Berlin might just be one of the most undervalued destinations in Europe. It's a city layered with history that is incredibly walkable, which is perfect for travelers who love to explore on foot. In this episode, we're sharing our recent visit to Berlin, a trip that didn't start out quite as we had planned, but a travel delay meant that we had less time in the city than we had hoped. but we still managed to cover a lot of ground and uncover some memorable highlights. If you listened to our last episode on planning this trip, tune in today as we talk about how we modified our itinerary and some of the things we would suggest you might want to put on yours. So let's get started.
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Welcome back to the podcast. On today's episode, we're sharing our recent visit to a city we believe is one of Europe's most underrated gems, which is Berlin. It's a place rich in history, culture, creativity, and surprisingly, it has very walkable neighborhoods that make it easy to explore on foot. We definitely plan to spend a lot more time exploring and soaking it all in.
definitely plan to spend a lot more time exploring and soaking it all in. But our travel delay actually cut our time short by about 12 hours. So we were supposed to land at 7 a .m., have the whole day. And it was really 5 .30, I don't know, 6 .30 probably by the time we got to the hotel and got checked in. So what we're going to tell you about then is how we really made the most of our visit, even in a lot less time than we expected. So if Berlin wasn't already on your radar, because it wasn't really on our radar, we actually ended up. like making it a part of travel plans, which is something that we like to do that gives us a chance to see even more places. But by the end of this episode, we hope that you will put it on your radar because we've really, really enjoyed our time there.
Yeah, as a matter of fact, we had looked at a couple of different places in Germany because that's where we wanted to start our trip. But Berlin just is one of those that came onto the radar. And I said, you know what? It would be so cool to go back to Berlin. It's been 40 years since my last visit there. So let's start out talking about, you know, what we had planned because we had two days that we were going to spend there. And then it really ended up just being one full day and then one evening to do just a few different things.
Yeah. And so this is really just a reminder to all of us that travel delays happen. And we have actually heard from several people after this happened to us talking about like. delays into Frankfurt recently have become the norm and not really an exception. So how did we kind of modify our plan? So the good thing is, is that we were kind of planned to do a walking tour on our own. So we hadn't really booked anything, which really helped, right? Because if we had had things booked to try to get to that first day, which a lot of times we don't. We did in London and it worked out fine. We did it later in the day. So we would highly recommend this to kind of not book up your arrival day because travel delay like that could really just wreck everything. So the first night, once we got in, you hadn't actually, we hadn't really planned even for a meal, but you kind of, we got checked in and you had looked online real quick to kind of see what's close by, right, that we could get a reservation for. So we did that first. Yeah,
we took one of Tamara's recommendations. So we went to the Beef Grill Club and tried that out and it turned out to be an... Excellent restaurant. I mean, not that I was surprised. She's been there many times. But for what we were looking for that night, it was a, you know, a great steak, high in protein, really get us started so that we could hit the ground running first thing next morning.
And I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think. that I have ever had a bad meal in Germany. I feel like personally, like they just take really great pride in the quality of their food and restaurants and stuff like that. So that's just been my personal experience. So then after that, we really wanted to spend some time just walking a little bit, right? Kind of walking off all the travel and the food and getting some fresh air before it was time to go to bed. And the good thing is, is that this time of year in Germany, in Berlin specifically, The sun doesn't set till around 930. So keep that in mind because that's going to be very different depending on the time of the year. But in May, we did have some kind of extended daylight. So we were able to walk down to the Brandenburg Gate after dinner and kind of check that out and, you know, just kind of walk around a little bit. We walked over to the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe as well and just kind of got us some. you know, fresh air and a little bit of walking as well.
Well, so let's talk real quick about FlyKit. This is the second time that you've used it. It's the third time that I've used it on a long haul flight. And, you know, we're not sponsored by FlyKit, but my goodness, what a difference that makes in the long haul travel.
