I was there when the wall fall. It was unreal. I watched the News and went outside. So many Trabbis full packed with people. They were frightens that the wall closed soon, left their homes to live in Westgermany. In that night I met 2 eastgerman women and they asked me if they could stay with me in my flat one or two nights. A start for a wonderful friendship
Loved the video (and many of your other videos). I'm an American (born, raised, and live in LA), my wife is German (born in the Bitburg area - I notice one of your older videos is about Trier, which is a stone's throw from where she was born). We have family there, including cousins and a niece in Berlin, and amusingly, you had another video about Regensberg, and other parts of my wife's family (her sister and other nieces) live in Abensberg, which is very close to Regensberg. I've been there many, many times. Last time in Berlin was earlier this year; we spent New Years in Berlin, which is something completely unimaginable unless you've experienced it. Fireworks going off throughout the entire city literally all day on the 31st until at least 2 or 3 AM on the 1st. The "TV Tower" has essentially two ways of going up: 1) just to the observation deck, and 2) there's a restaurant up there. I'd definitely suggest going to the restaurant. No, not cheap, and the tickets don't include your actual meal, but the center part is stationary and the outer ring where the tables are actually spins around slowly, and there are windows all around. It generally takes about an hour to make a complete circle, and you see the entire city from every angle. It really is a MUCH better view of Berlin than the Reichstag Dome. Like I said, a little on the expensive side, but well worth the splurge for the view - and especially, if you're going to be eating there. The food is pretty good as well. It looked like you were filming the Brandenburg Gate (Tor) from the "front" which is the east side, from Pariser Platz which is the end of the street, Unter den Linden. It was actually part of EAST Berlin/East Germany during the cold war; Google a Berlin wall map and you can see clearly. The WEST side - essentially the back side - faces towards Tiergarten and the Strasse des 17 Juni (June 17th Street). There's a kinda cool kid's playground in the Tiergarten; IIRC, towards the south side, and actually, looking it up, not far from the Berliner Philharmonie and the Kulturforum, which is a cool building to see, even if you don't go inside. If you go back, I'd guess your kids would like the playground (I know because we were there with the cousins' young kids). You commented about how it seemed wealthier in the western neighborhoods, and that's absolutely due to the Cold War division between West and East Berlin. The west side was capitalist and not communist, and the whole REASON for the wall was to keep the poorer easterners from fleeing to the west for better jobs and better lives. Considering that it wasn't THAT long ago that the wall fell (1989 - just 34 years ago), a lot of people are still there and there's still a marked division between East and West. The East, though, has been becoming trendier, as many of the famous sites are there, and with cheap housing after the wall fell, a lot of artsy types tended to move in. Over the years, it has become hipper and trendier and prices have gone way up. You didn't mention the Gendarmenmarkt, which is worth a see. Potsdamer Platz is also notable, but has been under a lot of construction (it had basically become a huge mall). The Berlin HbF is interesting in a way, being MULTIPLE levels with different types of trains on different levels. Modern, but kinda cool just in how big it is and how it is laid out. You mentioned the Humboldt, but it is only one of SEVERAL notable museums on Museumsinsell (Museum Island). You were standing in front of the Rotes Rathous (Red government building... not sure if there's really a direct translation into English) which is a well known and notable building, but I don't think you mentioned it. It is near Alexanderplatz, which is where the TV Tower is. You mentioned the diversity of restaurants when standing there, but sadly, it is VERY touristy and most of what's around the square are terrible, fast food places. The Nikolaiviertel has been rebuilt after most of Berlin was destroyed, but it is still pretty cool, and the old church there is pretty nice as well. You made no mention of Checkpoint Charlie, which is one of those "have to see" places but is incredibly touristy, incredibly tacky, on a par with Times Square in NYC. The current location of the checkpoint is actually not quite where the original one was, but relatively close. The East Side Gallery is very cool, and yeah, it is LONG. I forget, but well over a kilometer (1.3 or 1.7 seems to stick in my head... I could look it up). Looking at the sign on the backside (near the Spree) you can see how it wasn't just a single wall but how the whole area made it extremely difficult to cross. Not far from there is the MB Arena which is worth a 5-10 minute walk if you're already there. No, you can't go inside, but it is a pretty impressive building. Bunch of touristy restaurants all along there. The food hall at KaDeWe is one of my favorite, and we bought a bunch