Berlin First-Timer

photos of more and less well known sights. Click on "Weitere Fotos".

Berlin does directly sublimes into countryside. Nicest areas are in the west and south-east. Berlin's largest district Treptow-Köpenick. is covered to 42,8% by forests and to 36,5% by lakes and rivers. Also nice the garden & park landscape of Potsdam.

Rothenburg is really far from Berlin.
An option would be Quedlinburg or Wernigerode. Best either on Sa or Su (or Sa/Su) as on these days there runs the cheap and direct Harz-Berlin-Express. Return ticket is EUR 25,00. A one day return ticket is EUR 19,00. This train is operated by a private railway company. You have to buy the tickets directly in the train.

Both towns are located at the edge of the Harz mountains.
Harz Narrow Gauge Railways

I just got back from Berlin (by the way, it's a great place, abalada!) and suggest you just wander. I'm not usually a fan of graffitti, but some of the painted walls in Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg, etc are really colourful and artistic. I suppose it's more for photography than for sketching though.
And some of the neighbourhoods with narrower streets and painted, older buildings are certainly good for a sketchbook.

You could go by S-Bahn 5 or 75 to Spandau to see the castle and the small town. Then on the journey back, stop off at the Olympiastadion.
Bernau is an ancient small town at the end of the S-Bahn S4 line.
You could also go to Wannsee, picturesque place on a wide stretch of the river, BUT also the location of the chilling 'Final Solution' (now a museum)

Edited by: ae123456

There are not so many towns with medieval remains close to Berlin. Nauen is the smallest. Bigger but with old centres are Brandenburg and Cottbus.
I am sure I have not to mention Potsdam because it will certainly be included in your itinerary.

Hello,

Alt Tegel north of the airport is a beautiful neighborhood and easily reached by either S or U Bahn. It is a lakeside region and has lovely streets and buildings.

If you are going to travel all the way to Rothenburg from Berlin, you may want to consider Nordlingen instead. It is a little farther but much less crowded and touristy and gets one a better sense of what it was like to live in a walled city of the Middle Ages.

Berlin is a wonderful town with great public transportation. However, check before you arrive to make find out what the status of the transportation strike is. When we were there in mid-March, portions of the system were on strike and while we were able to get around without major problems, we were inconvenienced by the lack of U Bahn and tram trains.

Enjoy Berlin!

Hi twinklyfox
berlin is a great place, formerly Kreuzberg was a bad area, but now is street cafe society but first take the U bahn to Templehof, "PLatz der Luftbrucke" where the airbridge kept West Berliners fed after the war. from here walk along left at Colombia Damm and then turn right through Viktoria park. this small mountain was man made from the rubble that was Berlin after the war.down to Kreuzberg strasse and along into Bergman strasse. for a meal in one of the cafes or the old markthalle off Zossener strasse
I stayed at the three piggies
three piggies which is close to "Anhalter Bahnhof
this guest house is close to Koch strasse where there are still bits of the wall left. on to friedrichstrasse.
A must see is the Pergamon museum by which the Israelites left left Babylon after their 70 yrs captivity and release by Cyrus the Persian as Prophesied in Isaiah 200 yrs previously
Pergamon museum
as said Grunewald see (there were wild boar here alst time I was there and Wannsee if the weather is fine for the beach. and a boat ride to the famous Sans Souci palace whos design was based on the Palace at Versailles.
Just outside Berlin to the Nrth and a short bus or train ride away is Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
a mind blowing, reminder of the holocaust and that also not just to Jews.
obviously you want to see Brandenberger Tor and from the the Reichstag is a short walk away. but get the U bahn ( you can get a weeks card to include potsdam and various savings on museums etc etc)
then on to the Funkturm famous for being a preferred jumping off poiint for suicide when after the things became really difficult after the war.
take the U bahn to theodor Heuss platz and as you leave the station you get a fantastic view down Kaiser Damm to the Brandenberger Tor cross the rd to Messe gelander and up the Funkturm.
In the old days pre world war ll coming down from the 30's Kurfustendamm was the cultural centre of Berlin with the Zoo and the main railway station also Kafe Krantzler where people would just sit and have "Kaffee und Kuchen" coffee and cake.
Nowadays Alexander platz in the former eastern sector, dominated by the TV tower is the new centre of Berlin and its night life .
get to see the Ampelmann museum the ampelmann is the green and red man seen on the traffic lights and he walks on green and stops on red and there is a museum just around the corner from Alexander platz in his honour.

Berlin info
to get to Anhalter bahnhof or city centre from the Berlin schonefeld airport get a ticket from the newsagent in the railway station there, to twon change at Friedrichstrasse to u bahn for three piggies.
also eat. for breakfast I alwasy go into the bakeries and have a good coffee and ask for "Schrippen mit butter Bitte" a crispy roll with fresh unsalrted butter very filling and cheap.
also must eat:
Klopse
Eissbeinn mit slaz kartoffel und saurkarut
Goulasch mit salzkartoffel und Rohtkohl
you can get at schnell Imbiss (on the streets) Bockwurst, Knacker wurst, or Currie wurst
with a cold drink, beer or coffee

Hemanplatz is also Old Berlin and Neukolln used to be a nice shopping area but is now very very Muslim with many shop signs in Arabic and Turkish. but just North of the shopping centere on the left is a real old worldy pub with real berlin locals . Blauen Affe
Funkturm

Berlin villages must see, Gross Zeithen after Britz and Buckow is pretty by the pond and church also Blankenfelde area
villages outside Berlin

Hi twinklyfox,
if you want to spend some time sketching, taking pictures and watching people you should check out the Erholungspark Marzahn. I love this place, it is a park divided into the Gardens of the World, meaning that some countries built a garden inside the park as a present to the city of Berlin. The gardens are designed and built by specialists from the countries. By now you can find a Balinese Garden, a Korean Garden, a Japanese Stone Garden, an Oriental Garden, a Chinese Garden and things like a maze and a herbal garden. You can spend an entire day watching people, drinking tea at the chinese tea house next to the artificial lake. It's in the outskirts of Berlin, so it will take some time getting there.
http://www.gruen-berlin.de/marzEN/index.php
Details are listed on the page above about openign hours and transport.
My advice about a small city would be Quedlinburg. As someone already mentioned it is well connected and the city is just breathtaking. The city center ist about 1600 years old and listed as UNESCO World heritage. The houses of the inner city are clustered around the castle and are lovingly cared for by their owners. It consists mostly of small cobbled alleyways and nice cafés. I fell in love spontaneously and couldn't stop taking pictures.
Have fun on your trip

I'm lost twinklyfox! I'm a heating engineer by trade and my Rothenberger came from a place near Mannheim, long way from Berlin have I got it wrong, isn't it nearer to Swizzerland and Strasburg than Berlin?