Berlin (part 1)

Hello everybody, I'm back from my short trip in Berlin, Germany. It was a nice holiday, maybe not my favourite, but it has worth it. As usual, I will divided the post in 3 parts: how to get, accomodation and transports in the first, what to do&see, food and souvenirs in the second and a third part with a special about Christmas markets. Enjoy!

HOW TO GET THERE: As usual, I booked a flight with EasyJet, taking off in the early morning (auch!) and getting back very late in evening, so we had four whole days to spend there. We landed at Shonefeld Airport (what a horrible airport!), in the south east of Berlin. From there, it takes about an hour to get to the city centre (it depends on where your hotel is, actually). To get into the city we decided to take the bus X7 to Rudow U7 metro stop, then frome there we changed line to reach our hotel. To get back to the airport, instead we take metro + line S9 and it took about an hour, too. I think the fastest way is by train, but trains run every half an hour. So, it's up to you! There're no big differences.

Our room at ApartHotel Vega

ACCOMODATION: once again, I booked with Booking.com. I chose ApartHotel Vega, a nice hotel with apartments, too. It was very close to Uhlandstrasse (sorry I can't find the double s in my keybord) U-stop, and a short walk from Zoologischer Garten U-stop and S-stop. The hotel was safe, with a code for entering the main door. At the reception there are two women, very nice even if their english is not so good (but it's enough to understand each other). Our room was big, the bathroom was as wide as the bedroom. We chose the hotel formula, as we didn't need an apartment with kitchen. We paid 19,5€ per person per night. The only thing that can leave you a little bit disappointed is that they don't make up beds (why?! It is an hotel!), but not a big problem for us, as we slept also during the day (sometimes)! Remember: don't choose this hotel in summer, because you would need to keep the windows open for the high temperature inside the room, but you can't. In fact, just near the hotel there is the S-bahn, which isn't a real problem in winter, when the windows are shut.

Hackescher Markt stop of S-bahn

TRANSPORT:  the daily ticket is quite expensive, 6,7€ per person for zone AB. If you arrive from the airport, buy directly the daily ticket for zone ABC (only for the day of arrival and when you leave), that cost 7,2 €. I think that you need the daily ticket, as Berlin is very big. We use the metro a lot, because our hotel was in a residential zone, not so near the centre to be reached on foot. In Berlin there are two kind of metro: the U-bahn, which is more the real underground (but sometimes goes outside the ground), and the S-bahn, which is a sort of overground subway. Trains run frequently during the day, but in the night they run every 10-15 minutes. You can find more information here.