Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Stopping for coffee and people-watching beneath the magnificent canopy of the svelte
glass-and-steel
Sony Center
.
Admiring the brave people who stood up to the Nazis and often paid the ultimate price
at the
Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand
.
Catching Europe's fastest lift to the
Panoramapunkt
to take in Berlin's impressive city-
scape.
Explore: Potsdamer Platz & Tiergarten
Despite the name, Potsdamer Platz is not really a square but Berlin's newest quarter, forged
in the '90s from terrain once bifurcated by the Berlin Wall. A collaborative effort by the
world's finest architects, it is a vibrant showcase of urban renewal. The area itself is rather
compact and quickly explored - unless you choose to linger in the shopping mall, have a
restorative coffee in the Sony Center plaza, see Berlin from above from the Panoramapunkt
or dive into German film history at the Museum für Film und Fernsehen.
At the nearby Kulturforum complex, you can mingle with masters old and modern in sev-
eral museums, then head south to the up-and-coming gallery strip on Potsdamer Strasse.
Further west, black limousines are a common sight in the Diplomatenviertel (Diplomatic
Quarter), which doubles as a showcase of contemporary architecture, while a bit east Leipzi-
ger Platz has sprouted the huge and fancy LP12 Mall of Berlin. If your head is spinning
after all that stimuli, the leafy paths of the vast Tiergarten, Berlin's equivalent of New
York's Central Park, should provide a restorative antidote.
Local Life
Concerts
Empty seats are a rare sight at the
Berliner Philharmonie
,
especially when Sir
Simon Rattle swings the baton. The free Tuesday lunchtime concerts lure the gamut of
music fans, from students to tourists and desk-jockeys.
Tiergarten
When the sun is out, Berliners just want to get outdoors to the sweeping
lawns, shady paths and romantic corners of the
Tiergarten
park, followed by a cold beer
and pizza at the beer garden of
Café am Neuen See
.
Traffic light
The clock-tower-shaped replica of Europe's first traffic light, from 1924, at
the corner of Potsdamer Platz and Stresemannstrasse is a popular meeting point.
