We decided to take a trip to Berlin over the bank holiday weekend and we had a great time. We stayed for two nights in the Park Inn on Alexanderplatz in what was East Germany. The hotel was very nice - the massage chairs in the reception were a nice touch! We stayed on the 28th floor, and had a view over the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) and Alexanderplatz. That's the first time my ears have popped in a hotel lift! It certainly flew up and down fast enough! Alexanderplatz itself is not that great (see photo gallery!). It's all concrete and other nastyness! A bit like a lot of New Towns and other stuff built in the 60s in the UK. Still, as a place to stay, it was more than adequate, and the Alexanderplatz U-Bahn and S-Bahn station is a major intersection which made it easy to get around.

We got the S-Bahn from the airport - this takes about 20 minutes on the fast service or 40 minutes on the all-stopper. As you might expect from the Germans, it was all very efficient and clean.

On the first night we walked down Unter den Linden, all the way to the Brandenburg gate. Dusk is a great time to see it because there's not as many people around, so you're more likely to get a decent picture!

The next day we got the U-Bahn down to Potsdamer Platz and walked to the Topographie des Terrors. This is the site of what was the Gestapo building during the 30s and 40s so it's quite a sobering place. There's now a kind of pictorial story board depicting the rise and fall of Fascism. There's also a large chunk of the Berlin Wall left there. They're supposed to be building an exhibition hall, which was meant to be open in 2001, but there was no sign of it, so I guess they're having a few problems.

From there it was a short walk around the corner to Checkpoint Charlie. The original checkpoint has gone, but they have installed some decent replicas for those oh-so-important photos (see my gallery!). We also went in the museum there - it's quite pricey (about 10 Euros per person), but there's loads to see, and it's very interesting. There's loads of stories of escape attempts, and various adapted vehicles with hiding places showing how people got across the wall. Well worth a visit.

In the afternoon we went up the Fernsehturm by Alexanderplatz. This costs about 7 Euros and gives a superb panoramic view of Berlin (see photo gallery for a few pics!). Well worth a visit again.

The next day was just spent generally wandering around. It was a public holiday in Germany as well as the UK so there wasn't much open. But we went to the Ku'damm (one of the main shopping streets) and wandered around. It's a very pleasant tree-lined road, with just about every shop you could want. There's even a C&A for those who miss it after it left the UK!

Then we flew home on EasyJet. It was a little bit bumpy around the Berlin area (as it was coming in to Berlin), but we took off on time, and got in 20 minutes or so ahead of time.

That's about it, really. Berlin is a fascinating place, and well worth a visit. It's a big old place, and there's loads to see. We only scratched the surface, staying for 2 nights. A week would be a good length of time to stay. I would recommend it to anybody.