What do we cover?
The vehicle tour sees ALL the highlight sites and photo ops sites Berlin has to offer:
We start right away in the heart of the former west Berlin at the famous palace Schloss Charlottenburg palace, here we can get overview of Berlin’s history to set a framework for the rest of the day.
We then move through the famous Tiergarten Park, seeing the Victory Column that signified the unification wars that created the modern Germany in 1871.
We explore the area around the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of division and now unity and the new diplomatic quarter around the famous Reichstag parliament.
We can follow the line marking the former course of the Berlin Wall.
We get out (only if you want) to visit the adjacent Holocaust Memorial on foot, pass the gleaming new corporate architectural showcase Potsdamerplatz, stand above the site of Hitler’s bunker (I was involved in the creation of the information board here) and see the former political heart of the Nazi capital (the Propaganda ministry and the Air Ministry still stand).
We can see a surviving stretch of the Berlin wall at Checkpoint Charlie, scene of escapes, and move through the historic city center with the central street Unter den Linden with its beautiful squares Gendarmenmarkt and Bebelplatz, here is Einstein’s university, the opera house, and the impressive memorial to the Nazi book burning.
Then on to Museum Island, the site of the former royal palace, the cathedral, and the famous museums. Here the last, dramatic demonstrations took place that opened the Berlin Wall in 1989.
We also pass through the heart of Communist east Berlin, through Alexanderplatz with the TV tower and along Stalin Allee, a Socialist showcase, to see the largest section of the Berlin Wall – the famous East Side Gallery.
Depending on interest the Jewish quarter can also be explored, it has many stories and memorials to the brilliant and often tragic past and present of Berlin’s Jewish community.