of chocolate (and other stuff) there in January when we were there. I've been to Harrods several times and they have an amazing food section as well, but the thing with Harrods is that it is very closed and small rooms, versus KaDeWe which is more open and spacious. Plus I like that they have different kinds of foods from all around the world. The "Jewish Memorial" (technically, "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe") is interesting, and while certainly not "pretty" it is overwhelming. The idea behind the different heights of the concrete rectangles is so that when you start out at the edges, it doesn't seem to overwhelming, but as you get further into it, you are intentionally made to feel isolated. The Topography of Terror is a museum about the Holocaust, and definitely worth seeing. I was there when parts of the site were being constructed, and they'd just dug down and uncovered some of the rooms of the basement of the former SS headquarters, which had been on the spot right under where the Berlin wall had been built. Talk about bad juju. It is different now, with that exposed section being different; I remember seeing the tile walls of the rooms which were likely used to torture people pretty much directly under where a section of the wall had stood (and which had been placed back there). Germany almost tries to hide it, but you can potentially find the area under which Hitler's bunker stood; when I was there years ago, they were in the process of tearing down some of those old Nazi government buildings which had actually been government buildings along that street LONG before the Nazis came to power. Not far from there had been a Cold War guard tower, just sitting in what was now a residential neighborhood. All are gone, and the bunker has long since been closed up. There's basically a parking lot for an apartment building over it. Berlin is VERY international. One almost sad thing is that it seems that quite literally, there are more signs in ENGLISH than in GERMAN. Virtually every sign in German is also translated into English, and there are also a lot of either American or wanna-be American stores and such, all with signs in English. I don't think that Berlin is really German culture at all; it is BERLIN culture, which is actually in and of itself MANY different types of cultures. Almost anything goes. It is, above all, a big city, more like New York or LA than the rest of Germany. Berlin has some sights, of course, and you and I have mentioned some of them. But overall, it isn't really a very PRETTY city like Paris. There's graffiti everywhere, perhaps less now than maybe 10 years ago, but especially if you go into the poorer neighborhoods (like Neukoln and around there), you'll find it on just about every surface possible. I've flown into Tegel, and am glad to see it gone. It was literally the absolute worst airport I'd ever flown into or out of. I've heard people say it is worse than many third world airports. Brandenburg (BER) is certainly better, laughable from the standpoint of how screwed up things were there (check out the history of BER and how everything was screwed up and over budget), but certainly not a GREAT airport, either. Never been to Tempelhof. Very popular, but there are just much better places to get away from it all. I do hope you get to go back to Berlin (it isn't THAT far from Bavaria) because there IS so much to see and do.
Wow what a comment! Thanks for taking the time to write everything out. Amazing and easy to read suggestions/tips for us and everyone else who watches the video- big thanks! 😊 You said it best that Berlin is really it’s own culture!
3:48: No, you are standing on Pariser Platz, which used to be East Berlin, but the no man's land of the Wall. Behind you is Tiergarten, which used to be West Berlin.
I can highly recommend a Berlin Underground Tour for your next visit. They are either WW2-themed or Cold War-themed and offered in all different languages, too. The WW2 tours bring you through the bunkers where the people lived during the end stages of the war while the Cold War ones bring you past tunnels people dug to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. Very moving to see either.
@@OurStorytoTell I second this one...pretty much every tour they do is great. I mean, I thought I knew everything about flights from the GRD after years of documentaries about the various attempts, but they managed to approach the subject from yet a different angle which made it so much more real.
Tempelhof field is the former airport of Berlin (THF), not only during Nazi reign and WW2. It later was the airport in the American sector, famous for the candy bombers during the eastern campaign to block the western city for about one year. Berlin's biggest airport at that time was built within a few months also for that reason at Tegel, to get supplies into West Berlin. There even was a third airport inside the town at Gatow, so that every sector of the Western allied forces had their own airport (the fourth Berlin airport was in the east just outside town at Schönefeld, where in the 2000s today's new Berlin airport BER was built). All of the four old airports were closed for different reasons and at different times. THF has been closed mid 2000s.
