A visit to Germany

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Ah, I'll be renting an XJ6, probably, gotta save $$ and it should be good on your expensive petrol

Yeah I would imagine for an American to go at the petrol station.
Even in Spain for a Liter of Petrol you pay $1,70 (if I'm correct that would be about $6,20 for a US gallon)

Good choice of bike in that regard the XJ6 is a nice all rounder if you want something easy to handle and that brings you from A to B.

Dang, why is Europe so bloody big
Anyway best of luck Neal, enjoy

HunterICX

[SquareSteelBar]

Originally Posted by andwii

Is the bunker still around? Can't remember if they destroyed it or not.

There're many bunkers in Berlin.

You mean the 'Führerbunker'? It's destroyed to prevent pilgrimages...

[Karle94]

Places to see:
- Jewish-museum
- Berliner Fernsehturm
- Reichtag/Bundestag
- Berliner Dom
- DDR-museum
- Sachsenhausen concentration camp

[Oberon]

Don't forget the Brandenburg Gate, and what's left of the wall. IIRC there's an aircraft museum not far from Berlin too, let me look.

Yes, there's the Luftwaffe museum at Gatow:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftwaf...der_Bundeswehr
http://www.aviationmuseum.eu/World/E...Bundeswehr.htm

Looks like quite a nice collection there of aircraft from both sides of the curtain.

A bit more sinister is the Stasi Museum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi_Museum
Or The Memorial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin-...ausen_Memorial

The Glienicke Bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glienicke_Bridge

DDR Museum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_Museum

Obviously, I defer to those with more local knowledge as to whether these museums are worth the visit, but certainly there is a lot of history in Berlin itself and the surrounding environs...that which survived it that is.

[Wreford-Brown]

Neal,

I'm an Englishman living in Germany and have spent a couple of long weekends in Berlin and love the city. I also have friends in Wuppertal and was down there a couple of weeks ago. Not too much to do (we spent most of it in their place) but the hanging train is definitely worth a go.

As for Berlin, in my preference order:
Boat trips. They run regular boat trips up and down the river/canal system which the story of Berlin in WW2 and the Cold War. Check the notice boards and they'll tell you when the trips are being run with an English speaking tour. Trips range from 60 mins to 2 hours and are a great introduction before you walk round the city.

Reichstag (Bundestag). The queues can be long but you can pre-book yourself in for lunch at the restaurant on the roof. You jump all of the queues and go straight to the restaurant, eat lunch then can look around all you want. The lunch itself is not too expensive - about what you'd expect for food in the city. Good for 2 hours (including lunch)

Berlin Wall Memorial. They have revamped a section of the Berlin Wall so it looks like it did during the bad old days, plus there's a high building next to it so you can look over and see into the area. Good for a couple of hours.

Topographie des Terrors. This is a relatively new exhibition which is based around the old SS HQ in Berlin (which was bombed to the ground, although you can see some of the old foundations). It outlines the atrocities committed by the Nazis during their reign and is a bilingual exhibition. Well worth a visit, and one of the longest unbroken stretches of the old Berlin Wall is right next to it. Good for a few hours.

Brandenberg Gate. Definitely something to see while you're walking around.

Check Point Charlie. There's a small museum dedicated to escapes over the years including some of the more innovative ones. If you don't want to pay for the museum, try looking on the billboards which run along the line of the old wall in that area - they contain most of the history and are bilingual.

Alexanderplatz. The centre of old East Germany. For great views across the city go up the TV tower (with a decent camera). Good for a couple of hours.

All of the above you can cover in a (long) day on foot. If you have more time and want to see something outside the city centre:

Sachsenhausen (Oranienberg). We found out about this by accident. Oranienberg was an old SS garrison town with the Berlin concentration camp in it. It's not a death camp but originally held all of the political prisoners from Berlin before being expanded towards the end of the war. It was in the old Soviet sector and the Russians used it for their political prisoners and put a large war memorial in it, so you get WW2 and cold war history together in one place. We intended to go for a couple of hours but spent a full day there - it's about 1 hours drive from the city centre. It's a part of Berlin that fewer tourists get to see.

