I don't intend to list what we did day by day, but just to give a few impressions, as they come to mind. As I wrote at the beginning, even though many monuments have been rebuilt with the pretence of looking ancient, and despite all the bombing the city suffered, it is predominantly and obviously a city made of often anonymous buildings rather than works of art, in the end we liked Berlin. Given its vastness, we tried to make use of the many types of public transport available, and even so we were always dead tired. First of all, all those monuments, museums, memorials or fragments that recall or retrace Germany's sad twentieth-century history are special and unique.
Particularly worth it are the East Side Gallery, which I expected to be just a collection of nice graffiti, whereas it represents something else entirely; the Topography of Terror; the Holocaust Memorial; and, further out, on Bernauer Strasse, the Gedenkstaette Berliner Mauer, a small still-existing section of the Wall that you can see from the top of a structure that also houses fascinating photos and captions. Still on similar themes, in our opinion, though less so, the Checkpoint Charlie museum, the DDR museum and the famous Jewish museum are also worth it — the latter being one we had high expectations for and which completely disappointed us.
The city's symbolic squares (Alexander and Potsdamer Platz) didn't do much for us: they seem to be just big urban hubs, full of the smell of food of every kind and shopping centres, with modern structures not always so beautiful just because they're eccentric! Gendarmenmarkt is beautiful, because it's similar to a real square according to the Italian Renaissance concept, with its two twin churches. All 5 museums on Museum Island were worth it for us, even though a few too many artefacts really are… artefacts, in the sense that they are casts of the originals or pieces rebuilt to 70% … to support the 30% original! The bust of Nefertiti and the Berlin Hat are beautiful, but they aren't the only fantastic pieces deserving of true amazement. These museums are open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 to 18, and on Thursday until 20.
We went to the dome of the Reichstag, the parliament, via an online booking made in Italy (the first morning after our arrival, at 8.30. It's beautiful and we would even have gone back on the last day, if we'd had time! Anyway, you could only enter with a booking, but you could make one at a little kiosk near the entrance. You have to arrive at least 15 minutes before your booked time and bring the booking sheet and the documents indicated, otherwise you don't get in. The checks are quick and efficient and the modern glass dome designed by Sir Norman Foster really is … something modern, functional, full of symbols … and really BEAUTIFUL! Not to mention the view over the city! Among the regular buses, we took both the 100 and the 200, which run along many central streets that skirt some of the most important monuments.
One of the 100's termini left us in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche, heavily bombed but left as it is … much more beautiful and meaningful than so many rebuilt things! As we'd heard, the Brandenburg Gate is much smaller than it appears on television, but that doesn't diminish its charm and grandeur ….. both for what it represents and, perhaps, because it's an original one. The Hackeschen Hofe are lovely, a complex of 8 well-restored courtyards connected to one another, housing many unusual and charming little shops. These buildings are in the former West Berlin, in the area of Oranienburger Strasse, which we only discovered on the last day, and which is very different from all the more modern and anonymous areas visited until then.. and which, to our great regret, we had no time whatsoever to explore even a little.
We saw other things and walked a great deal, but right now nothing else particular comes to mind to report. We chose to focus solely on the "heart" of the city, without going to visit Charlottenburg Castle, Potsdam or the concentration camp (..but having been to Auschwitz, it's not like..!). I don't know what I missed, but I'm happy with what I saw: for once I wanted to focus only on the city, on Berlin and nothing else, because in my opinion it's a city that particularly induces reflection.. I thought so before going and I confirm it today.
Going in winter, as with other cities visited, has its downsides, such as the short days with sometimes consequently reduced visiting hours, and the fact that you can't experience the open spaces and parks, which especially in northern cities, when the season allows it, are characterised by a particular desire to live outdoors, generally wonderful and infectious.
On the other hand, though, the queue times at the entrances to many monuments are generally non-existent, there are fewer tourist hordes, letting the city be more authentic (I liked Amsterdam so much in November, as much as it almost repulsed me in August!) and often even the winter atmospheres, with snow, fog or simply real cold, can be equally fascinating! Berliners, contrary to other people's experience, including my daughter's, seemed to us friendly and often even patient, for example when tourists with their clumsiness made them lose time. We were lucky with the weather too: perhaps because this winter of 2015 is unseasonal all over Europe, but the cold wasn't exceptional and simply with a good jacket, gloves and a little hat, one was fine. Besides, even though the sky was often a bit white, it never even rained or snowed. In short, perhaps also thanks to good luck, we liked Berlin!
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