adrienne

I’m almost done with my itinerary and need a sanity check. I think I’ve grouped things together geographically but I could be wrong as my brain is seizing. I have hotels in Potsdam and Dresden but still need a place to rest my head in Berlin so also need some help with that in terms of location – Mitte perhaps?

Given my itinerary, would the Berlin/Potsdam Welcome Card be worth the money?
48 hours 20.50 EUR
72 hours 27.50 EUR
5 days 37.50 EUR

<b>Dresden</b>

<u>Day 1 (Saturday)</u> – Arrive Dresden - Hotel: Ibis Altmarkt
5:00 Vespers – Kreuzkirche

<u>Day 2 (Sunday)</u>
Frauenkirche
12:00 Dresden Walks (1.5 – 2 hours)
Pragerstrasse
Johanneum

<u>Day 3 (Monday)</u>
Residenzschloss - Historic and New Green Vaults
Semperoper guided tour (3:00)
Kunsthofpassage
Catholic cathedral (Hofkirche)
Pfunds Molkerei
Church of the Cross
Baroque Garden

<u>Day 4 (Tuesday) </u>
Saxon Switzerland

<u>Day 5 (Wednesday) </u>
Zwinger palace & Zwinger old masters gallery
Martin Luther Church
Albertinum & Neue Meister
Auferstehungskirche Dresden-Plauen
Christuskirche Dresden-Strehlen (weekdays 17-18)
Grosser Garten
Panometer

<u>Day 6 (Thursday)</u>
Dresden City Museum at the Landhaus
Kasematten
Dreikönigskirche

<b>Potsdam</b>

<u>Day 7 (Friday arrive 12:00)</u> - Hotel: Altstadt Pension
Neues palace
Nikolaikirche
5:00 – 7:30 - Potsdam Historic Walking Tour

<u>Day 8 (Saturday)</u>
Sans Soucci Palace
Cecilienhof Palace

<u>Day 9 (Sunday) </u>
Brandenburger Strasse
Peter-und-Paul Kirche
Wansee mansion

<b>Berlin</b>

<u>Day 10 (Monday) </u>
Insider Walk – (1:30)

<u>Day 11 (Tuesday) </u>
Pergamon Museum
Altes Museum
Berliner Dom
Bebelplatz

<u>Day 12 (Wednesday)</u>
Museum of Otto Weidt’s Workshop
Outdoor Market at Hackesche Hofe
Gemaldegalerie
Bode Museum (sculpture)

<u>Day 13 (Thursday)</u>
Cold War Berlin Tour (Insider walking tour – 10:00)
Marienkirche

<u>Day 14 (Friday) </u>
Jewish Berlin Walking Tour (Insider – 10:00)
German History Museum

<u>Day 15 (Saturday)</u>
Berlin Wall Memorial & Museum
Memorial To Murdered Jews
DDR Museum
Friedenskirche

<u>Day 16 (Sunday)</u>
Jewish Museum
Topography of Terrors
Potsdamer Platz and Panorama Punkt

<u>Day 17 (Monday)</u>
Templehof Airport

Here are some other things I’d like to see but I’m unsure where I can fit then in.

Marienkirche
Hackesche Höfe (Hacke Courtyards)
Museum Berggruen
Nikolaiviertel
Jewish War Memorial
Reichstag
Gemäldegalerie
KaDeWe

Thanks for your help!!

greg

There is a way to do Reichstag in Berlin as two objectives in one.
If your Berlin accommodation does not include breakfast, one way to include Reichstag is to have a breakfast at Käfer Dachgarten Restaurant at the 9am opening time, located at the roof top, in the same security zone as the dome. The earliest sitting is 9am, and because you are in the security zone, you must make a reservation which includes submitting passport info to get your name on the list to get into the secure area. You can actually enter the dome before the restaurant is open. We got there around 8:20am, allowed to proceed inside. We got escorted to the roof top, picked up audio guide and did the dome audio tour. By the time we got to the bottom of the dome, the restaurant was opening up. Of course, you can do this with other meals. Because the restaurant is in the same security zone as well as on the same floor as the dome, you can go back and forth freely between them.

tom18

I'm bookmarking your Dresden itinerary as the model for a hoped-for trip to Dresden next year!

mama_mia

Bookmarking for next year--thanks for all your hard work, Adrienne!

