Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Prenzlauer Berg (several recommended hotels and a very lively restaurant/nightlife zone).
Just west of Prenzlauer Berg is the Berlin Wall Memorial (with an intact surviving section
of the Wall). Eastern Berlin's pedestrian-friendly Spree riverbank is also worth a stroll (or a
river cruise).
2. Central Berlin
is dominated by the giant Tiergarten park. South of the park are Pots-
damer Platz and the Kulturforum museum cluster (including the Gemäldegalerie, New Na-
tional Gallery, Musical Instruments Museum, and Philharmonic Concert Hall). To the north,
the huge Hauptbahnhof (main train station) straddles the former Wall in what was central
Berlin's no-man's-land.
3. Western Berlin
centers on the Bahnhof Zoo (Zoo train station, often marked “Zoo-
logischer Garten” on transit maps) and the grand Kurfürstendamm boulevard, nicknamed
“Ku'damm” (transportation hub, tours, information, shopping, and recommended hotels).
The East is all the rage. But the West, while staid in comparison, is bouncing back—with
big-namestoresanddestinationrestaurantsthatkeeptheareabuzzing.DuringtheColdWar,
this “Western Sector” was the hub for Western visitors. Capitalists visited the West, with
a nervous side-trip beyond the Wall into the grim and foreboding East. (Cubans, Russians,
Poles, and Angolans stayed behind the Wall and did their sightseeing in the East.) Remnants
of this Iron Curtain-era Western focus have left today's visitors with a stronger focus on the
Ku'damm and Bahnhof Zoo than the district deserves.
With any luck, you won't have to use Berlin's TIs—they're for-profit agencies working
for the city's big hotels, which colors the information they provide. TI branches, appropri-
ately called “info-stores,” are unlikely to have the information you need (tel. 030/250-025,
www.visitberlin.de
). You'll find them at the
Hauptbahnhof
train station (daily 8:00-22:00,
by main entrance on Europaplatz),
Ku'damm
(Kurfürstendamm 22, in the glass-and-steel
Neues Kranzler Eck building, Mon-Sat 9:30-20:00, Sun 9:30-18:00), and the
Brandenburg
Gate
(daily 9:30-19:00).
Skip the TI's €1 map, and instead pick up any of the walking tour companies' bro-
chures—theyincludenearly-as-goodmapsforfree(mosthotelsalsoprovidefreecitymaps).
WhiletheTIdoessellthethree-dayMuseumspass(describednext),it'salsoavailableatma-
jor museums. If you take a walking tour, your guide is likely a better source of nightlife or
shopping tips than the TI.
Museum Passes:
The three-day, €19
Museumspass
is a great value. It gets you into
more than 50 museums, including the national museums and most of the recommended big-
gies, onthree consecutive days. As you'll routinely spend €6-10per admission, this pays for
itself in a hurry. And you'll enjoy the ease of popping in and out of museums that you might
not otherwise want to pay for. Buy it at the TI or any participating museum. The pass gen-
