How to Spend a Day in Berlin

Up early and not able to check out of our hotel until 7:30 AM, we had some extra unplanned time to explore the city as we failed to do so the night before. Exploring in the early morning hours while the rest of this foreign city lay sleeping was very surreal. We were fortunate to be the only ones on the dark, desolate streets with the soft sound of our shoes on the pavement as our only companion.

We intended our first stop to be Aegidienkirche, which was a church that was left in ruins due to bombing in the second world war. As the first remnants crept into view, we were instantly struck with awe at the sobering scene of destruction as the fragments of the church jutted out of the ground like a long forgotten stone corpse.

This church was left in its crumbling state after the bombing as a memorial and statement to those affected by war and violence. After years upon years of schooling over World War 2 and its exertion, it was very surreal witnessing and being able to physically touch a long past participant in this war.

As we slowly made our way from the Aegidienkirche, we were soon staring up into the sky at the great domed roof of the new Hannover town hall. Coming from a small rural town in southwest Missouri, this town hall before us easily trumped the one room building we had back home.

As our check-out time was steadily approaching, we begrudgingly made our way back to our hotel. However, our journey back to our lodging led us directly into a small plaza which gave us an unexpected but much welcomed surprise. Unknowingly, this path had led us directly to Hannover’s Old Town Hall and Market Church.

We had seen these buildings in our initial planning yet had failed to put them on our guide and were almost forgotten. We were extremely lucky that our route had us in this area and that we were able to take in these historic structures.

After exploring the surrounding courtyard, we decided it was truly time to head back to the hotel and attempt to check out. Unfortunately for us, our hotel was still locked out and we were unable to enter the lobby. As we stood collecting our breaths on the doorstep, we were soon rushed by three local men. Suspicious of their intentions, we both went on high alert with our backs against the building’s wall. Ultimately, they were highly intoxicated and were flabbergasted that we had decided to travel through Germany, let alone their home city of Hannover. After some little chatting, tensions quickly eased and we were even invited out to have a few beers with them (which we proceeded to decline as we had a train to catch and it was only 7 AM). We were soon able to check out and left Hannover in our rear view mirror as we headed to our main stop for the day, Berlin.

As we pulled into the Berlin station, we were quickly overwhelmed at the amount of security and armed police presence. This sight did not vanish as even out in the street and in the city there were armed police officers at every turn. We later found out that England’s King Charles had just spoken at the Reichstag the evening prior (which was also the cause for the various English flags throughout the city). As we exited the station, our first true Berlin sight was the aforementioned Reichstag.

The Reichstag is the historic seat of German politics and we actually even had tickets and clearance to proceed up into the large glass dome. However, we decided to forgo this opportunity and instead spend more time in Berlin at other sites. With the Reichstag now at our back, we walked to the nearby garden housing the Soviet War Memorial that we had previously bookmarked.

The Soviet War Memorial was constructed at the conclusion of WW2 and honored the Soviet soldiers who were lost during the war. It was a very interesting experience as we were the only ones at the memorial and felt like we were the only ones in all of Berlin.

As we left the memorial, our true highlight of the trip was just another short walk away. Before long, we were soon walking under the shadow cast by the renowned Brandenburg Gate.

The Brandenburg Gate has a much storied past. From its creation in 1788, to Napoleon’s triumphal procession (and capture of the quadriga statue above the gate), and then later turned into a symbol of Nazi Germany; the Brandenburg Gate has played its fair part in history. Though the gate has symbolized many things over its storied past, to us it symbolized the true heart of Germany and ultimately our trip.

Just a few mere feet away from the gate lay a small plaza populated with hundreds of massive stone columns arranged in varying heights. We had now just entered the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

The once busy streets of Berlin became quiet while moments of solemn reflection and remembrance washed over us as we peered over the large concrete slabs. Even though the memorial was vast and seemingly boundless, it still fails to truly capture the overall scale of devastation that the Holocaust generated.

