The Berlin Top Ten

It's really true; there are more sightseeing must-sees in Berlin than visitors usually have the time to get to. That's why setting priorities quickly becomes inevitable. This city offers so much to see and do that narrowing down the list can be a daunting challenge indeed. But hey, somebody has to do it. So if you can't always get what you want while in Berlin, as Mick Jagger once said (or could have), you can at least get what you need. And this is why the following absolutely need-to-see sights most definitely belong on your list.

Pariser Platz and The Brandenburg Gate

Pariser Platz with the ajoining Brandenburg Gate is not necessarily the best place to begin your tour, but you would be hard pressed to find a better centralized location. Closed for most vehicular traffic, much of Pariser Platz has been turned into a visitor friendly cobblestoned pedestrian zone.

After Berlin's reunification, this popular central plaza has slowly but quite surely been restored to its former grandeur.The famous Hotel Adlon Kempinski has risen from the ashes and is located here once again, as is the new US Embassy. The Brandenburg Gate is of course the real magnet at Pariser Platz, a magnificent piece of architecture holding great symbolic power for Germany and Berlin. It symbolizes, among other things, the division of the country during the Cold War and modern Germany's miraculous reunification. From here, whether you choose to turn north, south, east or west, there is an abundance of sights to see, all within easy walking distance. We'll head south for now.

The Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial, an understandably somber yet fascinating monument to the murdered Jews of Europe, is located just to the south of Brandenburg Gate. It occupies some 205,000 square feet of space filled with 2,711 unmarked grey slabs of stone and is just a short distance from where the ruins of Hitler's bunker is buried. As there is no clear pattern to the alignment of the stones, walking through the huge field of undulating rows often produces a somewhat odd, even eerie feeling for visitors, a strange mixture of solitude and disconnection. One can visit the memorial day or night, although the subterranean Information Center located at the base of the memorial is open from 10 am until 8 pm.

The Sony Center and Potsdamer Platz

The Sony Center is for many yet another design triumph by star architect Helmut Jahn, but what is perhaps more fascinating than the structure itself is the fact that the area where it and neighboring Potsdamer Platz now stand was a vast and empty no man's land just a few years previously. Most of the original buildings here were destroyed during World War II and the entire district was nothing more than a giant vacant lot from 1961 to 1989, the Berlin Wall era. The Sony Center's trademark under-the-tent public square is an incredibly inviting and popular mega-atrium, the tent's top clearly resembling Japan's Mount Fuji from a distance. Potsdamer Platz is often referred to as the Times Square of Berlin, or New Manhattan, and rightly so. As the Berlin Wall fell, high-rise buildings and apartment towers in post-modern style shot upwards in its place. High glass facades and noble hotels wherever you look, only Frankfurt offers a similar spectacular skyline in Germany. A popular shopping area with a wide variety of restaurants, bars and theaters to choose from, this lively quarter can also be seen as being Germany's Hollywood too. The famous Berlinale Film Festival takes place here every February.

Checkpoint Charlie

Not too much further to the south, on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Kochstraße, is what remains of the famous Allied Checkpoint Charlie. Although there is remarkably little left to recall the tense atmosphere that predominated here between 1961 and 1989, the museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie does offer some of the best documentation available concerning the many escape attempts which took place during the Cold War era and the daily tensions along the common border between West Berlin and the former East German capital. Checkpoint Charlie was of course the main entry and departing point for diplomats and non-German visitors traveling to East Berlin. It was also the location of a dangerous close encounter between US and Soviet tanks in 1961. Those who now leave what was once the American Sector "enter" a new East Berlin, the bustling Manhattan-style office and shopping district that runs along Friedrichstraße to the north.

Friedrichstraße and The East Side Gallery

Continue walking up the bustling Friedrichstraße and browse through the many shops and courtyards there. Make sure to thave a good look at the Galeries Lafayette department store and some of the exclusive shops that line Berlin's famous Unter den Linden avenue too. Once you reach the Friedrichstraße train station, take the short trip on the S-Bahn line to Warschauer Straße in Berlin Friedrichshain. There you will find the famous East Side Gallery, a near mile-long section of the Berlin Wall covered with murals which where painted by over 100 artists from all over the world. The idea was to cover this memorial for the cause of freedom and, in the process, make it the largest open air gallery in the world. One of the more popular works here is "Mein Gott hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben" (Dear God, help me to survive this fatal love) by Russian artist Dimitri Vrubel. It depicts East German communist boss Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev locked in a brotherly communist kiss. But the art work aside, the East Side Gallery is also a vivid and somewhat grim reminder of precisely how Berlin was divided during the Cold War.

