Berlin First Week of August

Seems you informed yourself well already.

Norway: I hope that you do also fjord Norway and not Oslo only. Tyske Bryggen in Bergen can be an apetizer to Germany.

Berlin: use official tourist website VisitBerlin for additional inspirations and information around Berlin.

In general make yourself familiar with basics of Berlin's public transport. From SXF choose ABC tickets and do not forget to validate / time stamp them.

As starter on Tuesday afternoon I suggest to do a HoHo bus tour instead of the walk you are going to repeat. This will give you some orientation for the next days.

On Wed I suggest to start with one of the several guided walking tours - they all have high ratings because the city is a real attraction. If you can find a tour with a guide grown up in Berlin it is a plus because I experienced a walking tour very "neutral" but Berlin's history is not sterile - it is goosebumps through and through if you have one who experienced some of it. GHM is a good idea for the afternoon.

On Thu evening I suggest Markthalle Neun for streetfood Thursday. Burgermeister is also good, Issa and team are doing a great job, but expect waiting times at lunch time.

Your Friday seems route-wise a little unsorted. If you visit KaDeWe already use the 6th floor for food exerience. Rogacki is also good quality but in between Ch. Palace and Ku-Damm area. Do not underestimate our distances in Berlin :-)

On Saturday mornings a week(end) market is a must-have, e.g. Kollwitzplatz (Prenzlauer Berg) or Boxhagener Platz. If you like an additional breakfast near Kollwitzplatz try Anna Blume. Flea markets are on Sundays.

Sunday: Start with a flea market and do Markthalle Neun on Thursday.

Monday: Pre-book the Reichstag tour on the website (2 months in advanc) and do not forget ID.

Finally some basic Berlin wordings with translations.

You can walk around the Reichstag building by yourself but perhaps a guide will add context. However, the inside of the building, including the spectacular dome, requires advance security screening (i.e. a reservation). It is possible some tour companies can handle these regulations but you clearly are a planner so you should check the arrangements well in advance. If you make the reservation yourself you will be placed in a group with a guide.

Thanks MarkK and Southam for your suggestions and tips. I have looked over the HoHo bus tour as well as guided tours and I agree that they would add more context to our understanding of the city. One of the struggles I have had in planning is that there are many tours - I have read and reread threads on tour guides on the forum - so your input is more than welcome as to which tours to consider. Thanks too for the reminder about Thursdays at Markthalle (I learned about this place as well as others from a Travel Channel show hosted by Andrew Zimmern) which I thought might be outside our comfort zone only being in the city two days when Thursday rolls around. My wife and I are limited in our travel experience (New Orleans, Washington, DC) and have found that we like a center or home base and each day we venture further afield. Perhaps, this being the only time we will get to Berlin, we should immerse ourselves in learning and using the U and S Bahns and wear out an ABC travel pass. Besides, as Mark K points out, we should not underestimate distances in Berlin. Even if we are walkers by nature and not train folks, hopping on the DC metro saved us a lot of time and DC is oppressively hot in summer - hope Berlin is more like NYC weather-wise.

I will look over the Ku Damm day plan again - I wasn't sure about it when I mapped it out (City Maps App - Thanks forum posters!) and make sure we make reservations for the Reichstag and bring our passports for the tour. I am working on my German via Duolingo though I know I will have to learn my Spiesekarte German for sure.

On my first visit to Berlin 12 years ago, I went on an Insider Tour, their Original Walk. I still know my way around the city today based on how great that tour was. It covers a lot, but you get a wonderful orientation and a live guide that you can ask questions. A hoho bus cannot do that and for me is a total waste of money and also not one of the RS walks. (I hate his walk through Frankfurt as it skips some of the absolute best sites in Frankfurt, but includes some of the worst, so can't imagine what the one in Berlin is like.)

In the meantime, have gone on 5 Insider tours including one Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and one to Potsdam. The Cold War tour and the 3rd Reich tour are also excellent.

Of course the quality and experience of a guided tour is closely related to the guide itself - not the provider. I experienced my Insider Tours walk this February as good overall. The guide was originally from Ohio and very young to Berlin (just 4 years). His talent of telling stories was well covering that not all information (e.g. about history at Checkpoint Charlie or also actual things about New Palace of Berlin) was fully correct but as a tourist you just do not know what is wrong or not - so for you not so relevant at all ;-) On my tour I was asked a lot of questions that the new Berlin tour guide really cannot know or feel, e.g. how I saw / felt the GDR people (friends or enemies) or how and where I experierenced the opening of the Wall (it was not a fall at all). How was life after the opening of the wall (clash of cultures or just happiness)? In my opinion this is the biggest missing element of walking tours which are provided by guides which live much younger in the city. I do not know another city that has so much of extreme emotional experience in it.

To all who are interested in some different historic information of Berlin (aligned with renowned local institutions) I like to introduce berlinHistory app.

With HoHo buses you cannot do something really wrong. Just choose one of them and the "shortest" one because you have only rest of day on day of arrival.

Markthalle Neun is one of the three surviving market halls in Berlin. Personally I like the Arminius-Markthalle more and you will find less tourists there. It is still standing in and for an old and very multi-cultural part of Berlin (Moabit); in the 70s and 80s a local famous TV soap was playing there (Drei Damen vom Grill). I was growing up in Tiergarten, therefore I think I like it most. The Kreuzberg folks always thought that they are more special or different to other Berliners ... well, not really.

For planning ways in the city try more accurate wego.here.com or you use the city map of BVG (local transport provider) which shows the public transport stops much more accurately.

".(...history and more history)" Fantastic.

You're going to the right city if you want to track down tons of historical and significant sites on Prussian history, WW1 and 2, the Nazi period, military sites.

Where? In Mitte, Spandau, Köpenick, Karlshorst, Treptow, Charlottenburg, and more.

You'll see the Soviet memorial in Treptow. I saw it once in August 1984. When I was at the site, a large group of French soldiers in their dress uniforms arrived to visit the place.

Hi,

The connection between Berlin and Freiburg can be done by the Night Jet night train, a direct connection, if you want that option.

Thanks for all your comments. My wife and I are looking at a couple of the Insider tours per your recommendations and I am in the process of tweeking each day's plans at least partially contingent on where the Famous Insider Walk and the Cold War tour leave us off. Once I book the Reichstag that will dictate our plans as well. Thanks too for the transit recommendation to Freiburg. Our Black Forest guide, Simone Brixel, recommended an EastJet but the flights were too early or too late so we opted for the train. Besides, we thought spending part of a day on one of Germany's famous ICE trains and seeing parts of the country that are impossible to see from inside an airplane (or an airport for that matter) would be a better use of our time. In fact, we already bought tickets via RS. With money being an issue, the more we pay for up front the less the shock when we come back and get those credit card bills!