After leaving the memorial, we embarked to find our next Berlin landmark. It wasn’t long until we found ourselves in a simple gravel car park. Past the endless rows of German automobiles lay a single erect sign, beyond faded due to years of abuse from the blistering sun and weather. The plaque went on to state that we were standing several feet above what was once the notorious Fuhrerbunker. The Fuhrerbunker was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery which served as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s final residence (as he committed suicide in the bunker in the spring of 1945 due to the rapidly approaching Soviet forces). Though nothing of the bunker truly remains at the spot these days, it was somewhat eerie knowing we were standing just a meager few feet where one of the most sinister villains in human history resided and ultimately took his own life. Standing above the ruinous remains of this historic WW2 bunker, it was hard not to draw parallels back to Winston Churchill’s London bunker we had explored just a few months prior. It was a very humbling experience being able to stand in the presence where two of the world’s most powerful men commanded during WW2.

As we left the small car park, we bounded down the bustling Berlin streets until we came face-to-face with an extensive spanning wall of concrete. Unbeknownst to us, we had now arrived at a shameful blockade of cement and barbed wire, otherwise known as the daunting Berlin Wall.

Dividing Berlin from 1961 to 1989, the Berlin Wall was predominantly constructed to prevent East German citizens from fleeing to the West. After the end of World War 2, Berlin was divided up by the victors. The West was occupied by Allied forces (consisting of the United States, United Kingdom, and France) while the East was controlled by Soviet forces. Due to mass emigration from the east to the west, the wall was erected to stop this endless brain drain, all the while dividing an entire city and severing families, friends, and peers. After progressing through the adjacent Topography of Terror museum, we were left with somewhat woeful moods as we walked in the shade of the Berlin Wall.

With the remaining outstretched fingers of the Berlin Wall now behind us, we were soon gazing up at another forgotten casualty of the second World War. Before us lay the crumbling remains of the Anhalter Bahnhof.

This colossal structure of crumbling brick and concrete was once one of the most important and busiest railway stations in all of Berlin before being severely damaged due to WW2 bombing. Through its prime in the 1930s, the station carried 44,000 people daily (around 16 million passengers a year). As the second world war raged onwards, between 1942 and 1945, the station was used to deport 55,000 Berlin Jews to various concentration camps in Germany and Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. After heavy allied bombing, the station was left in its decomposing state and only a fraction of the front facade remains to this day.

Leaving the remains of the train station behind us, we had a brisk jaunt past the historic American CheckPoint Charlie until we were directly on the cobbled pavilion of the Bebelplatz.

This seemingly peaceful plaza held a sinful dark secret as this became one of the sites of the infamous Nazi book burning ceremonies. On the eve of May 10, 1933, students gathered to burn 20,000 books that presented ideologies that opposed Nazism. The plaza now possesses a public memorial (The Empty Library) which contains a collection of empty bookcases to showcase the sheer volume of destroyed works. Despite the icy chill of the March day, I could almost feel the scorching heat cast from the blazing bonfires of books that once roared in this square 90 years earlier.

As we made our way to our next stop, Museum Island, we briefly passed the gargantuan Berlin Cathedral that seemed to dominate the surrounding skyline. Though we didn’t have time to go into its interior or even much closer, it was still an incredible sight and overall a miraculous feat of human engineering and architecture.

Our final stop in Berlin happened to be the famed cluster of 5 prestigious museums, respectively named Museum Island. Pitted against our immortal enemy of father time, we would only be able to go through a single museum. We ultimately decided on the Pergamon Museum, and before long we were straining our necks to look up to one of the gates of the fabled city of Babylon.

The other artifact/exhibit which swiftly captured our attention was the primordial Roman market gate that filled an entire room. Between the towering Babylon Gate and this marbled Roman entrance, it felt as if we were truly transported back to another time and place.

With Museum Island being our final destination on our jam-packed Berlin day, we decided to take the next train to Leipzig to seek out our hotel for some much needed rest. We were fortunate our hotel (Vienna house Easy Leipzig) was just a stone’s throw from the main Leipzig station so we did not have much of a commute. After a speedy check-in, we were able to walk to the adjacent city center and had a small meal before heading back to the hotel. To end the day, we caught some hectic closing minutes of a Bundesliga match, accompanied with a few local beverages.

To see the previous day’s adventure, click here.

To move onwards with us along our journey, click here.