Berlin in the Spring

You will experience a nearly total different city than 1986. I dare to say that Tiergarten, Victory Column and the Memorial Church (all in former west because 1986) are the only things that did not change.

Area: choose a hotel around S station Friedrichstrasse or (in May) a nice hotel near Tiergarten.

You will need public transport: U + S map and journey planner. Or choose BVG Fahrinfo app.

Without knowing your interests it is hard to say what you shall not miss besides the top 10 of Berlin. Visiting Reichstag needs an early reservation including passport. For a first day a HoHo bus takes you to main sights and gives a good introduction.

Please allow me as time witness to comment that the Berlin Wall was opened (not falling or coming down), initially by Harald Jäger, a local border guard officer at Bornholmer Strasse. And the opening was only one-way: in the first weeks citizens of the western part of Berlin (part of FRG) still needed visa to travel into the eastern part (state of GDR). I still have the rest of a ten-card card visa to avoid single visa applications.

When I was there in 2022, I stayed in Hackescher Markt, at the Adina Apartment Hotel Hackescher Markt. My room was a studio since I was by myself but they also have 1-2 bedroom apartments with fully equipped kitchens, washers and dryers and so on. They do have hotels in other Berlin locations as well, but I personally really liked this location. The staff was friendly and courteous, and the rooms were very well prepared, large, clean and nice. Breakfast is available although given the kitchen facilities, I just ate in my room in the morning.

But the best thing is that the location is an easy walk to many major sites. The DDR museum is only a few blocks away, along with the TV Tower, and Museum Island is a quick 5 minute walk. You can easily walk to Lindenstraß from there. It is also very convenient to the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, and trams. There are several grocery stores a few blocks away along with a couple of wine shops, many cafes and good restaurants. I would definitely stay in this location again.

Since you were there before the wall came down, spend some time looking for information on where you can "walk where the wall was". Even though I did not research this in detail prior to my trips to Berlin post-wall, I always paused for a moment when I realized I was standing at the wall or in one of the death zones.

Also, get out to Potsdam for a day.

Thanks for the tips. The forum has some of the most informed travelers.

Berlin is my favorite city. It's a great place to visit. I have stayed 57 nights with Sabine Knoll at her 4-bedroom B&B mittendrin in the former West Berlin in the general area of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Sabine and her B&B are great. She will do laundry for guests. She prepares an amazing breakfast. It's one of my favorite places in the world to stay. There is no A/C, but I have never found this to be a problem during my multiple May visits.

Berlin has so many things to do, it's hard to make suggestions without knowing your interests. Here is a post where multiple people contributed thoughts on what to do in Berlin: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/worth-spending-more-than-a-day-in-berlin. My rather lengthy response(s) is toward the end.

On the topic of the opening of the Berlin Wall mentioned above, the site of the Bornholmer Straße checkpoint has some placards (in German and in English) describing the events of Nov 9, 1989, and a section of the Berlin Wall. There are markers that show how deep the crowd was at varying times over the course of the night. If you like to stand where history happened (I do), this is a good place to do it.

Did anyone else immediately think of The Producers when they saw the title of the post?