Exploring Berlin – Where History and Creativity Collide

From Prussian palaces to cold war bunkers, from punk rock basements to world class museums, it's a city where there's history on every corner, but creativity leads the way.

On today's episode of travel in 10, we're diving into what makes Germany's capital one of Europe's most dynamic and unexpected cities.

Where past and present collide in the best possible ways.

And as always, I'm joined by award winning travel writer, my co host, Tim Johnson.

Tim, ready to tackle in today, how.

You doing by the way?

David?

I'm doing great.

I've just got back from about a six day trip through very remote spots throughout British Columbia doing one of the best sort of overlanding trails called the Highline Trail up in near Whistler, British Columbia.

It was a phenomenal few days of exploring.

And I know you are also in Canada exploring this week as well, aren't you?

I am.

I'm in one of my very favorite places in the entire world which is I'm in Dawson City in the Yukon Territory.

So, you know, some of our listeners may not be so familiar with this part of the world, but north of 60 degrees which is what Canadians consider the far north and just a tick below 66 degrees which is the arctic surface circle.

And this time of year it is especially spectacular because with the summer solstice being on June 21st and now we're in early July, very, very long days.

So was out last night.

Dawson City is former gold rush town where thousands, tens of thousands of people came more than a hundred years ago here in search of fame and fortune and very few of them found it.

But, but the city remains as you know, a wild west Arctic boom town preserved by Parks Canada.

Did a tour in the evening last night with Parks Canada learning about the history and learning about some of the people here.

And you know, it's, it's, it's amazing.

I mean just the, just the midnight sun, I think it is something that makes it so special, you know, you, you, we were out, I was with a friend and we were out at the, the oldest gambling hall in Canada and came out after the midnight show.

Came out, sun was still up just like, you know.

Yeah, it felt like just an, another, another day.

So the latitude could be a bit disorienting but in all the best ways.

And it's still, still has that boomtown spirit and a lot of, a lot of cool bars, restaurants, oldest gambling hall in Canada.

You can still go out on the Klondike river on a paddle wheeler.

There's lots of great things to do here.

So I love this place.

I've been here many times and.

But as I was saying to you earlier, David, it's hot.

It's, you know, we're in the Arctic.

This is literally the Arctic.

And it's about 25 degrees Celsius, which with the Arctic sun makes it feel a little bit more like maybe 10 degrees warmer than that.

So anyway, enjoying a beautiful arctic summer here right near the Arctic Circle.

Yeah.

Well, we are definitely going to be coming back probably later this summer to talk more about the Yukon and do a couple of episodes there.

It's.

It's somewhere.

We're both fortunate that we've been to every province and territory in the country and Yukon's pretty unique one.

It's, it's definitely one of my favorites.

So I'm looking forward to our discussion about that.

And I think in a few weeks time we're planning to do a couple of episodes on the Yukon.

And I'm feverishly taking notes and preparing for those episodes.

So very much looking forward to talking about the Yukon.

But we're talking about a different and equally amazing place today.

Right.

Talking about Berlin, definitely a unique world capital, a very dynamic city known for its culture, known for much of its history being a divided city.

And when was the last time you were through Berlin?

I was in Berlin last week.

So there you go.

Ah, yeah.

So I've been to Berlin.

Berlin, you know, I came, I came late to Berlin.

I would say I did go to Berlin at the end of a backpacker trip more than 20 years ago and loved it.

I had, you know, a couple of misfortunes there and maybe it wasn't on the top of my list to go back.

And it's only been in the last five years that I've started returning to Berlin.

And I would say I've probably been to Berlin at least once a year in each of the last five years.

And some of my favorite hotels are there.

We're going to talk about that.

The spirit of the city.

You know, I feel like all those years of, of repression and of, of.

Of division have created a city where people just are, are excited to be united, they're excited to, to have this beat, be able to build this great capital together.

And so I just can't get enough of Berlin.

So I had finished a Northern Lights.

I've had a lot of the midnight sun the last few weeks.

A Northern lights cruise with Viking, which was excellent.

Not Northern Lights, Midnight Sun.

And then they said, where do you want to go afterwards?

And I said, you know what?

I'll fly myself to Berlin and I'll figure it out.

And flew home from Berlin last week and, and my last day was perhaps my best day ever.

So wonderful place, endless amounts of things to see and do.

I tend to be a bit of a, a history nerd.

I took, I have a master's degree in history.

I find the Cold War endlessly fascinating.

And so that I did kind of a deep dive on that this time.

So on this episode, for listeners, if you guys are Cold War nerds like me, you're going to like this episode.

If you're not, keep listening.

It's still going to be good.

But, yeah, well, I, I am a Cold War.

A Cold War nerd.