Alexanderplatz

Take the S-Bahn train back in the direction of Friedrichstraße, but now get off at Alexanderplatz. "Der Alex" is the liveliest square in central Berlin and, in a way, marks the center of town itself. No, it is not beautiful architecturally, but it is a pulsing transport hub and an immensely popular shopping, hangout and meeting place with a definite chaotic charm of its own. The famous Fernsehturm (TV tower) is impossible to miss, nor should you, the communist era tower being one of the largest structures in Europe. Take a ride to the top for a view of the city you won't soon forget. Then do some shopping at the popular Alexa shopping center before moving on. And if you're really lucky, you might also be able to witness the "base flyers" jumping from the top or walking along the facade of the huge Park Inn Hotel. Base flying is a cross between bungee jumping and house running and quite amazing to watch. You can take part here too yourself of course, for a moderate fee. If you are so inclined, that is.

Museum Island and The Pergammon Museum

Berlin has more museums than you can count, but if your time is limited, as is the case here, Museum Island offers you the most bang for the buck. Just a short walk west from Alexanderplatz, it is is directly accessible from the left side of the German Historical Museum, opposite Berlin's Staatsoper on Unter den Linden. Museum Island is just that; an island in Berlin's Spree River which is home to a unique collection of five museums, including the famous Pergamon Museum. And it is the Pergammon, with its magnificent Pergamon Alter, the Market Gate of Miletus and Babylon's Ishtar Gate which really makes the most lasting impression. Another must-see, however, is the famous portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti in its special place of honor in the Nordkuppelsaal of the Neues Museum located on the northern tip of the island. Found in Amarna in Middle Egypt by a Berlin expedition in 1912, the bust soon became what is now seen as one of the symbols for Berlin's rich cultural heritage.

The Reichstag

If you continue up Unter den Linden and pass through the Brandenburg Gate once more, directly to your right is the Reichstag. The Reichstag is not only the seat of Germany's Parliament, it is also one of the country's most powerful historical symbols. It was here where the famous Reichstag fire broke out in 1933, an event used by Hitler to place blame on what remained of the opposition and allow him to gain absolute power with the infamous Enabling Act. The Reichstag's famous glass dome, designed by Sir Norman Foster during the building's renovation which was completed in 1999, has become a bit of tourist attraction itself. After some patient waiting to get in, you can take an elevator to get the building's roof and enjoy a splendid view of New Berlin; Pariser Platz, the Sony Center and Potsdamer Platz, the government quarter with the Chancellory, the Tiergarten and Berlin's impressive Central Station.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and the Berlin Zoo

From here it is very convenient to take the city busline 100 in the direction of Zoologischer Garten. This inexpensive double-decker public bus connection offers you a sort of free tour itself. It takes you along past the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Schloss Bellevue, The Berlin Victory Column and through the embassy district of the Tiergarten itself. When you get out of bus 100 at the Europa Center on Breitscheidplatz, the heart of old West Berlin, you will come to face one of city's iconic buildings, the half-ruined Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Partially destroyed during a bombing raid in 1943, citizens decided to leave the ruined tower as an impressive memorial to the futility of war and created a new church around it. And from there, practically across the street, you can enter the gates of Berlin's famous Zoologischer Garten and enjoy one of the most divers zoos in Europe. Home to some 15,000 animals and around 1,400 different species, it also boasts the Zoo-Aquarium Berlin with thousands more fish, reptiles and amphibians. And yes, although not quite so cute and cuddly anymore, the world famous polar bear Knut still makes the Zoologischer Garten his home.

Hmm, was that ten already? One or two more perhaps, but who's counting now? It's best just to go with the flow when visiting such a vibrant city as Berlin. But you can keep on counting if you want to. Should you have more time to spare when visiting this great city, here are a few additional places of interest and things to do in (and near) Berlin that are definitely worth looking into:

Schloss Charlottenburg
-The Berliner Dom
-The Olympic Stadium
-The Berlin Philharmonic
-The New National Gallery
-The Allied Museum in Dahlem
-Sans Souci in Potsdam
-The Schiffshebwerk (lift lock) in Fino
-The Oranienburg Concentration Camp
-The Einstein Turm and House in Caputh near Potsdam

Or how about trying these?
-Tours of underground Berlin
-Trabi Safari tours (East German Trabant cars)
-Velo taxi rides
-Rent-a-bike tours
-Boat tours on the Spree or on Berlin's huge Wannsee lake
-Opera performances in one of Berlin's three opera houses
-Avant-garde theater performances all over the city
-Jazz in one of Berlin's many jazz clubs
-Kaffee und Kuchen at a traditional Berlin café
-Techno dance clubbing
-Shopping at shops selling local fashion labels
-Visiting one of Berlin's many flea-markets

And on and on and on it goes. So on you go too, and off to Berlin!

References:
http://www.berlin.de/
http://www.visitberlin.de/
http://www.berlinonline.de/
http://www.berlinale.de/
http://www.bvg.de/