Beautiful Berlin

Thursday Evening, Berlin

Berlin’s new central station, the Hauptbahnhof is just amazing. Gliding in there from Warsaw’s dilapidated old Soviet-era monstrosity is such a contrast I stand in awe at the sheer scale of this temple for trains. Different lines, main, underground and commuter criss-cross through this extraordinary glass edifice and I stand in wonder for fully a quarter of an hour before venturing forth to find a taxi to my hotel.

Great Hotels of the World have kindly booked me into Hecker's Hotel, just a few steps away from the famous Ku-Dam shopping street. It´s small and friendly and the reception staff are probably the most welcoming I have had so far on this trip.

The local tourist board has planned a very full programme, so there’s only time for a quick shower and change before I am whisked away by Henrik, the boss of Urban Insider tours and his friend, Sasha. Henrik, a 33 year old Swede, spent several years in the UK and Spain before deciding that Berlin is the place for him. Now, he specialises in showing off some of the special places of the city he clearly adores. Sasha’s a local boy, who for 14 years grew up in that strangely divided city before the collapse of the wall.

The duo wax lyrically about the enormous changes since unification – this is, they say, the most liberal and ´happening´ city in Europe. I like their style. We have an excellent Gazpacho in one of the Gorilla chain of natural fast-food restaurants before crossing town to the up and coming Mitte District to have our main course in a somewhat bizarre courtyard run by an organisation called the Zagreus Project. This is an eating-place for those in the know, but you have to be a member and ´rent a chair´ to keep everything legal and above board. The guys are very disappointed when their choice for pudding, Cookies, with its entrance tucked away near the dustbins underneath the Westin Berlin, is closed, so we repair for cheese and dessert to the ultra-trendy Solar, 17 storeys up above the city and accessed via an external lift.

It´s an amazing introduction to Berlin and I take my hat off to Henrik for his unique and refreshingly lively tours.

The breakfast buffet at Hecker’s is, by far, the best I have had since I set off from home. I am, it has to be said, not a fan of buffets, especially ones where hot food sits for hours and is not regularly refreshed. But this is all top grub, with an excellent range of very tasty breads, fresh juices and fruit plus a chef on duty to cook to order. It’s so nice to have coffee that is freshly made rather than several hours before.

My first port of call turns out to be a huge disappointment. Clearly there has been a breakdown in communication at the Berlin underground tour office. I take a 45 minute subway journey right across town to visit the WW2 underground shelter, to be told by a frosty-faced fraulein at reception that the tour is full! This despite the confirmation email between the tourist office and her boss. When she, very reluctantly, agrees to let me join the tour, one of he colleagues, a really officious school-prefect type, tells me very sternly that I cannot take any pictures. Really useful for a press trip! So my supposed 90-minute tour consists solely of an in-depth study of the ladies latrines before Miss Jobsworth decides to exert her enormous authority and demands to see my press credentials. At that point I give up.

So there’s an unexpected opportunity to use some of Berlin’s excellent public transport network for a couple of hours and I take full advantage. After some obligatory tourist-type visits to take some photos for this feature, I find myself in the Hackescher Markt, where I find myself in the authentic and very good Vivolo Spanish restaurant. It´s a lovely area to read my ´Berlin in My Pocket Guide book and enjoy a tapas or two.

My afternoon programme is sensational. The Trabant car was once almost the only car available to East Germans, but there are now very few around. Entrepreneur Rico Heinzig has snapped up 60 of the 26 horsepower cars and runs ‘Safari Tours’ around the cityand in Dresden. My guide, Simone, surprises me when I am told I have to actually do the driving! Luckily a Trabant gear box is not dissimilar to that of my Citroen 2CV, so I don’t disgrace myself. Simone and I have great fun while she chatters away on a walkie-talkie link to a Canadian family travelling a few metres in front of us, in a stretched-lino version of the car. It´s a complete hoot and chatty, smiley, Simone totally restores my faith in the German female species. Afterwards, we are shown under the bonnet, where a gravity-fed fuel tank comes complete with a dip stick to check levels.

Simone also directs me to the nearby Bob Box Off store, which serves excellent copy and has some really tasteful quality souvenirs. Two metres in front of the shop, a row of cobles mark the line of the Berlin Wall and a few hundred metres away, there’s the last remaining section. We are near Checkpoint Charlie which, for some reason is a huge tourist attraction. Don’t bother. It´s crowded, the area is full of tourist tat, and there’s actually very little to see.

I want to go up the Norman Foster designed dome at the Reichstag, the German Parliament building, but the queue stretches forever, so I skirt round the back of the Brandenburg Gate and have a lovely walk beside the river to pick up my subway home at the wonderful Central Station.

Berlin has certainly got my vote for the most impressive city f my trip so far. I haven’t been here since just after the fall of the wall, but the change is just incredible – and clearly continuing.

Yet, surprisingly, Berlin is a very affordable capital city. Eating out is very reasonably priced, apartment rents are very low compared to many other cities, and there is a real feeling of confidence.

Henrik and Sasha are right. Berlin really is a happening place.

Tomorrow I set off (at 0718 am!) for Hamburg and Copenhagen, before turning south for home.