| Holiday Ratings | |
| Recommended days | 3 |
| Budget | £ |
| Difficulty | Easy |
This was a break with some friends and family to celebrate my 50th birthday. Berlin had been on my list for a while so I was looking forward to seeing one of the great Imperial cities of Europe. A weekend of museums in Berlin made allowances for the inevitable December weather!
Obviously we’d booked economy flights and we were quite surprised at the state on Schoenefeld Airport, definitely not the Germany we were expecting! It was a long transfer from the airport to the hotel but the taxi we’d booked was excellent and we watched the city pass us by as we drove.
We stayed at the Indigo Hotel on the Alexanderplatz which was a great location as everything we wanted to see was withing walking distance.
We sorted our rooms and then headed outside. It was dull weather but I guess it is December. We wandered around the centre of Berlin trying to catch some landmarks before heading to the Pergamon Museum. The museum quarter area has some classic buildings and statues and was lovely to walk around.
Museum Quarter
Pergamon Museum
The Pergamon museum was superb. We’d visited Pergamon itself a few years ago and it was an incredible place so it was nice to see some of the artifacts. It was also quite telling to see the gaps where the Soviets had looted exhibits in 1945.
The highlights of the museum (for me) were the large scale reconstructions of the Ishtar Gate from Babylon, the town gate of Miletus (Roman), an Ummayid palace wall and also a display of Islamic art. The whole area was a lot quieter than expected and we managed to cram a lot of walking and sightseeing in to one day so far!
Neues Museum
Day two was more of the same – after breakfast we headed to the Neues Museum to look at the Egyptian artifacts, smaller scale than Pergammon but they still managed the interior of an Egyptian temple! Some incredible stuff, including the treasures of Troy, or those not looted by the Russians at least.
Brandenburg Gate
We then had the obligatory coffee break before more walking, lunch and chatting. We wandered to the Brandenburg Gate and the Soviet War Memorial but the main thing I was surprised at was the almost total lack of anything to do with WW2. I think the Soviet memorial was the only thing we really saw relating to it.
Brandenberg Gate 
Brandenberg Gate 
Brandenberg Gate 
Soviet War Memorial 
Brandenberg Gate 
Brandenberg Gate 
Soviet War Memorial
Berlin at Night
Stuart and I then tried for some night shots of the Brandenburg Gate whilst Debbie slowly froze and then we headed back to the hotel ready for an evening attack on the Christmas markets!
New Synagogue
Day three was a bit more relaxed, after the gym we headed off for a late breakfast and then Deb went back to the hotel to rest her feet after all the walking we had done. The rest of us carried on to the new Synagogue (with its police guard) and the old Jewish Quarter.
Bode Museum
From there we went to the Bode Museum – some incredible medieval carvings and sculptures with the occasional bit of modern tat thrown in. After the obligatory cafe stop we then went back to the hotel to pack before heading home.
Our weekend of museums in Berlin allowed us to discover this fascinating city and its amazing museums. It wasn’t really the time of year for parks and gardens so a summer visit might be something for the future.
It was pleasant that the sights we wanted to see were in such a compact area, we could have just had one night and seen most things but the extra night made it a bit more relaxed.
2015