Yeah, for sure. I feel like, I mean, we were tired. Like, don't get us wrong. We were tired. And it was because, unfortunately, our travel ended up being like almost 24 hours just to get to Europe with these travel delays. But being tired after the month's travel and being jet lagged is two completely different things. Right. And so still like following that process and still staying up, getting our meals at a certain time and then going to bed and but then not waking up at some crazy time in the middle of the night and being absolutely miserable. You know, that's jet lag. Compared to just being tired. You know, we woke up the next morning, normal time. I think, well, actually, we didn't even set an alarm, right? And kind of really slept and kind of rested and that kind of thing. So flight kit absolutely will not travel, you know, internationally to where you have crossing all those time zones without it. It is 100 % plus worth. Well,
let's talk about our Sunday. and what we were able to accomplish in that full day that we had there in Berlin. We started our tour at Checkpoint Charlie, and this is something I think I would suggest. We were following Tamara's walking guide, and she even said, you can start anywhere on the guide and just follow it through. But we're going to make a few suggestions if you've downloaded her guide, which we suggest that you do. And we're going to make a few suggestions on how we think it would be best laid out to get the most history in the right order for Berlin. And so we started our tour at Checkpoint Charlie. And honestly, the reason that we chose that is just because I had been to Checkpoint Charlie 40 years ago and I wanted to go back there. I wanted to go back and see that area. Just know that when I was there 40 years ago, there was still a wall that separated East and West Germany or East and West Berlin. And so all of this, it took me a while to kind of take it all in, how it was different than the last time that I was there. And so, you know, Checkpoint Charlie was definitely one of those that really threw me for a loop because I didn't realize that the hotel we were staying at was actually... in the former East Berlin. So, like, I wasn't really familiar with that area. I'd only gone over one time 40 years ago, and I just remember wanting to hang out in line of sight to Checkpoint Charlie and not wanting to get very far from there because I didn't want to get caught on the other side of the wall. I'd heard these horror stories of people who got caught on the other side of the wall, and then they couldn't get out anymore. And, you know, I was... I was young then and, you know, I just thought that would be the worst thing in the world. And so didn't do a lot of exploration previously of the east side. But boy almighty, there are some absolutely beautiful buildings and beautiful architecture of there on that side of the wall or what was the wall. So I was super excited to see this,
I was super excited to see this, too, because Scott had told me of these stories. the fact that he had gone there. And I don't think it hit me until we got to Checkpoint Charlie and started looking at the displays that they have. And so I want to say that's one thing about Berlin that I really appreciated is that at Checkpoint Charlie and several other places that we visited, they had these like historical displays, like you didn't have to pay for them. It wasn't like you had to go into a museum if you didn't want to, to see these. So it showed you like the pictures throughout the different years and what they look like and then relative to where you were then. And I don't think I really understood. Scott had always talked about how they took the train from the Frankfurt area, which now it makes sense. It was because the train had to go through a portion of East Germany to get to Berlin, which was then divided into East and West. And then they were able to go into. West Berlin and then for that day period travel into East Berlin. So I don't think I really like comprehended that until we were actually there. And so to be able to to kind of see that and then see these old pictures and kind of understand what like Scott's perspective. And since this was my first time visiting and also the fact that, you know, Scott, you are probably very few people who got to visit. when it was East Berlin and West Berlin as well. You know, to have that perspective, I just think it's just like just a really neat thing. And so we, like you were saying, we decided, so we visited the Checkpoint Charlie, kind of did the photo op there where they show that, but then also went into the museum because you had a specific memory of there's a place in that museum where you could actually look out and you took me to that window where you could look out and you could see. OK, this is where the wall would have been. And there's a small portion of it that still exists, kind of as like almost a memorial. And the rest of that would have been no man's land. And you could you at that time saw that, that, you know, here was where the wall was. Here was this no man's land. And there was like lots of bullet holes and stuff like that. And so just what a perspective and a memory. And then now for you to be able to revisit that and then and to share that. I think with me and so the thing about that Checkpoint Charlie Museum you know while there are other things I think it really if you're interested in history it gave you that perspective all the way I would say probably like before 1900 wouldn't you say or at least the early 1900s throughout even present day as well so like before the wars and like just how the history and how all this transpired you know throughout. what, over 100 years, I guess, right?
