifications is Walled In (shown here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwQsTzGkbiY

Another exceptional source is an interview of Thomas Hoepker, a photographer, on life behind the Berlin Wall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8BojR2BEt8

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Berlin’s natives can be laconic at the best of times. Ask them about summer in the city and they will shrug or mumble. A few might even complain about the weather. I think it is all because they are intent on trying to keep a secret — that while tourists flock to Berlin for the Christmas markets and winter festivities, the city is really at its best on the hot languid days of summer.

The skies are often blue, the heat is sultry and turns thoughts to pleasures of the flesh. The beer is ice cold and the lakes surrounding the city are crystal clear and cool. For a good few years after we first went to Berlin we decided not to take our usual summer holidays on the beach in Italy or Spain, because Germany’s capital just had so much to offer.

Here a few pointers to get the best out of your summer in Berlin.

Mauerpark

For a sunny weekend day you have to go to hang out at the Mauerpark and catch some of its world-famous bearpit karaoke. I’ve already sung the praises of the Mauerpark enough elsewhere so click here to go and check it out. You can also fire up your barbecue along Schwedter Street (be warned, the Ordnungsampt gets pretty upset if you light a fire in anything but the designated zone.

Hang out at a swimming lake

When you fly into Berlin Tegel during the day, just look down and you will see a wonderland of forests and lakes. Berlin is virtually surrounded by these. The forest (or Wald) plays a huge role in Germany storytelling (think of little red riding hood) and also a big part of the German psyche (oh dear, there I go making generalisations – whatever, Germans really do like to have nature nearby and they especially love forests).

This means you are completely spoiled for choice for great places to go to swim on a hot summer’s day.

My favourite is Schlachtensee, a gorgeous tree-shaded lake that is about 30 minutes (give or take a bit) from the middle of Berlin. It is also huge so that you can usually find a nice quite spot in the shade on the far side of the lake from the maddening crowds. Feel free to bring a lilo, pool noodle or just about anything else that floats. This is about as relaxing and peaceful as life gets.

Canoe trips up the Spree

If you are feeling lazy, jump on to a boat and take a lazy, beery boat cruise (I’ve written a whole bunch about how to find it and which ones to use over here). But if you are feeling a bit more adventurous and active, consider a canoe trip. One of the more popular is the  “Sperrzone Spree” (“prohibited

Spree zone”) that goes up the river from the Oberbaum Bridge in Kreuzberg. It goes as far as the east port (don’t worry, it comes back to) and gives a good overview of the Berlin wall and border defences that the DDR built along the river.  You can find out more and book a ride at the  Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum (www.kreuzbergmuseum.de)

Fly in a Floatplane or Balloon

This is about as wild as it gets, catching a plane that takes of and lands on the river itself. The floatplane uses Treptower port as its runway and lets 4 people go for a flight. If you really want to splurge and make it a romantic escape consider a lunchtime flight to Hubertushöhe Castle about 20 minutes away with champaign and lunch. Hard to think of a better place to romance or propose.

Or zoom up in the famous “Die Welt” balloon that rises near checkpoint charlie and gives and unbeatable view over the city. It costs €19 for an adult. You can find out more about it by clicking here.

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The company had this to say about its new route:

airberlin CEO Hartmut Mehdorn said about the inaugural flight this morning at Berlin-Tegel: “Los Angeles is a major route expansion for our Berlin hub. Attractive destinations such as Los Angeles make our hub an engine of growth for airberlin, for tourism and the economy.” He added: “With this offer, we particularly want to attract connecting passengers from our German and European route network.”

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I just saw a statement that the new Berlin Airport (BER) has delayed its opening. That will be good news for all those who love good old Tegel. Meanwhile flights are still going into Schoenefeld as usual.

Here is their full statement:

Berlin, 8 May 2012 Flughafen Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH announced today that the new airport Berlin Brandenburg (BER) will not open on schedule on 3 June. Technical problems in the field of fire protection engineering make a postponement indispensable.

Burkhard Kieker, CEO of visitBerlin, stresses: “This is a responsible decision. In the interest of the tourism and convention destination Berlin a launch of BER on a safe and comfortable basis is better than a possibly bumpy start, which impairs the arrival and departure of our guests.”