I've got to say that I haven't been to Berlin yet, and it is high on my list of, of places I want to go.

Now, I'm curious.

You said early on you had some bad experiences there that turned you off of Berlin.

Any anything, anything particular?

It really wasn't anything Berlin specific.

It was, you know, I was there as a backpacker.

So we're talking 25 years ago and there was a backpacker and the hostel, you know, I mean, the whole world was different back then, right?

People didn't have phones, but you couldn't book online.

And we showed up, I was with a buddy of mine, Canadian friend, and we showed up to book a hostel and they said there's almost nothing available except we have this one place.

And we went to the hostel and it was just, it was like, I mean, structurally it was okay, but it was like the toilets didn't work, the showers didn't work, the people in our room were terrible.

And so, like, it wasn't like a Berlin specific problem.

I mean, a normal everyday traveler to Berlin would not encounter these things.

But I, you know, life is funny that, you know, if you have an unpleasant experience, even if it doesn't have anything to do with the city itself, you're going to kind of put that in the back of your mind and go, well, maybe I don't need to go back to that place.

I'm going to go to Barcelona, I'm going to go to Paris, I'm going to go to Athens, I'm going to go to Istanbul.

And so did not return to Berlin until maybe, maybe five years ago.

I did a very interesting Elba river cruise.

So the Elba is not one of the Rivers that river cruises normally tackle mostly the Rhine or the Danube or even the Rhone.

Other Duro in Portugal.

The Elbe is a very shallow river.

It's as shallow as 3 or 4ft in some places.

But I did a cruise from Berlin to Prague, this is probably about four years ago, on a ship that was specially built for that river.

And getting to Berlin, I think I just fell in love with the city.

I was just like, how has it taken me this long to rediscover this city?

And now, I mean, coming back from the cruise, they said, where do you want to fly from?

I said, no doubt Berlin.

It's, I want to at least spend a few days in Berlin, so, or Berlin, as Berliners say, with the emphasis on the first syllable.

But, and just like always had a, had a really fantastic stay there.

It was getting quite hot.

Summers are hot in Berlin, but no was fantastic.

So tell me a bit about what, what is summer in Berlin like?

I mean, what I know Germany is known for.

Any of the towns that I've gone through in Germany have some phenomenal markets, a lot going on.

From a historical, from a cultural perspective, what's, what, what's really the big draws in Berlin?

What, what to, what do people need to see?

I feel like just, just in a general note is that Berlin, it tends to be a fairly young city.

I mean, that's, that's not to say that everybody who lives in Berlin is young, but it does have a younger spirit than a place.

I mean, I love Munich and I love Cologne.

I love all these other great cities in Germany, but Berlin really has a younger spirit.

I don't know if there's more students or whatever.

And I remember, you know, a week ago being there on Friday night and people were just out, young people taking the S Bahn, going from club to club.

The rules about drinking beer are quite lax in Germany.

So people were drinking beer.

I, I, I looked around on the subway.

On the subway.

Half the people on the subway were all just having a beer on the subway.

And it just feels like a, like a, like a city where people enjoy themselves.

You know, it's, it's just kind of, there's a lot of great bars, a lot of great restaurants and, and the rules are shaped, I mean, Germans, we think of them as being very, we buy the book and, and things like that.

But, but there really is a young cool spirit and there's so much to do.

And I, you know, and I was thinking about it this morning before we recorded, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Berlin for so many years was a city divided.

Right?

I mean, it was, it was the most divided city in the world.

You know, you had these four zones, the U.S. the U.K. france and Soviet Union each had their, you know, the, the victorious powers in the Second World War.

Each of those powers had a zone in, in Berlin.

And of course, the most significant divide was between the zones governed by the Western powers and the Soviet Union.

Western powers clearly got along a lot better than they did collectively with the Soviet Union.

We're not sure about the system of governance.

We don't have enough to eat.

We don't have enough of anything.

So let's just walk across the road and be in West Berlin now and, and live a different kind of life.

And of course, the Eastern European government said that that can't be.

And they built, of course, the Berlin Wall.

And so it's very interesting because most of the wall is gone.

And that's good.

You know, I mean, it's a different world now and, and Berlin is united as a city.

But on one hand, it's interesting to, to recognize that history and to go to places, and I'm going to talk about this a little bit more later in the podcast, to go to places where that history is perhaps a little bit more celebrated and explained.

And then on the other hand, to think about Berlin as really a young living city that is celebrating not its division, which it was most famous for for decades and decades and decades in the 20th century, but is celebrating its, its unity.

So, you know, you really get that sense that people are united in the cause of, I don't know, just having a good time and creating prosperity and, and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, well, I really love to dig into that part a little bit around those divisions.