So let me just say, you can spend a lot of time in Checkpoint Charlie. I recommend you give yourself about an hour, hour and a half. Don't try to read everything on the walls because there is so much of it. And just read a little bit along the way at each of the stops, I think. And that's going to give you a great overview of Berlin and what was happening during this time. And so we're going to leave the Checkpoint Charlie, and now we're going to start walking our way to Potsdamer Plots. That's going to be the next stop on our tour. To be honest, I don't remember a lot from Potsdamer Plots before. I remember the name. But since the wall has come down, they've really poured a lot of money into that area, building it up, kind of the old versus new construction in that area. And one of the things that we did is when we got there, we actually asked ChatGPT, like, what are some of the things that we don't want to miss here at Potsdamer Plots? Because it wasn't actually obvious to us. And so one of the things it came up with was the Sony building as a list of things to see. And, you know, I was a little bit skeptical, I think. But we went over there and that's where we ended up having lunch, by the way. Traditional German pub style lunch and just a spectacular building. It's got this really cool roof and some great pictures that you can take while there. It's got a little fountain thing that the kids can play in if you want to let them get wet. Make sure to take them a change of clothes or something. But really cool place. And so we enjoyed that. And I think I would add that as thing. part of your things to do while at Potsdam or Plots.
Yeah. And there was also a really cool food hall so that if you had a lot of different people, they could kind of pick what they wanted to eat. And then also they had some displays as kind of as we left that Sony area, they had some displays from like old, I guess it was like an old almost palace and it was like protected by the historical and they couldn't. So it's like behind these glass things. So just some. You know, fantastic things to look for. A couple of the other things that were very neat in Potsdamer Platz were where you can see like the division of where the wall used to be. So one of the things that Tamara had told us was that you will see in different places in the city how they have these bricks on the ground. And that will show you, you know, where that wall used to be. And there's a couple of places in Potsdamer Platz where it will actually say. in German, that it was the Berlin Wall. So those are kind of some neat things to look out for. And then one of the other things was the one of the oldest or I guess the oldest functioning traffic lights in Europe or a replica of it stands there. And that's that's a neat thing to see as well.
Yeah, there used to be somebody that sat up inside of this traffic light and it's almost like an octagonal shape of fixture or something. And they would literally light up. the different lights to control the traffic. And so it's a really neat thing to see as well as those portions, original portions of the wall that are still standing. And they've done a really good job of telling the story around those portions of the wall that are there. So we're going to leave from there, though, and we're going to now head up towards the Brandenburg Gate. So on the way to Brandenburg Gate, we're going to make a couple of stops that are on the walking. tour. And so just decide how much of that you actually want to do. I would say the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is something where you're not going to need to spend a lot of time there. You can spend as much as you want, but it's basically pieces of, I believe, granite of different shapes, sizes, heights that are lined up. Very interesting memorial to those individuals that were murdered. And so, you know, just... Go there. I would just kind of remind you is this is a memorial. So like don't walk on top of the pieces of granite. We saw a lot of that. But, you know, don't try not to. So don't, you know, so treat it like the memorial that it is. And so we're going to leave that memorial and right just maybe 100 yards from there is where you're going to come to the Brandenburg Gate. Now, we had been there the night before and we saw it lit up at night. There was a lot of, I don't know if they were like emergency vehicles or what that had been stationed there the night before. I believe this is a place and has been for a really long time where people do a lot of protests. When we came up to it during that day, they were having a peaceful protest on one side of the gate. There was a lot of people there. It seemed to be sort of like a political rally of some sort. And so we just kind of walked around to the other side of the gate and were able to get some really good pictures. Thankfully, the side that we were able to get pictures of is the front side of the gate. So you can see the statues on top. They're facing you. And so we did that right there at Brandenburg Gate also. there's a couple of things to pay attention to. You've got the U .S. Embassy that is right there at the Brandenburg Gate. And then also one of the most popular Currywurst places is right there at the Brandenburg Gate as well. So if you want to stop there, maybe it's around lunchtime and grab you some Currywurst. Our research has shown that that's one of the more popular places. We didn't get to go there. We missed out. We had decided that we would do it later that evening after we had walked around and taken some pictures. It said that it was open until midnight. We went back there around 10 p .m. was open, but they were only serving drinks. So we missed out on being able to get some curry verse there. But anyhow, it led to a good Indian dinner later on that evening, and we were happy that we found that.
