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Visit Neue National Gallerie for its modern art and the East Side Gallery for the international artwork on a wall that kept Germany and Berlin separated for decades. Make a reservation at Käfer Dachgarten inside the Reichstag and bypass the long non-appointment line going in a separate entrance. Make an appointment to see the inside of the Reichstag besides the glass dome. Brandenburger Tor is symbolic for the reunification of both Germany and Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Go to Haus Am Checkpoint Charlie museum to see the desperate attempts over the years of people trying to escape into the West. Visit the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) and Alexanderplatz to see a panaromic view of the city and dine at the Telecafé afterwards.

Quick Tips:

Resources: Berlin Tourist Information, Die Bahn, S-Bahn, U-Bahn Berlin (in German only), JPM Publications This Way Berlin, Let's Go Germany, and Spartacus International Gay Guide are good resources. The This Way guidebook series is highly recommended for its small, compact form.

Best Way To Get Around:

Berlin Tourist Information Public Transportation taking the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, or bus or walking with a map are fairly easy ways of moving about in this large city.

Hotel Sachsenhof is a budget-class hotel located in an area popular for its cafés and close to many gay venues. The room is very basic but clean. The doorknobs don't rotate. There are rooms available with private showers and toilets, but we chose to have a room without these to save on some expenses. Our room has three beds to accommodate three people, a very small round marble table, wicker chairs, a vanity sink, a steel cabinet to hang up your clothes, and some wooden shelves attached to the wall to store/display your things in. The one annoying problem was that the carpeted wooden floors creek when walking over it. Another was that we kept banging our legs into the corners of the wood-frame bed. There are two toilets and one shower stall on the floor, each separated. There are motion sensors that turn on the light in the hallways to conserve electricity, which works quite well as long as there's motion detected. The lights went off while I was in the shower, and I had to wave my arms so that the motion sensors detected my movement and turned the lights back on.

The hotel offers a buffet breakfast from 7am to 10am for an additional €6 with orange juice, tea, coffee, cereals, sliced deli meats, and boiled eggs. For just a cup of coffee, it’s €1,30. For a pot of coffee, it’s €2,50. You inform the hotel clerk if you want breakfast included upon check-in.

Leave your key at front desk when going out. At night, press buzzer for entry. Depending on the clerk on duty, they may or may not speak English.

It is close to underground station am Nollendorfplatz.

Email: hotel.sachsenhof@t-online.de

S..... Café Restaurant offers breakfast till 5pm, with certain choices for 6€. The food was good, service was decent, and the atmosphere was very nice.

Hours: 9am to 1am

Close to underground station am Nollendorfplatz.

Maredo is a chain restaurant in Germany and Austria serving Argentine or Brazilian cuisine, steaks, and roasts. We came across as we were window-shopping after the stores in the area had already closed in the central city.

We arrived just after 9:30pm, which is when their night menu takes effect. We ordered a steak cooked rare, which it was, a large plate of ribs with barbeque sauce on the side, and along with the ribs, I could buy an all-you-can-eat salad bar.

The large portion of ribs were fairly good but had a bit of fat, and the sauce used to dip the rib meat was tasty. The salad bar was only fair--nothing really to really get excited about.

There are daily promotions on their website, or see their menu's current offerings, depending on the time of day.

Daily 11:30am-12:00am

Uhlandstrasse Station

Telecafé, a rotating restaurant with 30 minutes for a full cycle, is located in the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) with a €7,00 adult fee to ride the elevator to the top. It was a place to dine after seeing the tower. Its hours coincide with the hours of the tower's operating hours. We had some salad and dessert. White tablecloth service. Reservations are recommended, though when we just dropped in, it was late evening in the winter and not crowded.

Daily 10am-11:30pm

email info@berlinerfernsehturm.de

Alexanderplatz:
S-Bahn S5, S7, S75, S9; U-Bahn U2, U5, U8; Bus 100, 148, 200

Käfer Dachgarten is a fine restaurant located in the Reichstag. Make a reservation to dine here and bypass the long waiting line by using the side entrance.