And I was just thinking, as you're talking about it, we are probably even people just a little older than us, probably part of the last generation of those who would have seen East Berlin during the divide.

I remember my sister, who's a bit older than me, she went on a high school exchange program to Germany and actually got to get into East Berlin and talked about having Nastasi follow them everywhere they went.

The.

I mean, it was like what going to North Korea is now is what going to East Berlin was then.

And this dramatic difference between the east and the West.

Do you still see that much of the city?

I mean, can you see that divide between the former Soviet bloc portion of it and the rest of the city, or is it really pretty integrated now?

And what about those zones, the French versus the American zone?

I mean, can you see any of that flavor still reflected in kind of what to see and do in those sections of the city still?

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

My goal on this particular trip was a little bit different than I had done in the past, which was I had conversations with a few different people who had expertise in the eastern part of Berlin, and I had not spent that much time in the eastern part of Berlin.

And so the goal on this one was was to spend as much time in the former East Berlin as possible.

And it was very, very interesting.

Like I would say, for a visitor, you know, who might be listening to this podcast, it's interesting to start, you know, it's very touristy, but to start at, at, at Checkpoint Charlie.

So they've recreated Checkpoint Charlie, you know, which was the main place through the Wall, where Westerners could go to the east and Easterners could go to the West.

And of course, it was very difficult for Easterners to go to the west.

And they devised all kinds of crazy strategies to, to escape, you know, on hot air balloons and zip lines and, and all this kind of stuff to get across the Wall.

And there is, I mean, you there, there is a, a paid museum there, but there are outdoor free museums that talk about all the different ways that people try to get out of East Berlin, to go to West Berlin.

And you, and you don't even have to pay a penny.

But I would say, you know, give yourself a half a day because there's really a lot there.

And it shows the evolution of Checkpoint Charlie from a small border post, you know, to, to really quite a major border crossing.

And then on this trip, I also did something that I hadn't done before.

It was a recommendation of the concierge at my hotel.

I went to a place called Tranon Palast, and it's kind of a Checkpoint Charlie, but not nearly as touristy.

It was a train station and they called it the nickname the Russian.

The Russian.

The German nickname was palace of Tears.

And it was again, an east west exchange point.

So people would have to say goodbye, you Know, to their relatives, you know, relatives in the East.

Relatives in the West.

And there's a really excellent museum there and it's not expensive and it's really under the radar.

It wasn't crowded when I was there.

So to, to just see that east versus west, you know, history that was.

Check.

Everybody knows Checkpoint Charlie, but this Tron and Plast was, was really, really interesting and, and a very different look at those east versus west dynamics.

So for somebody coming into Berlin for the first time, Tim, what would you say are like those, those kind of three or four quintessential things that everybody has got to see on their, their first trip to the city.

And any tips about how best to, to see them?

Absolutely, absolutely.

Like, I don't think you can come to Berlin without going to the Brandenburg Gates.

I mean, this is an iconic site.

It was really the dividing line between east and West.

It is where Ronald Reagan stood and said, you know, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

It is, it is seared into the psyche of anyone who knows anything about German history or even modern Western 20th century history.

So that's definitely the place, the place to start.

And then conveniently, some of the other major sites of Berlin are in very, very close proximity to that.

So you've got the Reichstag, which is the national parliament of Berlin.

You can go and do tours there.

They actually have like a rooftop, I believe a rooftop lounge or restaurant where you can go up and, and enjoy the views.

It's got a beautiful glass dome.

It's been reconstructed, you know, since the end of the Cold War.

And that's right there.

It's right next to the Brandenburg Gate.

And then, I mean, just like if you were to go to New York City, you would definitely go to Central park in Berlin.

They have a huge urban park, 520 acres, called Tiergarten.

And again, that is a few steps from the Brandenburg Gate.

And it's got paths and ponds.

You can go biking there.

You can take little paddle boats out.

It's one of these places where you could spend an entire day and, and it's, and it's a great escape for anyone who, you know, Berlin is.

It's a beautiful place, but it's busy.

It's a big city.

If you're looking for a place where you can kind of get off the beaten path and feel like you're in the country, in the city, Tiergarten is, is definitely worth it.

So those are kind of like that's something you can do within a couple hours.

But then I do have some more, slightly more obscure places to recommend as well.

Well, those are the ones we always love.

I mean, getting, getting beyond kind of the, the, the ones that everybody needs to see.

What are, what are the, a few of the, the hidden gems that people might not know about.

So.

Yeah, so I already mentioned Tran and Palast, this, this palace of Tears.

And on this particular trip, my goal was to go east.

You know, I done more in the western part of Berlin, know which that would have been in the English or the American zone.

This time I wanted to spend most of my time in the Russian zone, the Soviet zone.