Yeah, and Scott, the other thing I wanted to add, so it's one thing that we didn't do because we didn't end up getting the free tickets to do it, but the Parliament Building is also really close to the Brandenburg Gate right there as well. So that would be an opportunity to go visit that. Also, right when you're at that point, if you have that worked into your kind of your schedule and get tickets for it that are free, you just have to go on the website and reserve them.
Yeah, good point. So we're going to follow along now and we're on Unter den Linden, which is a stretch of road. And right in the center of the road, there's like a little park that's a pedestrian only park. And you'll see a couple of little restaurants or little bars. where you can stop and maybe get some Doner or a Currywurst and have a beer. And while you're walking along that stretch, there's also stores on both sides of the street there in this Unter den Linden. And you're going to walk on this for, I guess, about three quarters of a mile to a mile. And this is going to take you in the direction of... the Museum Island, the Berlin Cathedral, and the Berlin TV Tower. So that's the direction that we're headed in. And we're going to spend a good bit of time over there, both during the day, and then we're going to go back later that night because those attractions are lit up. And so great opportunities to get some pictures both during the day. And then also at night at Museum Island, one of the museums is along the river. And so if you're on the other side of the river, looking back towards the museum, what you'll have is the opportunity to see the reflection of that museum in the water lit up at night. And so some really good pictures that you can take there. We didn't... go up to the berlin tv tower we just kind of took a picture of it from a distance we tried to go into the berlin cathedral however that it was around 6 p .m on sunday and so they were having a service and we couldn't get in at that time but got some really good pictures and we we went back and rested for just a little while in the hotel and then went back out later that night to get those nighttime images. So all in all, we walked about 12 miles on Sunday. So it was really a lot of walking, but really easy to do.
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And a couple of the other things I want to point out is as you make your way, I guess really throughout. the former East Berlin, but especially that stretch. Look out at the traffic, or I guess the walk and stop, the pedestrian signals, that they are very unique and very different to East Berlin. I feel like throughout the rest of the world, you don't really notice them, right? You know that they're walking. you know, don't walk signals, but they're a very unique little walking person, so much so that they have almost turned it into a brand. And there's some little shops where you can go in and buy all kinds of things that are these unique walk signals.
Yeah, there were people from all over the world and they're buying these souvenirs from that shop.
And so then the other thing that we did, which was a little bit different and off the beaten path, is that when Scott posted about our travel delays and getting to Berlin late, we have a friend from high school who is a pilot. And he said, oh, I travel, you know, I fly to Berlin a lot. And he said, if you have time, you really ought to visit this place that I have found, which is called the Flap Towers. And Scott, I think he sent you some links to a person who has a blog, right? Who maybe does the tours. as a blog and said, hey, you really ought to visit this. It's a little bit off the beaten path. So we actually left from walking around that museum island and the cathedral area and actually got a bolt, which at this point you kind of were like, we have used bolts in the past. It's kind of like it's an app, kind of like using an Uber, but it actually uses the actual, a lot of times, not always, but actually uses the actual taxis and can be a good bit cheaper. Right. So use the bowl app. We got a bowl to go over there because it was it was a few miles. So it would have taken us a lot of time.
