Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [74]
The gate stands sentinel over Pariser Platz (Map), an elegant square once again framed by embassies and bank buildings as it was during its 19th-century heyday as the ‘emperor’s reception hall’. Pop inside the DZ Bank (Map) for a look at the outlandish conference room US-based architect Frank Gehry created in the atrium. The US Embassy next door was the last Pariser Platz building to open, in July 2008.
The first one was the faithfully rebuilt Hotel Adlon (now called the Adlon Hotel Kempinski, Click here). This posh caravanserai was the original Grand Hotel, where the 1932 movie starring Greta Garbo was filmed. A celeb magnet since its 1907 opening, it has sheltered Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein and even Michael Jackson. Remember him dangling his baby out the window? It happened at the Adlon.
US president John F Kennedy of ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ fame is the focus of the small Kennedy Museum (Map; 2065 3570; www.thekennedys.de; Pariser Platz 4a; adult/concession €7/3.50; 10am-6pm), an intimate, nonpolitical exhibit set up like a walk-through family photo album. Besides a great array of photographs there are scribbled notes, JFK’s crocodile-leather briefcase, Jackie’s Persian lamb pillbox hat and a Superman comic-book edition starring the president.
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BERLIN IN…
One Day
Get up early to beat the crowds to the dome of the Reichstag, then snap a picture of the Brandenburger Tor (opposite) before exploring the maze of the Holocaust Memorial (below). From there you’re off on a classic saunter along Unter den Linden (below) with a detour to Gendarmenmarkt and the glamorous Friedrichstadtpassagen. After lunch, take a peek inside the Berliner Dom before being awed by Nefertiti at the Neues Museum and the Pergamon Altar at the Pergamonmuseum. Finish up at the Scheunenviertel where you should have no trouble sourcing good spots for dinner, drinks and dancing.
Two Days
Follow the one-day itinerary, then revisit Cold War history at Checkpoint Charlie and the nearby Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. Spend the rest of the morning at the amazing Jüdisches Museum before heading off to Berlin’s showcase of urban renewal, the Potsdamer Platz. Make a stop here at the Museum für Film und Fernsehen or walk a few steps west to the Kulturforum and the superb Gemäldegalerie. At night, sample the cuisine and bar scene of Prenzlauer Berg (p140 and Click here).
Three Days
Follow the two-day itinerary, then devote the morning of day three to Schloss Charlottenburg where you shouldn’t miss the Neuer Flügel (New Wing) or a spin around the Schlossgarten (palace park). Spend the afternoon stocking up on souvenirs along the Kurfürstendamm and in the KaDeWe, then have an early dinner before catching the latest show at the Bar Jeder Vernunft, followed by a nightcap at Galerie Bremer.
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HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
The football-field-sized Memorial to the Murdered European Jews (Map; colloquially known as the Holocaust Memorial) by American architect Peter Eisenman consists of 2711 sarcophagi-like concrete columns rising in sombre silence from undulating ground. You’re free to access this maze at any point and make your individual journey through it. For context visit the subterranean Ort der Information (information centre; Map; 7407 2929; www.holocaust-mahnmal.de; Cora-Berliner-Strasse 1; admission free, audioguide adult/concession €3/1.50; 10am-8pm Tue-Sun Apr-Sep, to 7pm Oct-Mar, last admission 45min before closing), whose exhibits will leave no one untouched.
HITLER’S BUNKER
Berlin was burning and Soviet tanks advancing relentlessly when Adolf Hitler, holed up in his bunker (Map), put a gun to his head in the final days of WWII. Today, there’s just a parking lot on the site along