Germany Trip

I think 3 days in Berlin will be packed with places to visit. You can't go wrong following Rick's suggestions. Museum Island ,the Jewish Museum(aren't you going to Auschwitz also?)a river cruise will get you started. Pension Peters is a good place to stay. Getting around the city is no problem wherever you lodge.

Yes John, we are planning to go to Auschwitz as well. This is our first trip to Berlin - though I have been to Munich earlier. Hence the question. I understand that Berlin is serviced by a good public transport system.

Depends on where your interests lie! Berlin has a ton of great museums and a lot of history. The 100 bus will give you a nearly free tour of some of the most important sights in Berlin, Rick Steves goes into great detail about taking this public bus in his books that cover Berlin. I would get a guidebook for Berlin and read it well in advance, it will help you decide what you want to see. Keep in mind that if you want to tour the Reichstag dome you need to make reservations on the web in advance. You will not be able to enter otherwise. It's great at sunset.

Berlin - I really liked the Pergamon Museum and the DDR Museum, which is small, crowded, and fascinating, a hands-on feel for what it was like in East Germany under the Communists.

Thanks Chani and Sarah.

If you do a walking tour or bike tour, you will get to see many of the most important sites in Berlin or in Munich in the most efficient way, as wall as learn lots of stuff about what you are seeing, the history of the city, which will make your visit memorable. Your guides can then give advice as to local events, recommend restaurants or museums that match your interests, and answer any other questions you might have. After riding the bus #100 in Berlin after reading about it so often on here, I have to say it was pretty much a huge waste of time for us. We sat in traffic jam after traffic jam, plus we had to wait forever on it as so many people were waiting to ride it. If you don't get the very front seats, you miss one half of Berlin, that is going by on the other side of the bus.

My favorite was the German History Museum, right on Unter den Linden. I could have spent the whole day there. Also wonderful: the Gemaldegalerie in the Tiergarten. Not crowded and a beautiful collection of works by the Old Masters. Agree with the Jewish Museum & the DDR museum being good choices. If it's nice out, take a walk along Eberswalder/Bernauer Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg. That was the dividing line for the wall. Perhaps I'll be seeing you there, as I will also be there for a few days this May. Enjoy your trip.
Emily

really Jo? I found it convenient but then again it was late November so crowds were at a minium. I didn't think of it so much as a bus I could see the sights from the bus but rather as a bus that made a convenient loop that I could hop off from and get back on with ease.