Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [78]
Across Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse, SeaLife Berlin (Map; 992 800; Spandauer Strasse 3; adult/concession €17/12; 10am-7pm, last admission 6pm) is a pricey but entertaining aquarium that follows the Spree River into the North Atlantic. Visits conclude with a glacial lift ride through the AquaDom, a 16m-tall cylindrical tropical fish tank. Catch a free preview from the lobby of the Radisson Blu Hotel.
Below the hotel, the DDR Museum (GDR Museum; Map; 847 123 731; Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 1; adult/concession €5.50/3.50; 10am-8pm Sun-Fri, 10am-10pm Sat) teaches the rest of us about daily life behind the Iron Curtain. You’ll learn that East German kids were put through collective potty training, engineers earned little more than farmers and everyone, it seems, went on nudist holidays. A must for Good Bye, Lenin! fans. The entrance is on the Spree bank, opposite the Berliner Dom.
The hulking red building back south across the street is the 1860 Rotes Rathaus (Red Town Hall; Map; Rathausstrasse 15; closed to the public), the office of Berlin’s mayor. The moniker ‘red’, by the way, was inspired by the colour of its bricks and not (necessarily) the political leanings of its occupants.
The town hall sits on the edge of the twee Nikolaiviertel (Nicholas Quarter; Map), which is where the GDR regime recreated the city’s medieval birthplace in celebration of Berlin’s 750th anniversary in 1987. There are only a few original historic buildings, most notably the 1230 Nikolaikirche (Map; closed for renovation), Berlin’s oldest church. All in all, the maze of cobbled lanes is worth a quick stroll, but you won’t find too many Berliners patronising the pricey cafes, restaurants and cutesy shops.
It’s a bit of a musty, old-fashioned jumble, but the Märkisches Museum (March of Brandenburg Museum; Map; 3086 6215; Am Köllnischen Park 5; adult/concession €5/3; 10am-6pm Tue & Thu-Sun, noon-8pm Wed) still gives you a grasp on how the tiny trading village of Berlin-Cölln evolved into today’s metropolis. A good time to visit is on Sunday afternoons at 3pm when the quirky automatophones (mechanical musical instruments) are launched on their cacophonous journey (separate admission, adult/concession €2/1).
SCHEUNENVIERTEL
It’s hard to imagine that, until reunification, the dapper Scheunenviertel (literally ‘Barn Quarter’) was a neglected, down-at-heel barrio with tumbledown buildings and dirty streets. Fanning out northwest of Alexanderplatz, it’s since catapulted from drab to fab and teems with restaurants, bars, clubs, cabarets, concept stores, owner-run boutiques and even a fair amount of resident celebrities. Though fairly quiet in the daytime, it comes to life after dark, especially along the Oranienburger Strasse, the main drag where you may well be sharing the pavement with long-legged sex workers and rowdy 20-somethings on an organised pub crawl.
The Scheunenviertel has also reprised its legacy as a centre of Jewish life with the gleaming gold dome of the Neue Synagoge (New Synagogue; Map; 8802 8300; www.cjudaicum.de; Oranienburger Strasse 28-30; adult/concession €3/2; 10am-8pm Sun & Mon, 10am-6pm Tue-Thu, 10am-5pm Fri Apr-Sep, reduced hr Oct-Mar) being its most striking landmark. Built in Moorish-Byzantine style, the 1866 original seated 3200 and was Germany’s largest synagogue. During the 1938 Kristallnacht pogroms, a local police chief prevented Nazi thugs from setting it on fire, an act of courage commemorated by a plaque. It was eventually desecrated anyway but not destroyed until hit by bombs in 1943.
Rebuilt in the 1990s, today’s version is not so much a house of worship but a museum and cultural centre called Centrum Judaicum. Inside are displays on the building’s history and architecture and the lives of the people