Kieker continues: “What we now expect is a calm approach and an opening date which will demonstrate the full qualities of the new airport.”

Berlin can be easily reached through the existing airports Schönefeld and Tegel; all flights to and from Berlin can be carried out as scheduled. At the beginning of the year Berlin recorded a double-digit growth in room nights, and visitBerlin expects a further positive development during the months to come.

Meanwhile, Air Berlin has said it will keep operating its flights as usual from Tegel until the new airport opens although it may have to make a few changes to its schedule. I guess the guys over at Heathrow who messed up the move to Terminal Five (the new British Airways terminal) must be laughing into their tea.

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For those who are in need of some quiet time, nature, yoga, ‘me time’, and/or relaxation, we recommend a yoga weekend with Erinbell Fanore at the Salvey Mühle. Her last weekend in November quickly sold out as was a complete success. She is offering two this Spring. The March one is sold out but there is still space on the FEBRUARY 17-19 weekend.

The weekend includes 6 yoga classes (Yin and Hatha), 6 delicious home cooked vegetarian meals and two nights accommodations at the 750 year old beautiful renovated mill.

The Salvey Mühle is a great place to unwind and recharge. The surrounding nature is stunning. The combination of yoga, good food, fresh air, and quite, inspire deep relaxation. As her last guests told us, you’ll be sure to return home recharged.

Erinbell Fanore is an experienced and well loved yoga teacher (certified by Yoga Alliance). She has taught in Ireland, Morocco, Sicily, Malta and now runs classes throughout Berlin in English and German. She teaches both Yin (slow deep yoga for the health of the joints and the connective tissues) and a following Hatha class (for strength, conditioning and muscular flexibility).

The weekend costs, 190 euros for a Single Room or for 170 euros Double Room, with a maximum capacity of 12 people.

For more information about Erinbell, her Berlin classes and her Yoga Weekend February 17-19, 2012 see (all information is in English): www.erinbellfanore.com

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For a taste of Berlin at its wackiest and most wonderfully eccentric you have to head over to the Mauerpark Berlin over a sunny, summer weekend.

The main attraction here is a huge old flea market (in German its known as the Mauerpark Flohmarkt) that has hundreds of stalls selling the most amazing assortment of treasure and junk. I’m talking about everything from bicycles of dubious legality, to amazing art deco lamps and sofas to world war two steel army helmets and strange Russian cold war gas masks.

If you’re feeling peckish you can also find something to eat and drink among the crowded stalls.

The huge flea market is only just part of the attraction of Berlin Mauerpark.  In summer this place is just a buzz of activity with musicians and jugglers and street artists of all sorts gathering in the large grassy strip alongside the flea market. There are few better ways to spend a lovely sunny weekend afternoon than chilling out with a picnic basket under the trees, drinking a nice cool beer and soaking in the atmosphere in the park. It is also really family friendly with playgrounds down on one end and plenty to amuse little children. And if you are feeling seriously hungry you are a very short walk from The Bird, which has the best burgers, period.

 The history of Mauerpark Berlin

The park is both a celebration of Berlin’s sad history as well as of its amazing reinvention of itself as an edgy, slightly anarchic city. The area on which the park was built was once part of the Berlin wall that divided the city (hence the name, which means Wall Park in German). The large “death strip” alongside the wall was cleared to keep East Germany’s citizens from crossing into West Berlin. At the top of the hill alongside the park there is a still a stretch of the Berlin Wall. After the fall of the wall in 1989 the area was turned into a public park and a flea market sprang up there in 2004.

Finding Berlin’s Mauerpark

The best way to find the Mauerpark is to take the U-2 to Eberswalder Strasse and to then walk for about 10 minutes towards the park. You can also catch the U-8 to Bernauer Strasse. If that doesn’t give you enough options, you can also go to Nordbahnhof and catch a tram from there. You can find maps of the U-bahn by clicking this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMKDUdGWVfk

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Here’s a quick list of a few of the contenders that we think could easily compete in a contest to find the best Kindercafe Berlin. The truth is, however, that there are so many absolutely awesome ones out there that it is hard to choose. You will be quite spoiled for choice in Berlin so you may just be best off looking for some of the ones that are closest to you using the map on the top of this page (Berlin for Kids).