There was also until 1952 the Johannisthal Air Field (Flugplatz Johannisthal) in East Berlin's Adlershof neighborhood (in today's Treptow-Köpenick borough). Opened in 1909, it was Berlin's primary airport until the opening of Tempelhof in the 1920s, the first commercial airfield in Germany, and known as the birthplace of heavier-than-air flight in Germany. Numerous aviation pioneers operated workshops there, such as Anthony Fokker and Germany's first female pilot Amelie Beese.
from 1722 to WW1, the area was used for military purposes (parades, drills, etc). in 1881 even the Hawaiian king Kalākaua was guest of a parade :-) starting 1922 the airfield was built, and used until decided to be obsolete when BER was planned. during the last years (and also just a few weeks ago), the Formel E car race took place on that area.
@@berlindude75Thanks! Used to live in Engelhardtstr. in the 80's. Engelhardt was an early pilot who got killed in a crash in 1911. Sad to see the very sorry state of the few remaining industrial buildings of the former airfield and surrounding aircraft industry.
The Berlin Wall was built, was operational and has fallen all in my lifetime. Incredible to think how it divided a city in such modern times. I have a cousin who was in the British Army in Berlin when the wall came down, but I didn't find this out until 2020 when I went there and met him by chance. Im booked to go back for a week in 3 months time and can't wait.....
I am 58 and I was born in Southern California. My mom was born in 1938 in Berlin and I have dual citizenship. I spent nearly every summer in Berlin my grandparents home was in Schlachtensee. I have most of my family in Schlachtensee. I never imagined the wall coming down it was normal for me going to West Berlin as a child. Most Americans are so oblivious to the rest of the world. I’m so glad you made it to Berlin
Thanks for sharing!! We are late responding but we enjoyed reading this. What an interesting experience it must have been to experience both. Cool you have dual citizenship! We wish! 😊
@@OurStorytoTell the famous, lux hotel in Berlin by the Brandenburger thor was a family driven hotel starting early 1900. For many generations. It has been made into a german TV serie with all it s history before and during the war. Lots of drama and romance and tradegy. True story. Forgot the name 😊loved it.
Such a fun video, I always like seeing the city I live in from a different perspective! And wow, you really did a LOT in such a short amount of time, no wonder your feet hurt a bit after day one :-)) Looking forward to seeing your food adventures!
Wow respect one of the best videos of Berlin in English I've seen so far. I will show your video to my international friends to get an impression of Berlin. Thanks for that!
Nice video! Just to let you know because I saw it in your video and didn´t know it myself before: Of course you only want the best for your baby and this is why I hope my comment finds you well without being offensive. Children under 1 year should never (!) ever be exposed to direct sunlight as the risk of skin cancer gets elevated by around 50% with that. Please consider rethinking how you protect your children from the UV-radiation - especially the little one. You can always check the UX-index in your weather app and as it reaches UV-index 3 you should always use proper protection like a good sunhat with uv-protection.
Loved to see you guys exploring Berlin, the place my grandparents were and also my dad was born. It is such a diverse place. So many cultures, so much history, so many different places to be entertained (and fed 😉). Hope, you have enjoyed your trip. Lots of love to you! ❤️
Great video! I just discovered your channel and have loved following your family's adventures. I’m a new subscriber! Tanner, I noticed you mentioned living in Belize and working in public health-I’m originally from Belize and also a public health professional, now in Taiwan (living here for 4 years) . I hope your family is enjoying your time in Asia! Take care!
Hey!! So happy to have you here! 🤍 Your story is really cool! Before we had kids, we made it to Belize together and that’s where Risa fell in love with the country too! It’s awesome to hear you live in Taiwan! You’ll definitely have to check our Taiwan videos out! Where in Taiwan do you live?
I remember visiting West Berlin as a little kid (early 80's). I wasn't old enough to go on the tour to East Berlin, but I remember getting to go on a tour of the Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. And I remember visiting Tempelhof though I don't remember it being an active airfield at the time. My other memory of the trip was our family took the Duty Train overnight from Frankfurt to Berlin and we stopped somewhere along the way and remember sneaking a peak out of the train car window at the Soviet Soldiers standing guard on the train.
I was fortunate enough to visit Leipzig back in 1997ish. It was still like night and day from the lovely Swäbia my husband’s family was from and where I would move. A few years later, we had befriended a couple who had moved from the East in our birthing class. The stories they told were so interesting.
I can remcommend the Deutsche Bahn building next to the Potsdamer Platz where you can go to the viewing terrace on top to have a nice view of the city center.
1:11 the U5 line from Alexanderplatz to Brandenburger Tor was built just recently - may have something to do with the stations still looking clean...... Some others are up to 100 years old, and sometimes not renovated for decades
In 2007 I could just walk up the stairs of the Rechstag, without any appointment, get in and get on the roof. No bars, security only when necessray. Berlin was way more relaxed back then.