Ingo

It's a bit late right now and I'm almost off to bed, so more on the Dresden itinerary tomorrow - but it's not ideal, and you're not always geographically right (I mean you're zig-zaging and backtracking too much). Just a few thoughts right off my mind:

Day 2) Pragerstrasse is a shopping street - dead on Sundays. Johanneum is the Transportation museum, you know that?

Day 3) Church of the Cross is Kreuzkirche, where you'll attend Vesper on Day 1, so I'd say spend some time before Vesper there. Also, I doubt there will be time to head from Altstadt over to the Neustadt district for Kunsthofpassage and Pfund's Molkerei. What is "Baroque Garden"?

Day 4) Itinerary?

Day 5) Martin Luther church is also in the Neustadt district, why not do the things from Day 3) there this day? However, you have (again) much time planned in museums - I doubt you can do all these things, especially since the churches and the Panomater are quite a distance apart from one another.

Day 6) There's enough time here to squeeze in some things from other days. Dreikönigskirche is also in the Neustadt district, btw.

I.

adrienne

Tom & Mama - you'd better wait for the final version as I'm apparently a bit wacky with my itinerary - LOL. It's very difficult to coordinate activities in 3 new cities.

Thanks Ingo - I'll start revising. I'm not sure what I meant by the Baroque garden as I have no notes on this. Perhaps I meant either the Grosser garden or the Zwinger and was looking at too many things at the same time and became confused.

I do know the Johanneum is the transportation museum (I happen to like transportation museums) but even if I don't go inside there's the Meissen mural on the outside which I don't want to miss.

Ingo

Back to the Dresden portion of your trip, as promised.

Good to know you like Transportation museums - there is also a special exhibit on the first long-distance railway (Leipzig-Dresden) in Germany in the Johanneum at the moment (anniversary this year) - very interesting.

Okay, so let's say on

Day 1) you arrive a bit early for the Vesper at Kreuzkirche and have a look at the interior - frankly, there's not *that* much to see there. And you can still linger in the church for a while after the Vesper. Hope you're there on 6 or 13 Sept, because that's when the Kreuzchor boys choir will sing. 13 Sept they'll perform a wonderful cantata together with musicians from the Staatskapelle Dresden. YAY! Be prepared that buying a program for 2 Euro at the entrance is obligatory.

Day 2) When do you plan to visit Frauenkirche? On Sundays at 11 am is a service. No visiting hours in the morning. Every third Sunday in the month is an Anglican Service at 6 pm in English. Sometimes concerts in the church at 3 pm. The church is open for sightseeing only from 12.30 pm - 4.30 pm and again in the evening after the service - if at all.

As I said, Prager Strasse is a shopping street and since most shops are closed in Germany on Sundays this street is almost dead on Sunday. In case you're in Dresden on second Sunday in September you might want to have a look at the list of open buildings for Heritage Day - quite a number of interesting buildings will be open for free that are usually not accessible at all.

I'd say on that day take your time for the guided City Walk, see the Transportation museum and maybe check out Grosser Garten - if the weather is nice, then locals will do the same and you can do some people watching

Day 4) I'd say scratch what is in the Neustadt district. Concentrate on the old town. You can buy a combination ticket for the Royal Palace that includes Historic and New Green Vault but also all the other museums there. Why not seeing the two Green Vaults in the morning and then come back for the rest in the late afternoon? I highly recommend to climb the tower at least, the views are amazing (also included).

Also, I would see the Catholic Cathedral on Wednesday, because they have a free organ recital at 11.30 am on that day. Small donation welcome, of course.

As for the Semperoper - are you sure you don't want to attend a performance there? Don't know what you'd like best, but you can get a large variety in September, from chamber music over Symphony concerts, ballets to operas.

Day 4) Hopefully the weather co-operates!

Day 5) Don't remember when Martin Luther church is open, but you should combine it with the other activities in the Neustadt district because it is right there. I guess Day 6 would work, too.

