Important Germany update!!!

Francie, Thanks for the tips. I'll be there in a month or so, and quite looking forward to the visit. I've already scoped-out some of the tours, but not sure if New Berlin was one of them? I'll have to check my Itinerary. Cheers!

There are about 50 some tour companies in Berlin. The best way to find out which ones offer what you like is to go over to Trip Advisor and read the reviews for the top rated tours and check out their websites.

Thanks for the info! As for reading reviews on Trip Advisor, my biggest piece of advice is to look and see how many of the reviewers for a "top rates tour company" have only written one review. We had a horrible tour with a #1 company (but no personal endorsements from here or anyone I knew IRL). When I went to write my review, I noticed how many single-review writers has endorsed this company. The company put out promotional literature advertising their #1 status, so I suspect keeping that rating was important.

We did the Insider Tour ( 'Famous Walk') www.insidertour.com The walk takes 4 hours and covers all the main sites. . Gave us a very informative insight to Berlin's history, past and present. Can highly recommend this tour. Great value at 12 euros pp.

Yes, the old part of the church is completely covered and you can't even tell it's a church anymore. It's very ugly and a shame! When they renovated the Brandenburg Gate 10 years ago at least they covered it with pictures of the original... Sorry for anyone who doesn't get to see the original ruins now...

I agree, the first time I passed the church I thought it was an office building! Couldn't they have done something more creative? Paging Christo.

Okay, this really baffled me as it flies in the face of the purpose of leaving it a ruin and didn't seem to jibe with what I've seen in the past in these kinds of situations. So, I posted on the Berlin forum on TripAdvisor and got the scoop. Unfortunately, the link that explains this http://www.gedaechtniskirche-berlin.de/KWG/dateien/aktuelles.php#gebaeude is in German and when you switch to English you lose the explanation about the Memorial Hall. But here's what BlandineForberg from Karlsruhe reported in his post back, "Just checked website of the church. The old steeple is indeed undergoing restoration works and behind scaffolding that looks indeed like a skyscraper. On purpose, it is supposed to show what a city without church would look like." Pam

Always disappointing when they're doing work on major tourist attractions...but constant maintenance is, of course, needed, in order to preserve them. Many years ago, on my 1st trip to Paris, one complete side of the front of Notre Dame was covered in scaffolding. I then returned to Paris around 3 yrs later and.....you guessed it.....the OTHER side was completely covered up! So I've been to Notre Dames twice, but have never gotten a complete view! Of course, this was in the early/mid 90s....Now, of course, it's MUCH easier to learn about things like this prior to a trip. In any event, thanks, Francie, for the heads up. Good tip and helpful info. And I agree- Berlin IS a great city. Facsinating and historic place I really enjoyed and learned a lot from.

Yeah, it is meant to stay a ruin, but it was on the point of collapsing all together and turning into "pile of rubble with a few tourists and down-and-outs squashed beneath it". But I was there a few weeks ago and it was disappointing - took about ten minutes wandering around before I realised that the block was the church.