Berlin was my first trip outside of the USA I was 19 it was in 2007. I didn't get to see all of this stuff but the road you mentioned for the parade I walked it all the way up to the Reichstag Haus when it was October and the leaves were changing and it was so beautiful. Things definitely have changed from what I see in the video. When I went inside ke de we it wasn't that big or full yet it was mostly empty. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the wall or the east side of Berlin but maybe someday I can go back and do that. From the Reichstag we walked to the Sony center and they had a lego museum or whatever that had a big giraffe made out of legos outside. Too bad the place I tried this really good doner is no longer there it was near the kaiser church on other side of the bridge in your video when primark was behind you. I honestly loved Berlin and have wanted to go back again ever since. Like you said even though its such a huge city there's so much greenery available with parks everywhere and that's what I love to find in cities
my dad was born in former east germany. He somehow managed to leave before the wall was build. I remember very well the strange feeling we had when we crossed the border to visit my grandparents and other relatives. I can confirm that we got a lot of looks with our western vehicle. I also can confirm that it was a hazzle to buy a car. first of all only 2 type of cars were available. Trabant & Wartburg. Maybe also a Lada, not sure on that one. So when a child was born, the parents buy a car just to receive it 15 years later. this was a common practice.
In addition to the Trabant (Trabi) from Zwickau in Saxony, the Wartburg from Eisenach in Thuringia and the Lada from the USSR, there was also the Moskvitch, which was also manufactured in the USSR. And Skoda from the former Czechoslovakia also existed. From today's perspective, it's unbelievable that you had to wait 15 years for a new car, but it was really like that back then.
There were a couple of more brands you could buy. If you dont know it 100% dont write it in a commentary please. Because other people will believe it. Trabant, Wartburg, Lada, Skoda, Dacia, Polski Fiat, Saporoshez, Moskwitsch, Wolga, Barkas. Es gab sogar einige Westwagen in sehr kleinen Stückzahlen und zu hohen Preisen zu kaufen. VW Golf, Volvo, Citroen, Mazda, VW Bus
@@goodtf1 Du Brain, dann erzähl doch auch was du über Barkas und so weiter weißt! Ich bin im Osten geboren und einen Mazda gab es vielleicht in Ost Berlin! In Thüringen sind die zumindest nicht gewesen!
@@OidaDreXack ich bin auch im Osten geboren. Und bei uns im damaligen Bezirk Rostock gab es einige Westwagen. Konnte man aber auch an einer Hand abzählen.
I was only able to spend one day in Berlin on a trip a few years ago. What struck me (as a human being and a former teacher of history) was the way modern Berliners have chosen not to hide the tragedies of their past, namely the Holocaust and Soviet occupation which resulted in the division of their city, but to have open memorials throughout the city (e.g., the Holocaust Memorial, memorial plaques throughout the city marking embarkment places for the shipment of the Jews to the camps, the remains of a bombed out church, the lines of bricks embedded in the streets & sidewalks marking the existence of The Wall, the TV tower, museums showing the work of the Stasi, and more) so that these horrors remain fresh in our mind. I love looking at old buildings and I'll never forget walking by the facade of a train station on our walk towards Potsdamerplatz. On my way back I wanted to get a picture of that beautiful facade, but then was stopped dead in my tracks when I then noticed the signage listing the over one hundred convoy dates and the number of souls for each date that were transported from that train station to Theresienstadt. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the station, only the sign.
Such a great observation! Thanks for pointing that out. We are always impressed with how most Germans face their country’s history! It’s admirable for sure!
The video fits well because I will be going to Berlin for the first time at the end of the year. I am extremely interested in medicine and am a big fan of the Charite I saw in the video at 8:17 min. The Charite is the best hospital in Europe. They're working on the medicine of the future there, and a lot of things won't exist elsewhere for 10 years, and some of it sounds like science fiction there. Thanks to my insider knowledge, I know how good they are there and that's why I'm going to have an operation there at the end of the year. So for me personally, the best thing about Berlin is the Charite (haha im a weirdo).
East Germany, under the Communists, used to discourage religion so it was always considered extremely ironic that when the sun shone on the ball at the top of the TV tower, standing in East Berlin, it reflected as a giant cross.
