Hotels in Berlin, 912 Hotels

The city of Berlin means a lot of things to a lot of people but one common to all is that Berlin is one of the places where the two towering ideologies of the 20th Century met head on at a place called Checkpoint Charlie. This is the place of spy novels and intrigue and although the empires that would last forever have faded Checkpoint Charlie remains as a symbol of just what can happen when two superpowers completely misunderstand and mistrust each other.

The same is true of the Berlin wall of course and if you are into machine gun towers and markers that showed where they buried the mines then after Checkpoint Charlie you have to visit the last remnants of 'The Wall.'

But Berlin is more than just a place that was carved up by tyrants recently after they defeated another. Berlin has a past that stretches far back beyond any Reich or People's Republic and

It also has a future that is being built at the moment as one of the most important centres of Europe.

One of the last places that shots were fired in the dying days of the War in Europe in 1954 was the Potsdamer Platz although at the time few buildings stood now the Potsdamer Platz is a vibrant square with many great shops.

Berlin is an unusual city and that is because the old buildings are survivors and they have been completely rebuild preserving the old facades, a great example of this is the Reichstag which after its rebuilding has a glass dome on the roof which allows visitors to gaze down at the parliament below at work.

If your taste is for more tradition architecture and not from the end of the 18th century like the Brandenburg gate or the Reichstag then you shouldn't miss the Scholss Charlottenburg and wonderful example of baroque architecture. His Prussian Royal Palace is everything you would expect from a that period, a beautiful building which of course needed extensive rebuilding sixty odd years ago.

Eating in Berlin is interesting, and enjoyable, you can eat any cuisine that takes your fancy but if you want to 'go local' then go to Prater on Kastanienallee, it is one of the most traditional German restaurants where you can eat great German food like Wiener Schnitzel, Bratwurst and because the portions are generous lots of it. And if you like beer then the Home brewed beer is not to be missed.

If you go to Prater in the summer you will be able to sit out the back in the shade of enormous Chestnut trees in Berlin's oldest Biergarten.