Berlin Trip - daytrips outside the city

[Copperknickers II]

Looking for any Germans or anyone familiar with the Berlin area: a friend and I are going to Berlin later this year, and we are looking for somewhere to go other than the city centre where we're staying.

I live in London, so once we've done with the more unique Berlin sights, I'd prefer to get away from the 'tourist centre' and experience something I can't do at home. I was thinking along the lines of:

1. Medieval towns: I know Germany is one of the best places in Europe to find surviving Medieval village and town centres, but are there any within an easy train ride of Berlin? Literally a day trip away, or even half a day.

2. I'd love to go to Poland also, just to say I've been to Eastern Europe. Is it realistic to take a daytrip to one of the border towns?

3. Anything else that's off the beaten track and outside the city? Or even something that's on the beaten track outside it, I don't know much about the area.

[Campylobacter jejuni]

It is realistic to go to Poland for a daytrip, but it would be a short one. I suggest against it. Also geographically speaking Poland is Central Europe, look at the map.

Can't really help you with the rest. Try visiting Museum Island.

[Campylobacter jejuni]

Actually Potsdam is right around the corner, you could visit Sanssouci.

[Copperknickers II]

It is realistic to go to Poland for a daytrip, but it would be a short one. I suggest against it. Also geographically speaking Poland is Central Europe, look at the map.

From a Scottish perspective, anywhere east of Amsterdam is 'Eastern Europe', and a no-go area in terms of the average tourist, hence why I want to get off the beaten track. Anyway we don't really have a concept of 'Central Europe' in the UK, only First World Europe and Communist Europe (and Berlin is too trendy these days to have any of its Communist allure).

[Copperknickers II]

It is realistic to go to Poland for a daytrip, but it would be a short one. I suggest against it. Also geographically speaking Poland is Central Europe, look at the map.

From a Scottish perspective, anywhere east of Amsterdam is 'Eastern Europe', and a no-go area in terms of the average tourist, hence why I want to get off the beaten track. Anyway we don't really have a concept of 'Central Europe' in the UK, only First World Europe and Communist Europe (and Berlin is too trendy these days to have any of its Communist allure left, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world after all).

[Adar]

I suggest using Deutsche Bahns website to check for trains going to cities located nearby: http://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml

Szczecin is 2 hours away by train and located in Poland. But Poland really isn't that much different from central city areas in England nowadays, they even got Tesco .

And I guess Dresden may be interesting to visit (2 hours way in the opposite direction).

But the Brandbenburg area wasn't a major location in the medieval period and it also took a significant beating in World War 2 so for sightseeing it isn't exactly the greatest (but check tripadvisor to see if I am wrong).

[Copperknickers II]

Szczecin is 2 hours away by train and located in Poland. But Poland really isn't that much different from central city areas in England nowadays, they even got Tesco .

Well it can't be too much like England, seeing as most of Poland's young male population seems to be in England these days. They wouldn't have bothered moving all that way just for slightly bigger Tescos.

I suppose I just imagine that anyone who genuinely thinks that moving to inner city Birmingham or Liverpool is a good idea must be from the most unimaginably god-forsaken post-communist stereotype of Eastern Europe. Either that or they've been watching too much Downton Abbey and don't know what Britain is like.

Thanks for the advice though.

[Adar]

Well it can't be too much like England, seeing as most of Poland's young male population seems to be in England these days. They wouldn't have bothered moving all that way just for slightly bigger Tescos.

I suppose I just imagine that anyone who genuinely thinks that moving to inner city Birmingham or Liverpool is a good idea must be from the most unimaginably god-forsaken post-communist stereotype of Eastern Europe. Either that or they've been watching too much Downton Abbey and don't know what Britain is like.

Thanks for the advice though.

The Tesco in southern Warsaw is bigger than the ones I saw in Scotland .

Also, saw some photos from my friends trip to Berlin and make sure you go to the Pergamon museum.

[Mausolos of Caria]

Well I'm German and a history student and I've been to Berlin quite a few times, as well as to London and Scotland, so do you still need advice here?

[Copperknickers II]

Unfortunately, it seems too much good advice is not so good after all: I spent so much time considering all the great suggestions on this forum and elsewhere, that when I finally got around to booking the train it was ludicrously expensive to go to anywhere outside the city. I got the cheapest ticket I could find: to Halle (Saale). Have you been there Mausolos?

[Azog 150]

We were driving through Germany and camped at a beautiful set of lakes near Schwerin, North West of Berlin. It was probably a two/three drive from Berlin and definitely could be done in a day. I think there is lakes closer then that as well. Beautiful scenery and old buildings (including a particularly impressive castle), and off the beaten path as far as international tourists are concerned. So if you fancy a swim that could be good.

On the Poland issue, I think the places worth seeing in Poland are probably a bit too far for a day trip.

[Mausolos of Caria]

Puh, I've never been to Halle an der Saale, but it is the only bigger city in Germany to survive World War II unharmed, so it should be what you were searching for Georg Friedrich Händel hailed from there, it has one of the oldest universites in the country, a Dritte Liga football team and the to-be-world heritage site Francke Foundations.