Rembember how and when the wall fell in late 1989, cause my son was born that year. It came so suddenly on the news. We were just SHOCKED and so surprise. I was in my mid 29s just like you with 2 kids
I can highly recommend to meet Berlin by a boat trip, especially the "Brückenfahrt" ("Bridge Cruise"). You'll pass many remarkable places and building within 3.5 hours with an audio guide in English, gastronomy on board and much rest for your feet 🙂
Yes for sure. These boat trips are the best, i recommend it to everyone. In summer time the real beauty of the city and the surrounding areas come to shine. Depends on the tour, but visit the lakes and forest inside Berlin are super relaxing and fun. Nice contrast to the busy areas in the rest of the city.
the U5 is the newest Ubahn line, it only opened a couple of years ago, 2018 i think. And it goes right through the city centre. You bet the stations are pretty dope.
The U5 is much older than that, but the extension taking it from Alexanderplatz through to the main station (hbf) only opened around 2021-2022. The older stations look really old but the new ones, like Unter den Linden, are spectacularly modern
That‘s wrong. When you stand on the Pariser Platz (Brandenburger Tor, Hotel Adlon, US-Embassy) you are on the formerly East Side of Berlin. When you pass the Brandenburger Tor in direction to the Reichstag you enter the west. There is a line of cobblestones to mark the border between East and West. If you not sure of which side the City you are, then look to the traffic lights for pedestrians. Mostly only in the East you can see the famous Ampelmännchen.
U5 stations you saw were clean, because they just opened not long ago. You were on the east side, crossing over to the west side at Brandenburg gate not the other way around 😅
I haven't been back to Berlin since I left Germany in 1982. Modern Berlin looks completely different and nowadays very sophisticated. In the 1970s while I lived and worked in Cologne my late sister lived in West Berlin with her German medical student boyfriend and they later got married and had two kids. The Berlin Wall was ominous everywhere and took unexpected sharp turns to reflect the boundaries between West and East. On the Western side there were viewing platforms from which you could see over the Wall and gaze at the houses on the Eastern side. East Berlin looked entirely dilapidated. Even to get to West Berlin by road you had to drive along the East German Transit Corridor from Helmstedt for about 170km without stopping, except for fuel. The East German side had watchtowers and heavily armed border guards at the border crossings. It was a pretty frightening experience, taking one right back to World War 2. After reunification (former) West Germany spent upwards of 2 trillion euros between 1990 and 2014 on rebuilding East Germany from the ground up. New motorways, completely new telephone network, huge infrastructure developments. And still for a number of years there were many East Germans, the so-called Ossis, who bitterly regretted the loss of their state and rejected capitalism. RUclips has many videos about the times before and after the Wall fell. The original border between East and West Germany was 1400km in length and actually stretched from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia. This strip of mined and heavily controlled land has since been made safe and turned into a nature reserve and one can hike along it all the way, taking 24 days in one case, but usually around 100 days. See www.bund.net/gruenes-band/
Been there done that. My beloved home town. Ick bin ein Berliner......regardlessxwhst endless Hollywood films etc fascination of Americans. They won. Write....harsh bad language. Nazis...bombarded. ugly rebuild East west.....my home town....look at G aza today.....god help us....
Nice one! Berlin is pretty cool, been there myself before. I was a little kid when "the wall fell", and i remember that we were at a birthday party of a friend of my mom. Even as a kid, i had seen the developments the days before, and because i was sure we're all gonna sing along to the national anthem at some point, i wrote the lyrics down on a piece of paper. To my surprise, while the TV was on and i was glued to the screen, feeling a sense of joy at us becoming one country again, the adults only cared about the birthday celebrations... 12:40 About walking for a long time: I have found that it is crucial to have shoes which provide a good cushioning/rebound effect. Avoid shoes with hard soles at all costs. The best cushioning IMO is provided by Adidas Ultraboost shoes. I'm sure there are others from Nike and Reebok etc. which can achieve something similar, i'm just mentioning the ones i use. These will make you last much longer on your feet without any aches, i found.
One of my daughter in laws is from Berlin. We still not been able to visit this city yet But i hope we can later on in the year or at least next year . Looks amazing 😻 thank you for sharing. Have a Good week 🥰
3:45 - As can be seen on the map, the directions are just the opposite of what was told ... the "Pariser Platz", the Brandenburg gate itself and the Adlon belonged to that forbidden zone in the east, while the Reichtag building (that is still the name of the building although it now houses the Bundestag) and the big park that can be seen in the background (through the Brandenburg gate) are in former west berlin. and yes, it sometimes was surreal, but when you lived there all your life, it simply was what you were used to. and meeting with friends on the meadow in front of the Reichtag (before 1989) to hang out and play Fußball was quite normal.