And somebody had recommended doing a walk down Karl Marx la, which was really interesting.

It was originally built to honor Joseph Stalin.

And it's a broad avenue, still quite, quite nice, to be honest today.

Big, you know, four lanes of traffic, a boulevard in the middle, bike lanes, walking lanes, and lined by this very traditional Soviet architecture.

So these apartment blocks that you might see in, in Russia or other parts of eastern, central Europe.

And you kind of have to pay attention, but there were mosaics and murals that they have preserved, you know, honoring the new Soviet man or the new Soviet woman.

And then a few buildings that really looked to me like scaled down versions of this kind of brutalist architecture that you get in place.

Like Moscow, you know, the Seven sisters, the famous seven sisters in Moscow, they had kind of scaled down versions of that.

And that's, I mean, that's something you can do for free.

I mean, I had a tour guide who said, yeah, just go to this station.

I went to Alexander Platz, got out and he said, just walk, just walk until you get to this other station.

I walked for a couple of kilometers and you know, it really was like walking back in time.

But at the time, same, same time, that is the growth area of Berlin because they have a lot of housing there.

You know, they built a lot of buildings and so around.

In Alexander Platz, which is close to the TV tower, which is the most famous or the most infamous landmark in Berlin other than the Berlin Wall, just a forest of cranes, because they're, they're, they're building.

This is the place where you can really grow.

So.

And I walked all the way to, I did do the spy museum in Alexander Platz.

I'm just going to gloss over that, but that's worth it if people have a chance to go there.

So there were revolutions across Eastern Europe, Eastern and Central Europe.

And famously the most famous manifestation of that, the most visual manifestation of that was the Berlin Wall being torn down in the city.

This great European city being united again.

And so much of the wall has been torn down, but in the east side gallery.

So if you keep going down Karl Marx la and you keep going towards Ostenhof, there is a long stretch of the Wall there.

I don't know how long it is, less than a kilometer, but it's quite long.

And it's painted by graffiti and mural artists from around the world.

And so it's a great place.

I was there like on a Sunday.

It was probably like last Sunday.

Sunny, beautiful day.

The Spree, the famous river is right there.

So you can go hang out at the park, enjoy yourself and then walk along the wall and see all these different paintings.

So, so I'd say, you know, start with the main things.

Don't miss Checkpoint Charlie, don't miss, you know, the Brandenburg Gate, Tiergarten, these places are really worth it.

But go east, go east and experience some of East Berlin as well.

If you're crossing over from, like, if Checkpoint Charlie wasn't still there, would, you know, when you're making that crossover from what was formerly east to the west, I mean, is it still that obvious?

Yes, there are, there's small reminiscences of that.

I mean, the big thing about the, the Berlin Wall is that when we picture it, we picture it as a wall, you know, which is fair because it was a wall, but it really was like two walls with a kind of a dead zone in the middle.

As it developed, they wanted to make it harder and harder and harder for people to cross from one to the other.

And so it really ended up being almost a swath of the city that it just cuts through the city.

So Checkpoint Charlie, they've reconstructed almost in its, its original form.

I mean, it grew and grew and grew and grew and then they tore it all down.

So you can definitely see there's.

There is a Checkpoint Charlie there that you can go take a picture and all that kind of stuff.

And then you.

You can really.

I did a trip a few years ago where I walked in the steps of the Wall and just figured out where the course of the Wall was.

And you can tell because it's all new construction or something, in some cases, just open spaces.

Because, I mean, this was, you know, from how many.

Something that divided a major European city in two and can still kind of see the remnants of that there.

And is that.

So is that no Man's Land?

Is it essentially kind of like parkland still?

Or is there stuff that has been developed in.

In that former no Man's Land as well?

Some of it, for sure, is parkland, and some of it is just kind of weirdly open.

And then a lot of it, they've reconstructed other things, whether it's museums or even commercial operations, they've filled it in and it's.

It.

And it doesn't feel like what it was for so long, which is.

Which is like a slash through the city.

You know, it doesn't feel that way anymore.

And there's certainly no difficulty going east to west or anything like that.

Um, but you.

But you can definitely tell, you know, if there.

If you're walking down the street in that area and you kind of look around, you go, you know, there's not enough buildings here.

This feels a little bit, you know, it's a little more open than it was just two blocks ago.

You're probably in a spot where the Berlin Wall used to run.

Okay, well, that.

That certainly gives us lots to see and do to get our trip started.

Why don't we come back for a second episode, Tim, and get into a little bit of kind of the where to eat, where to stay, and a little bit more of just the logistics of a trip to Berlin and continue on from there.

Sounds good.

Great chatting with you, David, and can't wait to continue.

Sounds good.

Thanks.