Quite some museums here again. Frankly, I'd skip the Panometer unless it's open until late, so you can see it after the church in Dresden-Strehlen. It's quite a distance from the old town.

Hopefully you already saw Grosser Garten on Sunday.

As said above, my suggestion is to squeeze in the Catholic Cathedral on this day. You could quickly hop over from the Old Masters Gallery in the Zwinger.

Day 6) Sounds good. The city museum with picture gallery can take three or four hours, but others are done with it in 1 hour You never know. Definitely see all the things in the Neustadt district on that day - Start at Golden Horseman statue, walk along pedestrian boulevard Hauptstrasse (Dreikönigskirche) to Albertplatz, head via Alaunstrasse to Kunsthofpassage, then to Martin-Luther-church and Pfund's Molkerei.

That's all for the moment. Hope it's not too confusing. I noticed you did not include a steamboat trip to Pillnitz, btw, or the area around Blue Wonder bridge with the funicular and suspension railway ... ;-)

PalenQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pl%C3%B6tzensee_Prison

Well what a wonderfully organized itinerary for Berlin - one thing I did not notice but which I found very moving was the infamous Plotzensee Prison where Hitler had some 3,000 enemies executed - often in a grisly fashion of being garroted - hung on hooks - you can still see the hooks.

The guy who tried to blow up Hitler especially suffered a painful death here - not that far from the Reichstag - kind of nice walk thru area of small garden plots.

anyway since you have the other Third Reich relics on your itinerary thought I'd add this to your already full plate.

adrienne

Thanks so much for the help!

adrienne

I've finally booked a hotel in Berlin - Hotel-Pension Bregenz, based on a couple people here liking the hotel and it gets good review on TA and Lonely Planet. So I'm making a bit of progress.

Any other comments on my Berlin itinerary? I would welcome any input from folks who have been there.

PalenQ

Any other comments on my Berlin itinerary?>

Potsdam - Though your plate is full two things I liked in the Potsdam/Wannsee area were the Bridge of Spies (Glienicke Bridge) and Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel).

I walked from Potsdam over the famous bridge that once bridged the divide between East Germany and West Berlin - famous for being the trading place of spies...

then walked along a Strand, or beach - in summer it was full of nudists as many public parks in Germany seem to be (mainly old sights for sore eyes!) to Peacock Island - known for its follies - whimsical edifices and of course peacocks.

http://www.history.com/news/prisoner...to-shcharansky

http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/pf...eninsel-palace

https://www.google.com/search?q=peac...=1600&bih=1075

anyway just some things I loved - I believe the Wannsee Mansion is close to both of these places.

kleeblatt

Don't forget the Russian village in Potsdam. It's worth taking the bus out there.

In Berlin, make sure you do the TV tower because the views up there are glorious. It's a must for Berlin.

Also, find time to go to Kreuzberg for its oriental feeling and seeing East Side Gallery will give you a clue about the wall.

The Nikolaiviertel is a must because that's where Berlin really started and it's the only place that still feels medieval.

PalenQ

Don't forget the Russian village in Potsdam. It's worth taking the bus out there.>

It is just a short uphill walk from Sans Soucci Palace - and that's the route I took from the palace to the Bridge of Spies, etc. And yes a unique thing - the Russian Village.

PalenQ

http://www.mygermancity.com/babelsberg-castle

Babelsberg Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site very close to Potsdam - and the park surrounding it is wonderful as well.

If interested in German films the famous film studio here can be toured as well.

lavandula

The Nikolaiviertel is a cute little area - I second Kleeblatt regarding a visit there. It is partially rebuilt in an East German Plattenbau style but somehow this is not disturbing. Not far from Alexanderplatz. Lots of little restaurants and souvenir shops, and a really cool old church, now a museum. Buy tea to take home from TeeGschwendner.

Lavandula

adrienne

Thanks everyone!

kleeblatt

The film studio Babelsberg isn't too interesting. It's like a small amusement park that is trying but doesn't quite cut it.

PalenQ

Yeh I did not waste time and money going into the film studio about which I knew nothing - but the park is tremendous.