About Poland I gotta agree that the more attractive places are probably too far away, only Stettin comes to my mind (btw I think to classify Poland as either a Central European or Eastern European also holds a lot of Political connotations, but that is just a sidenote here), which has been discussed before. Otherwise, for Berlin itself and places that are less populated by tourists. I don't live close enough to the capital to know that much, but the former ''problem'' district Kreuzberg has a wild variety of restaurants and pubs with food and drinks from all kinds of countries (because a lot of immigrants are living there). Last time I was there we went to a very fine Indian restaurant for example, which might not be the best example for something exotic since you live in Britain and got one million Tandoori Takeaways, but you get the idea.
Apart from that, if you are a football fan I can only recommend going to an Union Berlin match who are a pretty cool little club with great fans. For instance, the fans helped to renovate the stadim during the summer break a few years back and during the World Cup they invited people to bring their own couches to put them on the pitch and watch the Germany game Hopefully there are no Hertha fans reading this here

[Copperknickers II]

Puh, I've never been to Halle an der Saale, but it is the only bigger city in Germany to survive World War II unharmed, so it should be what you were searching for Georg Friedrich Händel hailed from there, it has one of the oldest universites in the country, a Dritte Liga football team and the to-be-world heritage site Francke Foundations.

Thanks very much, and I have to say it doesn't have much of touristic presence if it is really so well-preserved. I can barely even find decent pictures of it online apart from the main square.

About Poland I gotta agree that the more attractive places are probably too far away, only Stettin comes to my mind (btw I think to classify Poland as either a Central European or Eastern European also holds a lot of Political connotations, but that is just a sidenote here), which has been discussed before.

Indeed. I guess I'll have to save Poland for another trip.

Otherwise, for Berlin itself and places that are less populated by tourists. I don't live close enough to the capital to know that much, but the former ''problem'' district Kreuzberg has a wild variety of restaurants and pubs with food and drinks from all kinds of countries (because a lot of immigrants are living there). Last time I was there we went to a very fine Indian restaurant for example, which might not be the best example for something exotic since you live in Britain and got one million Tandoori Takeaways, but you get the idea.

Unfortunately, I live in pretty much the British equivalent of Kreuzberg, and I'm of Indian heritage, so I'm a regular at the restaurants in the Indian areas of London and they are not to be beaten outside of India, unless perhaps by my mother's home cooking. For all the complaints about immigrants 'taking over London', the advantage of that is that there are places you can go here where the food is exactly the same as it would be in India, rather than being dumbed down for Western tastes. Its not even available unless you can read the Hindi the menu is written in. So yeah, exotic foods are the last thing on my list haha. But football definitely sounds like a good line of enquiry, especially after Germany's world cup victory.

[Mausolos of Caria]

You are welcome Well yeah I didn't know that But it was just an example anyway, there are Turkish, Moroccon, Russian, Tunisian, Italian, Greek etc. restaurants as well, though if you live in London it might not be that special indeed. It's interesting that you even get original Indian food because most of the time it is indeed changed to Western preferences, as you said (not only Indian, but also Italian, Turkish etc.).
As for football, of course you could also go and see a Hertha match, but it would be more expensive and while the stadium is impressive you might have been to Wembley anyway. Union play in the 2nd Bundesliga while Hertha play in the first, but the atmosphere would be better as well, it's up to you

[Mangalore]

Thanks very much, and I have to say it doesn't have much of touristic presence if it is really so well-preserved. I can barely even find decent pictures of it online apart from the main square.

...

The main interest in Halle is not the city itself but the museum of prehistory which has finds from the nearby Nebra site (which also has a museum there) about Bronze age civilization in central Europe. It's not the biggest but has a nice exhibit.

The city has potential. It is an old residence city but in contrast to Leipzig or Dresden has not seen the major restoration works those two cities have seen. You see that it once must have been quite a site but a lot of old buildings haven't been reworked, yet.

If you are interested in prehistory it together with Nebra might be worth a daytrip.

[Copperknickers II]

The main interest in Halle is not the city itself but the museum of prehistory which has finds from the nearby Nebra site (which also has a museum there) about Bronze age civilization in central Europe. It's not the biggest but has a nice exhibit.

The city has potential. It is an old residence city but in contrast to Leipzig or Dresden has not seen the major restoration works those two cities have seen. You see that it once must have been quite a site but a lot of old buildings haven't been reworked, yet.

If you are interested in prehistory it together with Nebra might be worth a daytrip.

Very interesting stuff. I'm quite interested in seeing unrefurbished old buildings tbh, I find thoroughly rebuilt cities a little soulless. Dresden especially looks nice, but it's old town is more like a theme park than a real city. Although its better than places like London where we just built huge concrete monstrosities in the places where the old buildings used to be. And I love Bronze age, I was actually at a famous Bronze age site in Eastern England a couple of weeks ago so it will be interesting to see how Germany compares.

[Mausolos of Caria]

My friend from Leipzig was at Halle on the weekend and apparently you HAVE to visit the Halloren chocolate factory

[Copperknickers II]

My friend from Leipzig was at Halle on the weekend and apparently you HAVE to visit the Halloren chocolate factory

Just got back from Germany, really amazing trip. I totally take back what I said about Berlin not having its Communist allure, East Berlin is still starkly evident and Berlin in general is more like Poland or Ukraine than France or Italy in terms of architecture.

Didn't get a chance to go to the chocolate factory, but we saw the Nebra skydisk and homo erectus skulls in the archaeological museum in Halle, really awesome. I didn't realise Halle was quite so off the beaten track tourism-wise, nobody there spoke a word of English and there didn't even seem to be any tourists there. Never been anywhere like that, at least outside the UK.

[Mausolos of Caria]

Nice to hear you liked it then