So what these are is they were towers that were built as a means of protection during the war. Matter of fact, the residents would even go inside these towers. They're really thick walls, you know, for protection. It was interesting because I was reading the story and we should we should link this. blog in the show notes because there was a lot of great information about Berlin there, but especially with these flak towers. But it was funny because they said if the air quality became too bad, it didn't matter what was going on the outside, they would have to evacuate out of these flak towers into the bombing. So anyhow, they sit up over the city and they give you a good panoramic view looking out over Berlin. And we were actually treated to a pop -up rave when we got up to the top of this tower.
Yeah. So and this is set really in the middle of a park. And so they have a couple like you can kind of just meander the path, which is almost like a paved path. But there were some stairs, you know, just depending on how kind of a strenuous walk you wanted to do it. There's two of them. Right. So, yeah, there was kind of the rave going on on one of them. And the other one was a little bit more quiet. But people had taken, you know, picnics and drinks. And, you know, we had. It's all groups of people sitting there playing card games and stuff like that. So again, it was a Sunday afternoon. So just kind of, yeah, just chilling out and relaxing in that park. So we did that and saw that and then kind of made our way down the other side of the park into a rose garden before making our way back into kind of the central part of Berlin where we were staying. So Melissa,
Melissa, we did a lot of things in the 24 hours that we had. to spend there. We had planned for 48 hours, which would have been really two full days, but we got a lot done. I have a question for you, though. What would we do differently if we had had more time, if we had that full 48 hours?
Yeah, I think it's like you mentioned, we didn't get to go into the Berlin, the church there, the Berlin Dome, because it was six o 'clock. I think they had kind of closed at five o 'clock. That probably is one thing that if we kind of had time that right. And then maybe we would have hit up a museum or so, I would think. And then, of course, if we, which, you know, if you have time and go on there soon enough and can reserve that for the parliament building. I mean, I'm kind of glad that we didn't, you know, end up preserving that for Saturday or something because we, you know, we would have missed that. But I think probably going into a few more of those types of places. as well. And then maybe spending some more time. There was one exhibit about like the Berlin Wall we could have spent some more time at. And then there was one place where we kind of noticed that there was a lot of old East German cars. Maybe could have explored that a little bit more. But I do feel like it's like you said, I feel like that we at least got to, you know, see everything that we really wanted to at least see from the outside and get a good feel for the city. And then one other thing I wanted to mention. is that the area where we stayed, so we stayed at the Hilton Berlin, I really felt like that was a great place to be able to walk to all of these places. We found that it was really not, I mean, it was really, we felt like a good value for the money. There are also some Marriott's in that particular area, but being in that area, we were right next to the German, I guess it was so. different from the Berlin Dome. Okay. Then there's a German Dome and the French Dome and the concert house kind of in a complex right there. And that's where that Hilton Berlin is. And so that just ended up being a really great location, like what, 10 minutes walk to the Brandenburg Gate, 10 minutes, you know, 10, 15 minutes walk to Checkpoint Charlie, 10 minutes walk to the Dome. So it was really a really good central location. So just keep that in mind as you're kind of booking. you know, booking a hotel to stay at as well.
Even with a shortened visit, Berlin left a lasting impression on us. It's a city that rewards curiosity, where every street seems to tell a story. We barely scratched the surface, but what we did experience reminded us why sometimes it's not about how much time you have, but how you choose to spend it. If you've ever considered skipping Berlin, we hope this episode gives you a reason to look again. And if you've already been, maybe it's time to go back with a fresh set of eyes. Don't forget. to check out our photos, videos, and travel tips on social media at Sunshine Travelers Podcast. And as always, the world is full of sunshine and surprises. Make 2025 the year that you explore beyond the familiar. That's a wrap on this episode. We hope it gave you some inspiration for your next adventure.
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