We didn't know about this restaurant until coming out of the elevator to ascend the walkway to the top of the dome.

We dropped in after touring the dome and wanted to sit and warm up. We were informed that a large party was coming and were only allowed 15 minutes to dine, which was fine by us, as it was long enough to have a drink and some dessert.

Open daily 9:30am to 12am, last orders taken at 9:30pm.
Unter den Linden: S-Bahn S1, S2; Bus 100

Snack Point Charlie is a play on names and across the street from Check Point Charlie Museum. It contains different vendors of Turkish food, Subway sandwiches, and Asian/Chinese food on a steam table. We got here right after seeing the attraction Check Point Charlie and were tired. The other two places were already closed, and the Turkish place was also preparing to close down. There were no doner kabobs available, so we got what was available. The food wasn't very good, but we got what was left just as they were closing up at the end of the day.

Kaiser's is a large supermarket chain, with a bakery at this location. It's clean, large, bright, and organized, but products are higher-priced than at some other competitors. You provide your own bags to carry away your purchased goods, so you must estimate how much you are able to carry away before loading up the cart, as no bags are provided.

The bakery offers quick food, and the queue can be long. There are sandwiches, pastries, and coffee available.

Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm

Tel: 030/21751895

Close to underground station am Nollendorfplatz

Jüdisches Museum Berlin has a unique architectural design that makes for a unique experience walking through the museum. The axis overhead as we started on the lower level had a striking visual impact. There's the Garden of Exile and Emigration outside that consists of 49 pillars arranged in seven rows and seven columns, where you through on an angled surface. Olive branches grow out of each of the pillars to symbolize hope and peace. The Holocaust Tower, a cold, damp, dark concrete room, gives a brief glimpse of what the Jews suffered as they were shut out of the world.

There's a huge collection of photography, artwork, and memorabilia. Even though it shows the bad and horrible events that took place, there's something missing to evoke personal emotion in the viewer.

There is a snack shop serving coffee and truffles.

Admissions: Adults 5€, students and seniors 2,50€, and children under six free. A family ticket (two adults and up to four children) is 10€.

Info: 49 30 25993 300, Fax: 49 30 25993 409

Email: info@jmberlin.de

Tours: fuehrungen@jmberlin.de

Monday 10am to 10pm and Tuesday to Sunday 10am-8pm
Last entry 1 hour prior to closing
Closed
December 24, 2004 (Christmas Eve); October 4 and 5, 2005; and October 13, 2005.

U1 or U6 to Hallesches Tor or the U6 to Kochstraße
Bus nos. M29, M41, and 265

Haus Am Checkpoint Charlie is an interesting mix of artwork, multimedia, photography, and newspaper articles with imagination, ingenuity, and innovation, devising ways to go over, under, or through the Berlin Wall in a desperate attempt to reach the West, along with attempts to build a better mousetrap, as each succeeding generation made escape harder. They changed from barbed wire to the infamous Berlin Wall, built a zig-zag road crossing, moved the border crossing farther back, stationed automatic machine guns along the border, and redesigned the guard tower's windows to be smaller after a defection from one of the guards through a window.

People dug tunnels and smuggled themselves in cable reels, suitcases, speaker boxes, and automobiles. Some of the effort in its presentation could use improvement with a larger type and clearer displays, with a consistent, easy-to-read typestyle and a country flag symbol to denote language.

A museum souvenir shop is available. Complimentary lockers are available to secure your jackets/bags with a €2 coin downstairs. Entrance fee is €9.50. A guard's station is recreated outside the museum, with an oversized portrait photo of a guard overhead.

Daily 9am-10pm

Tel: 253 72 50

Email: info@mauer-museum.com

U6 to Kochstr

East Side Gallery is what's left of the Berlin Wall, where artists worldwide painted 106 images for the largest open-air gallery, which was constantly defaced with graffiti scribblings of tourists.

Email: eastsidegallery@eastsidegallery.com

S3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 75, U1, 15 to WarschauerstraBe and walk back toward Mühlenstrasse, the river.

Neue Nationalgallerie is home to 20th-century European paintings, sculptures from the 1960s, and classic modern art, including works by Munch, Kirchner, Picasso, Klee, Feininger, Dix, and Kokoschka.