But here is a quick summary of what we think are three of the nicest Kindercafes in Berlin.

1 - Meerchenhafen (previously BaLou)

This is our latest discovery in west Berlin. It is an absolutely grown up and civilised little place with a lovely carpeted area with couches and cushions where you can lie about and the kids can play. It is perfect for little ones that are just crawling. Bigger kids (up to about 6 or years old) will find plenty  to occupy themselves with in a play room out the back. The cafe is also part of a bigger centre that offers courses and exercise and a variety of other attractions to pregnant women and new moms). You can find out more about its courses here. They also serve really nice coffee and salads.s

2 – Kiezkind

Kietzkind is a long-standing favourite of ours. In summer it is great because the kids can run wild in the playground next door (it is really awesome with a huge pirate ship, a great  big sandpit and a hand-pump that the kids use to pump water up to make little dams and rivers and generally get all muddy). Around the cafe there is a huge selection of little toy cars and bikes that children can ride on. In winter you head indoors to stay warm and dry.

3- Das Spielzimmer

This is another real favourite of ours. The front of it is more coffee-house style with lovely coffee and cake. It feels more old-style coffee shop than children’s playroom in that the tables and chairs are quite grown up. There is also a little lounge area with comfy chairs. In one side of it there is a play area for really small children (think crawlers) with a low wall so they can’t escape or get underfoot.

In the back is a climbing frame and ball-pool with soft slides for bigger children.

For more ideas of things to do with kids in Berlin click on this link. You can also find some of the best playgrounds in Berlin
with this link.

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source: Visit Berlin

Ask a Berlin architect about the city’s buildings and they will drone on and on about Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the city’s great Prussian builder who designed the Alte Museum on Museum Island and the Neue Wache on the Unter den Linden avenue. In fact they love Schinkel so much that it seems as if just about every architect for 50 years after him tried to copy his style.

Ask a foreign architect about Berlin, however, and the odds are they will not be raving about Schinkel but either praising or moaning about the modern buildings that have gone up over the past two decades under the guidance of Norman Foster, Daniel Libeskind or David Chipperfield. Whether you’re keen to seen 19th century classics or those modern buildings which aspire to the same, Berlin is your city.

The Jewish Museum

Berlin’s Jewish Museum is often visited as much for the building itself as for its exhibits. The building is signature Libeskind and was chosen out of  165 submissions, partly because of how he tried to use the building itself to convey a message. The building has no real entrance, no normal windows and with a clad exterior jumps right out. The voids within it are meant to represent the loss of the holocaust, while different paths lead you along different lines of experience that represent the differences between those who fled Germany and the holocaust and those who were trapped by it.

The Neues Museum

David Chipperfield’s skilled  reworking of this museum combines the original structure (an impressive enough building in its own right, even if it was riddled with some of the bad taste of the age – fake Egyptian rooms, for instance) with a new look. It also does not paper over the destruction wrought during the war, when the building was badly bombed. Many Berlin residents wanted the building restored to what it had been, yet Chipperfield argued forcefully that the museum and building should not remain static and should encompass some of the old along with the changes.

Frank O. Gehry’s DZ Bank

This building, on the edge of Pariser Platz could easily be overlooked as it is in the metaphorical shadow of the Brandenburg Gate. Yet its façade hides a real gem and masterpiece. Inside it has a giant fish and an amazing lattice roof that lets the sun shine in.

The Reichstag

This has become perhaps the best known of Berlin’s new buildings and it still generates great controversy. The Reichstag, which stood unoccupied and crumbling throughout the period of Berlin’s division, was rebuilt by Lord Norman Foster as the new seat of Germany’s democracy. His major, and most controversial, addition was a glass glass cupola on the roof. This is open to the public, although you may need to queue for hours in the busy months.

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Travelling in style on the City Night Line source: D-Bahn

In an age of cheap airline flights it is easy to forget that there is another, slower, way to travel that lets one imbibe the feel of a country in a way that hopping from airport to airport just doesn’t capture. When I’m given the choice and the time, I much prefer to travel by train and the overnight Paris Berlin Train is a journey that everyone should try to experience at least once in their lives (along with the Orient Express, the Blue Train in South Africa and, heck, the list just goes on).

