Berlin in two hours

Got a couple of hours in Berlin?

  Here's my crash course in seeing as much as possible in that time. No going into things, it's all about looking at buildings and walking quickly. Sturdy footwear recommended.






Start outside the Pergamon Museum. Enjoy the sculpture in the gardens and Alte National Gallery. Walk to the National Gallery. Sculpture outside there ditto.

Turn around and take a good long look at the Berliner Dom and the Telefunken in the distance.







Cross the Spee and walk down Under den Linden (speed up passed the boring bits) to the Humbolt University. Check out statues, sculpture and books in its forecourt.








Cross the road and stand outside the other part of the University in the square where the Nazi's burnt the books in May 1933. Find the perspex covered underground memorial of empty bookshelves for the same. Contemplate history for a bit.

Walk the rest of Under den Linden as quickly as you can until you get to the Brandenburg Gate. Avoid street artists dressed variously as Russian soldiers, German ditto, bears and statues etc.

Pass through the Gate to the Reichtstag. Note new dome to visit another time. Turn back passed the Brandenburg Gate and first left to the Holocaust Memorial. Wander in the rows of various sized concrete boxes. Try to avoid screaming children mistaking the hummocky ground for an amusement park. Contemplate history a bit more. Check view of the Memorial towards the Reichstag.

Cross the road and find the bunker-like memorial to the gay victims of the Holocaust. Contemplate history some more. And that's it. Two hours well spent in the company of beautiful architecture old and new. Enjoy.