please empty your brain below
All this has been truly fascinating. I have only visited Berlin twice but what appeals is the pace of building change and how accessible the place is. Great reporting.

100andthirty | 13.06.15 - 7:42 a.m. | #

I really like Berlin, and your posts have made me want to go back again soon.

Oh, and the early morning pedantic point: Germany's railway operator is correctly spelt Deutsche Bahn.

dg writes: Changed thanks (and just in time to inform my final Berlin post!)

martin | 13.06.15 - 8:09 a.m. | #

As regards the taller buildings or lack of them.

In a perhaps typically German way, there is a restricted 'Traufhöhe' of 22m in Berlin. The maximum height that the eaves of a roof are allowed to be. There are three exceptions, The area around Breitscheidplatz/ Zoo area (City West), Potsdamer Platz (City centre), Alexanderplatz (City west). In these areas, taller buildings are allowed.

The Berlin Senat produces a Berlin wide land usage plan/Zoning (FNP) every few years. http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/planen/fnp/

Therefore the town planners nightmare that London is, as well as skyline pollution, just doesn't happen.

IsarSteve | 13.06.15 - 8:32 a.m. | #

Two tips on maps:

Senat Including Hobrecht plan for Berlin 1862: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/planen/fnp/de/historie/index.shtml

Alt Berlin: City maps 1738 to date; http://www.alt-berlin.info/pages/index.htm

IsarSteve | 13.06.15 - 8:35 a.m. | #

Berlin town planning courtesy of Joe Stalin.

M | 13.06.15 - 10:25 a.m. | #

Actually you're wrong M

Courtesy of Bomber Harris.. you know, that guy whose statue is on the Strand.

IsarSteve | 13.06.15 - 1:33 p.m. | #

Nothing like a good few bombing raids to sort out town planning problems. Perhaps it's a pity the Luftwaffe didn't do so thorough a job over here?

But then again, perhaps not. We could all be living in places like Milton Keynes!

Bronchitikat | Homepage | 13.06.15 - 6:23 p.m. | #

You're right about Berlin being colder than London in the winter, but it's generally a good deal hotter in the summer - or at least it was when I lived there in 1968.

PeterCS | 13.06.15 - 6:35 p.m. | #

I first went back in 2001 as part of Inter rail trip and was disappointed to find the place a building site and The Brandenburg gate covered over for restoration.

Cue my next visit in 2009 for the world athletics championships and the city had been reborn. The huge new central station and the surrounding area looks stunning now.

I do need to revisit though

Rick | 14.06.15 - 10:56 a.m. | #

Berlin planning regulations restrict residential blocks to a uniform height, hence the matching rooflines.
There are very few really big companies headquartered here, so there isn't much demand for big skyscrapers.

The style of beer that Becks is, is called pilsener, the most common type in Germany, and there must be hundreds of different varieties available in Berlin. So I hope you found time to try some non-Becks pilsener.
Becks is strangely expensive to buy in shops in Germany despite being produced in large quantities(maybe it's a brand premium), far more expensive than local mass-produced beer and more expensive even than beers produced by small breweries with a better reputation and (subjectively) taste, so I don't often see people drinking it.

Jonathan | 15.06.15 - 12:34 p.m. | #











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