Berlin Diary - Day 1

Mural on the inside of our hotel - Berlin Mitte by Melia

After a quick flight from Edinburgh to Berlin Tegel at only 1hr 45mins, we arrived in Deutschland's capital city, Berlin.

Our hotel situated in Mitte, was across the street to both the Naturkundmuseum tram and underground stations which meant it was super easy to get everywhere we wanted to go. What I will say is the german transport system is one of the easiest I've ever navigated with the choice of travelling by bus, train, underground or tram with no ticket checks or barriers, it was unbelievably simple to get everywhere. We had purchased the Berlin welcome card before we arrived which was 29 euros each for the 3 days which covered all our transport and got us discount in the majority of attractions and even some restaurants.

First port of call after arriving was finding food as we were both starving. We'd picked up a leaflet at reception about 'Potsdamer Platz', a shopping arcade with a multitude of options for shopping and dining so we headed here and after 2 underground rides we had arrived.

We chose 'Andy's Diner and Bar' for food as Kieren saw they served currywust and this was on his list of 'must-try's' whilst we were here which he thought was amazing!

Next up we headed down through Tierpark towards Berlin's parliamentary building 'The Reichstag' whilst trying not to get run over by cars, bicycles or electric scooters! This we had to prebook in advance to going and had to show our passports on entry as well as going through security. We then boarded an elevator inside the building which took us up to the Reichstag dome which had a panoramic view of the whole of Berlin and was amazing! The dome itself is stunning and blew my mind that there was two spirals within the one dome, one for going up and one for going back down. The bottom of the spiral also displayed a through the years timeline from when the building was erected to the famous faces that have visited and told the story from before the wall to during the divide to after the wall was taken down.

Our last port of call on our busy first day was to see the Brandenburg Gate. Located very close to the Reichstag building, probably about a 3 minute walk it is definitely not something you'd miss walking by. Kieren was thrilled when I asked another tourist if the'd mind taking a photo of us in front of the gate and told me that was the only photo he'd agree to getting together - what are boys like honestly. Overall we had a super busy first day and were absolutely knackered seeing as we were up at 6am for our flight so we headed back to the hotel for a well needed sleep before the next day of sightseeing.

The Brandenburg Gate (and Kieren dying of embarrassment inside)