Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
Covered by €8 Kulturforum combo-ticket, Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Thu
until 22:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, closed Mon, café downstairs, Potsdamer Strasse 50.
Wander through a mazelike floor plan displaying a thousand years of applied
arts—porcelain, fine
Jugendstil
(German Art Nouveau) furniture, Art Deco, and reliquaries.
There are no English descriptions and no crowds.
Cost and Hours:
Covered by €8 Kulturforum combo-ticket, Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat-
Sun 11:00-18:00, closed Mon, Herbert-von-Karajan-Strasse 10.
▲
Musical Instruments Museum (Musikinstrumenten Museum)
This impressive hall is filled with 600 exhibits spanning the 16th century to modern times.
Wander among old keyboard instruments and funny-looking tubas. Pick up the included au-
dioguide and free English brochure at the entry. In addition to the English commentary, the
audioguide has clips of various instruments being played (just punch in the number next to
the instrument you want to hear). This place is fascinating if you're into pianos.
Cost and Hours:
€4 but included in €8 Kulturforum ticket, Tue-Fri 9:00-17:00, Thu un-
til22:00,Sat-Sun10:00-17:00,closedMon,low-profilewhitebuildingeastofthebigyellow
Philharmonic Concert Hall, tel. 030/2548-1178.
Poke into the lobby of Berlin's yellow Philharmonic building and see if there are tickets
available during your stay. The interior is famous for its extraordinary acoustics. Even
from the outside, this is a remarkable building, designed by a nautical engineer to look
like a ship—notice how different it looks from each angle. Inexpensive and legitimate
tickets are often sold on the street before performances. Or you can buy tickets from the
box office in person, by phone, or online (ticket office open Mon-Fri 15:00-18:00, Sat-
Sun 11:00-14:00, info tel. 030/2548-8132, box office tel. 030/2548-8999—answered daily
9:00-18:00,
www.berliner-philharmoniker.de
)
.Forguestperformances,youmustbuytickets
through the organizer (see website for details).
Throughout the Cold War, Western travelers—and most West Berliners—got used to think-
ing of western Berlin's Kurfürstendamm boulevard as the heart of the city. But those days
havegonethewayoftheWall.Withthehugechangesthecityhasundergonesince1989,the
real“citycenter”isnow,onceagain,Berlin'shistoriccenter(theMittedistrict,aroundUnter
den Linden and Friedrichstrasse). While western Berlin still works well as a home base, it's