Taking a Paris Berlin train is a leisurely way to travel that takes you right across the heart of Europe. You have two main options when doing it. You can either catch a high-speed train that would complete the journey in 8-10 hours, usually with one stop or you can take a more leisurely night train with a sleeper coach.

Fast trains from Paris to Berlin

There is a variety of options and connections that could take you through Brussels, Dusseldorf, Mannheim or Frankfurt. The fewer stops and changes the better.

A trip such as this would usually be on a combination of fast French trains (TGF) and fast German trains (the ICE). These are modern, fast trains that eat up the kilometres. It can be a slightly weird experience on an ICE to walk down the carriage past a speedometer (they have big digital speedometers at the ends of each carriage) and discover that your smooth-flowing train is actually screaming along at 200 kilometres an hour or faster.

These trips will often be more expensive than a super-cheap low cost flight. That’s the bad news. With flights coming in at €30-40 it is hard to beat such low prices. But if you book in advance you can get a cheap train fare of about €100. Since small children travel for free (whereas on airlines kids pay full fare from the age of 2) you can balance the price out as a family with two small children. If you don’t book in advance and get a discounted ticket you will end up paying closer to €200 for your train ticket from Paris to Berlin.

Overnight Trains from Paris to Berlin

The more languid option is to  catch an overnight train from Paris to Berlin. This is usually known as the City Night Line. The journey usually takes about 12-14 hours and is comfortable and pleasant way to travel. The CNL trains are pretty comfortable and their timetables are usually quite civilized with trains departing in the evening and then sometimes being held in a siding for a few hours in the very early morning to avoid arrivals before 5 or 6 in the morning.

The cheapest option for a great night’s sleep is a four-berth or  sleeper coach. This are a little crowded but are really comfortable. There is something about being rocked to sleep by a train that makes overnight journeys so special. You could travel more cheaply in a standard seat or six-berth sleeper too. And if you are travelling on business and need to arrive refreshed and groomed, or just have the cash, you could spring for a single sleeper in first class. These have washbasins or showers and for business meetings in the morning are a far nicer way to travel than to catch a crack of dawn flight that leaves you exhausted and grumpy.

How to catch a Paris Berlin Train

It is easy to book tickets either using the Deutsche Bahn website (which I have demonstrated below) or using the Rail Europe site, which is also user-friendly and easy to navigate.

The first thing you need to do is go to the Deutsche Bahn website which you can find in English here.

Select your language preference and then enter your city of departure and arrival.

After that it gets pretty simple. Just scroll down and find a train you want. Be sure to check the number of connections and the type of train. If you want the city night line then look for CNL.

The rest is pretty self explanatory.

So that’s it, travelling to Berlin need not just be about catching a cramped flight. You can go overnight, in style, with supper and beer on board, by catching a Paris Berlin train.

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For anyone who grew up listening to The Eagles album, Hotel California, the idea of actually checking into a hotel of the same name seems a bit spooky (you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave). Yet since the mid-1980s thousands of people have checked into the Hotel California Berlin and happily checked out and been allowed to leave.

Its main feature is that it is located right on West Berlin’s main shopping street. Now we prefer the atmosphere and feel of parts of Mitte and the more eastern parts of Berlin, but the Ku’damm (or Kurfürstendamm, to give its full name) is still immensely popular among shoppers and is also quite close to some amazing sites and great restaurants such as the Paris Bar.

The hotel is a an interesting mix of old-school west Berlin in an amazing turn of the century building that survived the war.  The hotel was initially a bit of a budget spot for young travellers but has since moved a bit more upmarket.

For all its extreme weirdness (it even has an association with local doctors and surgeons where you can stay in the hotel and have a little nip and tuck around the corner) people seem to love it.

At TripAdvisor it gets 4 stars on average, from a lot of reviews. On Expedia it also gets pretty good reviews for the most part.

People generally love the buffet breakfast and the upmarket shopping in the neighbourhood. The German reviews are a little less flattering but still generally positive with comments such as “not a first class hotel but totally okay”.

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