The first thing I noticed about Germany was the pretzels – I scoffed one of those down for EUR 1.20 before I even got to my accommodation here in Berlin. Once I had a chance to unpack I took to the streets to get a sense for how Berlin was laid out.
It’s not like the other cities I visited – firstly it’s enormous – everything is at a different scale. Amongst some of the marked tourist destinations on the map there are various districts marked on Google Maps as being popular – these seem to be the shopping and dining areas around the city.
To start off, I went for a walk through some of the central area around Alexanderplatz through some of the government buildings, embassies and the Berlin Cathedral.
There are beautiful buildings and wide open spaces here – albeit that it feels a bit concrete-dense. It’s definitely a city to see by bicycle, vehicle or scooter.
I also took a stroll down to Checkpoint Charlie which is one of the tourist attractions based around the history of the Berlin wall. They’ve left the old signs up and there are a few museum artifacts – but it’s a very touristy area and was packed – not my scene.
I’m staying here until I can plan more stops on my trip so I’m still not sure where the trip will go from here. Stay tuned to find out.