Joseph Buey’s audio recording of Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee is prevalent throughout the museum.

Tuesday to Wednesday, Friday 10am to 6pm, Thursday 10am to 10pm, and Saturday to Sunday 11am to 6pm

Admission 6€, concessions 3€, first Sunday of the month free.

Phone: 030-266 2651, Fax: 030-262 4715
Email: nng@smb.spk-berlin.de

The Reichstag is the current home of the German governing body. A fire in 1933 here was the event Adolf Hitler used as an excuse to declare a state of emergency and seize power. A glass dome was recently added to the top, and an upside-down solar cone powers the building. There are a series of plagues depicting its history along the base of the inverted solar cone. Tourists, visitors, and those without an appointment line up to be screened through security and then allowed to go inside the walkway spiraling up to the top of the interior dome for a spectacular panoramic view of the city.

A tour of the other parts of the building are by appointment only. Those with an appointment or a dining reservation (make a reservation with Käfer Dachgarten by calling 22 62 99 33) go through a different entrance and bypass the long wait.

Daily 8am to 12am, last entrance 10pm; free

Tel: 30/227 32 152, Fax: 30/227 35 908
Email: mail@bundestag.de

Unter den Linden: S-Bahn S1, S2; Bus 100

The Fernsehturm (TV tower), the tallest building in the city at 368m (with a viewing platform 203m above the ground; a seven-story, stainless-steel sphere; and top with a 118m television antenna), was something that peaked our curiosity as we toured about the city. This structure was in the background, but we didn't know what this structure was until we were closer and inquired about it.

When we arrived to wait for the elevator at the bottom, the elevator operator abruptly left her position after just a very brief, quick greeting and left us for around 5 minutes. Another person from another elevator appeared and found that the operator left her position. When she reappeared, she had a brief discussion with the person from the other elevator and then took us up the elevator. The elevator is fully automatic, but a security pin number is required for access.

It is best to go before dark, preferably twilight, as it was late in the evening and we could hardly see anything except the city lights.

Open March to October 9am to 12am and November to February 10am to 12am.
Admission: Adult 7€, Children 3,50€

Alexanderplatz:
S-Bahn S5, S7, S75, and S9; U-Bahn U2, U5, and U8; Bus 100, 148, and 200

Brandenburger Tor, built by C.G. Langhansis from 1788–91 with 12 Doric columns, is based on the propylaeum of the Acropolis in Athens. It represents a symbol of reunification of both Germany and Berlin. It was walled off to the east side after WWII for decades.

Gate Sauna is a men's sauna with lockers, a Jacuzzi, a steam sauna, and private areas for rest and recreation for 14€.

Tel: 030-2299430

Email: info@gate-sauna.de

S-Bahn: S1 under the lime trees; U-Bahn: U2 Mohrenstrasse, U6 French Road; Bus: no. 100 under the lime trees, 348 Mohrenstrasse.

Sowjetisches Ehrenmal stands as a Soviet memorial guarded by two red stared tanks with a Soviet soldier at the top as a rememberance for the 5,000 Soviet soldiers who died in action in WWII and were buried there.

Treptower Park: S-Bahn S41, S42, S8, S9, S85;
Bus 104, 166, 194, 265, 365

Tiergarten is Berlin's largest park originally served as hunting grounds for Prussian princes till the 18th century when it was made into a park.

Peter Joseph Lenné, landscape architect laid out the site in the English landscape style in 1818, and statues were added from 1850. Wilhelm II set out 32 marble sculpture groups to depict the royal ancestors on the former Siegesallee (Avenue of Victory). The Siegesallee was relocated by Hitler and its remains dismantled after the war.

It's used by many Berliners for relaxation, barbequing in warm weather, and cruising by night.

Room of Silence is located at the northern end of the Brandenburger Tor and provides a non-denominational place for meditation and reflection in silence. The room is devoid of any religious, ideological, or political symbolism. Hungarian artist Ritta Hager made a woven wall-hanging, abstractly light penetrating darkness.