3 days in Berlin in December - pandas (and other sights)

3 days in Berlin

From the outset let’s be clear. I came to Berlin for the pandas. Anything else was totally co-incidental to me.

Hubby, on the other hand has a more cosmopolitan view of life, and doesn’t wear "panda blinkers" so had a list of things he wanted to see. Berlin is quite a compact city with excellent public transport and we were both kept happy.

We arrived in Schonefeld Airport late afternoon. I’d bought a Welcome Card online before we set off so we just had to collect that from the Tourist Information desk in the arrivals terminal and we were able to use all public transport for the duration of our stay. I’d recommend getting one – it gives some discounts which may, or may not be, of use to you – it gave us discount on the zoo and the Trabi Museum so we felt we got value for money from it - quite apart from the convenience.

www.berlin-welcomecard.de

We stayed in the Select Hotel Berlin-The Wall and this was brilliantly located. Come out of the hotel and turn left – you’re at Checkpoint Charlie, turn right and you’ve got the Topographie of Terror and a large section of the Berlin Wall then it’s a short walk to the Potsdamer Platz with its range of shops and attractions

So here’s what we did………

Day 1.

No messing about today – straight up and out to the zoo to see the pandas. Here’s my review of the zoo should you be interested

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187323-d314008-Reviews-Berlin_Zoological_Garden-Berlin.html

and here’s me looking really happy with a panda.

Because of where we were staying we also visited Checkpoint Charlie and a Christmas Market (which were literally everywhere!)

Day 2

We had pre-booked a visit to the Reichstag

https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag/dome/registration/245686

and it was wonderful to see. Following our visit there we wandered back past the Brandenburg Gate and the Jewish Memorial along the Potsdamer Platz back to our hotel. Later that day we visited the Topographie of Terror, a free to enter museum on the site of the former Gestapo HQ, and saw a section of the Berlin Wall which remains in situ. Got a real sense of WW2 history and the post war impact on Berlin. 

Reichstag Building

Brandenburg Gate

Section of Berlin Wall

Day 3

I’m not going to apologise or explain myself – we went back to the zoo to see the pandas again! After that we looked at some of the sites around the zoo – including the ubiquitous Christmas Market!

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the symbolic centre of West Berlin, an anti-war memorial to peace and reconciliation.

We also checked out the Trabi Museum – a fun attraction, literally opposite our hotel and full of information about this famous East German car. You can do Trabi Tours around the city which all looked rather fun. 

Early flight home the next day so no sight- seeing. We loved Berlin and would happily go back. It’s easy to get round, it has an abundance of historic sights and is relatively cheap for a European capital city. Whatever your interest Berlin will deliver!