Hi
I'm going to Berlin with my son who now is 13 last week of October.
Any advice on what to do? Especially if there are any evnets, markets, shows etc. We don't speak German,
The only thing he's really into is computer games, but I try to broaden his mind,. With varying success...
For events there is to much too check it. I just checked that there are no mega events in the last week of October, but of course there are hundreds of normal events every day.
http://www.zitty.de , http://berlin.prinz.de/ and http://www.tip-berlin.de/
offer all events. The print editions of the events schedules can be bought at book/newspaper shops everywhere.
For a 13 year-old you might have a look at:
http://www.gruselkabinett-berlin.de/gruselkabinett-en.html chamber of horrors
http://www.filmpark-babelsberg.de/ filmpark with stunt shows etc. October 25th with horror night
http://berliner-unterwelten.de/ tours in bunkers under Berlin. English tours available but more tour offers in German.
http://www.extavium.de/ Science center for kids in Potsdam
http://www.sdtb.de/spectrum.4.0.html Science center for kids in Berlin, part of the Technical Museum Berlin which includes trains etc
Or go to a sport event like football, volleyball, basket ball, handball, whatever he likes. There are 1st league teams in almost every kind of sport in Berlin.
Moreover there are indoor climbing halls like http://www.t-hall.de/
Maybe he would like to go to one of the zoos?
For cinemas: http://www.berlinien.de/kino/
If you have a look in the right side, you will find a list entitled: "Kinos mit Originalversionen Berlin"
That means: All cinemas with original language movies in Berlin. They will have some original movies. The abbreviation (OmU) always indicates that a movie is in original language with subtitles. All other movies are German or synchronized into German.
Last time I was in Berlin I visited the DDR museum near the Berliner Dom and opposite the building site where the old Palast der Republik was. DDR museums are all over Germany but I though this was a good one particularly because it was so hands on with all sorts of displays and when I was there I had difficulty getting to the displays without elbowing teenagers out of the way first!. I guess to some 13 year olds it will just be "old stuff" but if you can tell him about the divided city and the Iron Curtain it should be interesting - and perhaps for you too! Details at http://www.ddr-museum.de/en/ . Incidentally I think it is much better than the museum at Checkpoint Charlie which is a bit of a tourist trap, although some of the photos there are interesting
First thing I thougt about was also the "Filmpark Babelsberg" and the "Unterwelten".
A good thing to do is going up the "Fernsehturm" to get a view over the whole city and
another is going up the Cupola of the "Reichstag".
Depends which computer games he is playing, it might be (if he is into War games) that you
go and show him some of the places "the evil Nazis" did their thing on the real places.
Like the "House on the Wannsee", "Topographie of the Terror", the holocaust-memorial and so on.
(KZ Sachsenhausen is also very close by...)
Set him to the internet and let him do some research. Best way a) to broaden his mind and b) to select places that he finds interesting.
If he shows no interest in doing research, the whole trip will be wasted on him.
What abouit to go for a visite of the Museum Story of Berlin, the Computerspeilmuseum, the Zeiss Planetarium, the Humboldt Box, up to the Siegessäule and if the weather is fine into the Zoologischer Garten or the fortification Zitadelle Spandau?