Anyway, for our time in Berlin, here's the plan:
Food we must try include traditional Berlin meatballs, currywurst (sausage with a curry sauce), Eisben (pork knuckle), Berliner Weisse (specialty beer)~! OoO.. Thinking about them makes me drool~!!!
Day 1:
According to reserach and advice from my German textbook, we can get a good overview of Berlin's central district easily and at a budget by taking public double decker bus 100.
The bus runs from Zoologischer Garten train station to Alexanderplatz train station. Not too sure where we will start off since we have not confirmed hostel stay yet. So I can only come up with places to visit for now. Well, I doubt my mum and brother would want to visit the zoological garden.
So first, we will pass by the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Emperor Wilhelm II Memorial Church), a neo-Romanesque church built from 1891 to 1895 but heavily destroyed during World War II.
Next, we will pass by the "Elefantentor" (Elephant-Portal),
the “Bauhaus-Archiv” (Museum of Design). We shall visit Tiergarten, the central park of Berlin where we will find the Victory Column, erected to commemorate Prussian victories of 1864, 1866 and 1871. If mom is game, we might want to climb 285 steps up the column to have a spectacular view over the central district of Berlin.
We shall also visit the “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures) at bus stop 16, which is an art institution presenting art exhibitions, concerts, films and academic conferences on non-European art and culture. It is also known as "the pregnant oyster".
At bus stop 19, we must visit the Reichstag, a must visit attraction according to my German teacher.
Then, we will walk a few minutes to the Brandenburg Gate - symbol of Berlin.
At stop 22, we shall visit the most famous avenue in Berlin – Unter den Linden. The avenue is at the heart of the historic section. It connects Pariser Platz and Bebelplatz, crossing Schlossbrücke (palace bridge), Lustgarten and Museum Island. So I believe we can spend most of our time here.
Perhaps we will also go pass the current main building of the Humboldt University as above.
My brother will probably be interested in the Bebelplatz, best known as the site of the book burning ceremony held on May 10, 1933 by the Nazis.
We might also want to visit the old Arsenal, prided to be one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Berlin. It hosts the new permanent exhibition of the German Historical Museum.
O I really want to visit the palace bridge between the Arsenal and the Berlin Cathedral. It's super pretty as seen below.
On the Museum Island, we can visit one of the museums which my German teacher made us research on during the course - The Altes Museum (Old Museum).
There is also the Berlin Cathedral on the Museum Island.
The bus route ends on Alexanderplatz where we can visit the tallest building in Germany - The Berlin Television Tower standing at 368m.
From research, it was found that the entire ride from Zoologischer Garten train station to Alexanderplatz is only about half an hour. If we want to return to the starting point, we could just take the same bus in the opposite direction or take the S-Bahn.
Finally, we could do some window shopping at KaDaWe, one of the largest and most exclusively stocked shopping centres in Europe.
In late june to early July, festivals like Open-Air Saison (opera festival held on outdoor stages) and Landshuter Hochzeit (re-enactment of wedding feast of Georg, son of Duke Ludwig and the Rich and Polish Princess Jadwiga) are said to be worth catching.