Luftwaffe museum. About 45mins west of the city centre (but within the city limits) the Luftwaffe museum is on the airfield that serviced the Berlin airlift. Mixture of aircraft - a few WW2, a number of Cold War and quite a few eastern block aircraft that I hadn't seen elsewhere. Quite a few helicopters including Hind and Hip, which I've seen in action but never been close enough to almost touch. Good for a few hours.

Schloss Charlottenburg. The largest palace in Berlin. Great building and gardens but it was bombed in WW2 and most of the internal furnishings and paintings were destroyed / stolen so it was a disappointment. If time is tight, avoid the disappointment.

The best way to see Berlin is to walk around it - we walked everywhere and found some real gems, from small hidden-away public gardens to walking around a corner to find some serious bullet holes in buildings where the area was obviously hard fought over. The best places for this are along the old Berlin Wall demilitarised zone.

If you're travelling Wuppertal to Berlin I'm at about the halfway point around 30 mins off the motorways (about 2 miles from the old Bergen-Belsen concentration camp). If you need a rest stop, PM me for my phone number and address. I've also got my Berlin map with all the tourist locations marked on it, so if you've got an address I can mail that to you (or try and scan it?).

Enjoy your vacation!

[Neal Stevens]

Very very cool, thanks for all the info and tips. I have to decide if it's a good idea to squeeze in a long ride, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to see such a historic city.

Edit: For any Subsim members wanting to meet up, perhaps we could assemble on Sat evening in Dusseldorf, around 6 or 7pm? Any ideas where?

[Jimbuna]

Wuppertal is twinned with my home town South Tyneside and all road entries into my town have a roadside welcoming board stating the fact.

I should imagine Wuppertal act similarly...see if you can get a photo

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Very very cool, thanks for all the info and tips. I have to decide if it's a good idea to squeeze in a long ride, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to see such a historic city.

Edit: For any Subsim members wanting to meet up, perhaps we could assemble on Sat evening in Dusseldorf, around 6 or 7pm? Any ideas where?

The Altstadt (Old Town) is the central go-out district here, with tons of pubs and restaurants for any budget and taste.
If we'd meet a little earlier, we could visit the Schlossturm, an old tower located directly at the Rhine and one of Düsseldorf's landmarks. They have a little museum in it about inland waterway transportation (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schifff...m_(Düsseldorf)). That's about as naval as it gets here
The museum closes at 6pm, so if we want to visit it 5pm should be alrigh, it's not that big.

For later there are the traditional brewpubs here, mainly Uerige and Füchschen. Both also offer non-alcoholic drinks and traditional Rhineland food - if you are daring you can try warm blood sausage
In both facilities you can sit outside, depending on the number of people we may have to book a table in advance.
My favorite beer garden in D-town is this one, located in Norther Düsseldorf, about 20 minutes by tram from the Old Town or Central Station. It is located directly at the Rhine with an awesome view, sitting right next to some cool 8th century castle ruins.

I'll write down some interesting places to visit in a reasonable distance around Düsseldorf (3,4 hours max) later, in case you want to skip the trip to the capital of the Reich. Gotta go now, my guests will arrive soon for the football evening.

[Catfish]

Dang ! Couldn't you land in Hannover ?!
Duesseldorf is a bit away, but will try

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Penguin

if you are daring you can try warm blood sausage

You know that in the UK that is part of the world's greatest breakfast!

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

You know that in the UK that is part of the world's greatest breakfast!

Also well known as a Northern weapon in the ancient martial art

[Schroeder]

I'm afraid Düsseldorf is a bit too far for me...

@Neil

A little advice for American drivers in Germany:
If you want to overtake somebody here, you have to be left of him. Never overtake someone on his right side, that'll cost you 100***8364; IIRC, and will get you a lot of "driver's salutes" (straight middle fingers...).

[Neal Stevens]

Thanks for that advice, I will try to remember that. Of course, I expect the local motorists will understand that I am a tourist because
I will be wearing a shirt with the big letters saying "BUSH IN 2012!!"

[Schroeder]

"Motorist" and "understand" are two words which you can't put in one sentence when travelling on a German Autobahn.

BTW I wanted to say that overtaking someone on his right side will cost 100 Euros. No idea why the forum turned the Euro sign into that strange stuff....

Do you guys see a Euro sign or this strange stuff?:

[Oberon]

No, I get gibberish with it too.