Our Berlin City Break
Firstly, I'd just like to say that I am 100% in the Christmas spirit. I have my tree up, have wrapped all my Christmas presents and I'm about half way through writing cards. I'm fully embracing the cold evenings spent indoors watching ALL the TV (you must watch the Informer; you must avoid Louis Theroux unless you want to cry your eyes out for the rest of the night).
For this blog post though, I'm throwing it back to the summer. Do we all remember the summer?
The flights were super cheap (£126.69 for two people which included 1x 15kg case) via EasyJet. We flew from Bristol (easy for us as we live here) and then got the train from the airport to our hotel (which only cost €3.40 pp one way, so cheap and fairly straight forward to navigate).
We stayed at the H4 Hotel in Alexanderplatz which was average but did the job (I never go overboard with hotels on a city break as we spend most of our time out and about, so there's really no point).
We arrived on Mark's birthday, so we dumped our stuff and went straight to the Hofbrau which was right next to our hotel. We ordered a HUGE stein of beer each and some food and settled in for the night (which included joining a stag do and making friends with an Irish hurling team - don't ask):
The next day we woke up extremely hungover but determined to battle through. I dragged myself into the shower and changed into comfy shoes ready for a day of walking! Today we planned to cover some museums, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building.
It's a straight road from Alexanderplatz to Lustgarten which is worth a visit - a lovely place to sit and take in the surroundings (or lie down and try not to vom in your hungover state).
Just beyond Lustgarten is Museum Island which, as you'd expect, is an island of museums. You could spend literally all day here but we had a lot of ground to cover so we just chose The German Historical Museum to look around. Afterwards we strolled down towards the Brandenburg Gate and took in all the incredible architecture:
We happened to be in Berlin during the Football World Cup and today was the day Germany played, so when we arrived at the Brandenburg Gate there was a big screen up and it was rammed with people waiting for the game to start. There were food and drink stalls everywhere and the crowds stretched back almost the entirety of the "17 June Street" (we were there on the 17th June. Strange). The atmosphere was incredible - such great timing!
That evening we'd pre-booked a tour of the Reichstag Building (make sure you book in advance as you have to be vetted - it's a government building). It was so interesting and I'd highly recommend doing this if you get the chance. There's so much about Berlin I didn't know before I visited! The tour guide was great and the dome itself is so impressive - makes for some great photos!
After that we walked back to our hotel and crashed (29, 000 steps later)!
The next day we had a bit of a lie in and then went to a place called Alex for an all-you-can-eat Brunch (so good). I was really rubbish at taking photos on this day but I've linked everything we covered here:
DDR Museum (it was ok)
Checkpoint Charlie (must do)
Jewish Museum (bit more interesting)
We did get our photos taken in a little photo booth at Checkpoint Charlie - I really enjoy Mark's face in that middle one:
The next day we hopped on a train to Potsdam which is another of my must-do's - it's a short train journey away and it's so pretty. We went to Sanssouci Palace which was very picturesque - the gardens are beautiful and it felt so peaceful:
That evening we had tickets to see Adam Lambert and Queen (INCREDIBLE) and on our way we stopped off at the East Side Gallery to see this part of the Berlin Wall - again, another must-do as it really is breathtaking:
On our final day, we decided to go to Berlin Zoo and it was honestly the best Zoo I've ever been to (well, as good as Zoos can be as I have mixed feelings about them in general).
After the Zoo and before our flight, we checked out a place called Cafe Einstein Sammhaus which had been recommended to us. And I'm so glad we did because it was SO beautiful. Just look at it:
Love, Alice x
For this blog post though, I'm throwing it back to the summer. Do we all remember the summer?
(Mark's moustache has featured heavily this year. Lucky me.)
Mark and I were lucky enough to visit the amazing city of Berlin in June! This post will take you through what we did during the few days we were there, including my absolute must-do's and any other handy bits of advice I can muster up.The flights were super cheap (£126.69 for two people which included 1x 15kg case) via EasyJet. We flew from Bristol (easy for us as we live here) and then got the train from the airport to our hotel (which only cost €3.40 pp one way, so cheap and fairly straight forward to navigate).
We stayed at the H4 Hotel in Alexanderplatz which was average but did the job (I never go overboard with hotels on a city break as we spend most of our time out and about, so there's really no point).
We arrived on Mark's birthday, so we dumped our stuff and went straight to the Hofbrau which was right next to our hotel. We ordered a HUGE stein of beer each and some food and settled in for the night (which included joining a stag do and making friends with an Irish hurling team - don't ask):
The next day we woke up extremely hungover but determined to battle through. I dragged myself into the shower and changed into comfy shoes ready for a day of walking! Today we planned to cover some museums, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building.
It's a straight road from Alexanderplatz to Lustgarten which is worth a visit - a lovely place to sit and take in the surroundings (or lie down and try not to vom in your hungover state).
Just beyond Lustgarten is Museum Island which, as you'd expect, is an island of museums. You could spend literally all day here but we had a lot of ground to cover so we just chose The German Historical Museum to look around. Afterwards we strolled down towards the Brandenburg Gate and took in all the incredible architecture:
We happened to be in Berlin during the Football World Cup and today was the day Germany played, so when we arrived at the Brandenburg Gate there was a big screen up and it was rammed with people waiting for the game to start. There were food and drink stalls everywhere and the crowds stretched back almost the entirety of the "17 June Street" (we were there on the 17th June. Strange). The atmosphere was incredible - such great timing!
That evening we'd pre-booked a tour of the Reichstag Building (make sure you book in advance as you have to be vetted - it's a government building). It was so interesting and I'd highly recommend doing this if you get the chance. There's so much about Berlin I didn't know before I visited! The tour guide was great and the dome itself is so impressive - makes for some great photos!
After that we walked back to our hotel and crashed (29, 000 steps later)!
The next day we had a bit of a lie in and then went to a place called Alex for an all-you-can-eat Brunch (so good). I was really rubbish at taking photos on this day but I've linked everything we covered here:
DDR Museum (it was ok)
Checkpoint Charlie (must do)
Jewish Museum (bit more interesting)
We did get our photos taken in a little photo booth at Checkpoint Charlie - I really enjoy Mark's face in that middle one:
The next day we hopped on a train to Potsdam which is another of my must-do's - it's a short train journey away and it's so pretty. We went to Sanssouci Palace which was very picturesque - the gardens are beautiful and it felt so peaceful:
That evening we had tickets to see Adam Lambert and Queen (INCREDIBLE) and on our way we stopped off at the East Side Gallery to see this part of the Berlin Wall - again, another must-do as it really is breathtaking:
After the Zoo and before our flight, we checked out a place called Cafe Einstein Sammhaus which had been recommended to us. And I'm so glad we did because it was SO beautiful. Just look at it:
I left wishing we'd had more time as there's so much to do in Berlin (we didn't even cover the nightlife, which is apparently BUZZING if you like techno, house, electro stuff - not our scene tbh). This City is vibrant, packed with amazing things to do and I can't recommend it enough. I hope this post has inspired you to book your next trip! I'll leave you with a photo of me overdosing on Apple Strudel:
Love, Alice x
Comments
Post a Comment