Never judge a country by its capital. London is quite outstanding in the UK, Dublin is the only major town in an otherwise rather rural (and very beautiful) Ireland, Washington DC does not encapsulate what life is like elsewhere in the US (as you very well know, I am aware of that), Paris is nothing like rural France or mediterranean France ... Berlin is unique in Germany. The biggest town of Germany, the most mixed up one culture wise (for which it is reknown and very loved), right now I think it is only more expensive to rent in Munich than in Berlin ... The only thing Berlin really represents for Germany is - how varied Germany is. Not in the regions themselves, but there are so many different regions of Germany which are very varied - and all of that plus a huge influence from other countries is showing up in Berlin.
"right now I think it is only more expensive to rent in Munich than in Berlin ..." Reading this basically shows everything that went wrong. Because Munich has always been ridiculously overpriced in rent. Berlin used to have the cheapest rents ever imaginable, just 15 years ago.
@goodtf1 Depends on how you define „mixed up culture wise“. For example, Berlin is not the city in Germany with the largest share of immigrants. And it is also more German in the outer districts than in the city center, which is crowded by people who just moved to Berlin.
I'm really happy to finally see you in my hometown Berlin, the city is really something different than the rest of Germany, it has its own charm. If you want to taste different foods from different countries and cultures, then Berlin is the right city for you. You would definitely like my old quarter, where I grew up, Prenzlauer Berg with Schönhauser Allee, Kastanienallee, Oderberger Straße and Weinbergsweg up to Oranienburger Straße with the large synagogue. In case you haven't seen this yet.. Have you tried the Brammibal's Donuts?street food highlight is the Markthalle 9 in Kreuzberg on every Thursday evening. The Prater Biergarten is nice in the evening as well, located in the Kastanienallee in Prenzlauer Berg, close to the underground station Eberswalder Straße.
Tanner: you said it wouldn‘t seem so long ago that the wall was around Berlin? It‘s more than 30 years ago, that‘s longer than the wall was even standing.
Yet I can still remember the feeling during the 1980ies that it'll take decades until it could possibly disappear. The last quarters of 1989 and the year 1990 felt incredibly unreal and crazy.
Next time you go to Berlin you might want to consider taking cargo bikes to get around with the kids. Bikes are the best way to get a comprehensive overview of Berlin.
Since you seem to like the nicknames Berliners have for their attractions, like "Gold-Else", the one for the TV Tower is "Tele-Spargel". 😊 The "Bundeskanzleramt", seen here at 16:24 in the background (about 11 o'clock) is called the "Bundeswaschmaschine" (Federal Washing Mashine). 😮
Did your friends live in East Berlin or West Berlin? This would make a huge difference and they would tell you very different stories about the times when the Wall was still standing ... Next time, I'd recommend to also visit the Mauermuseum other museums to dive a bit deeper into history. It's really impressive to hear about all those stories and to imagine what it must have been like (I only remember a tiny bit, as I was a child when the Wall fell, but I've heard so many stories that it's very real to me)
6:59- Nice that Miss Willa perked up seeing the 'Berlin Bear' in the park! This is as good a time as any to teach her that the name of the city of Berlin itself means 'little bear' in German and the city uses a picture of a black bear on its back feet as its symbol! FWIW, the symbol of Madrid, Spain is another little bear shown starting to climb a strawberry tree (!). Great that all four of you had such fun in Berlin and that Miss Noa seems to be starting to follow her big sis's footsteps getting comfortable traveling! Thanks for sharing this with us!
Although "Bärlein" means "little bear" and its symbol is a bear, this is not the original meaning of the name. the town was founded on swampy grounds and thus (using the old words) it would rather mean something like "swamp settlement".
@@Anson_AKB Thanks for the correction. However, I think a little bear would have been more appealing to have encountered than a 'swamp settlement' so I'm not surprised the inhabitants opted to go for having their town name matching the Little Dipper (ursa minor) in the sky!
@@wardarcade7452 yes, a cute little bear is much nicer to look at, and having an association of the name with bears as the symbol of the city is neither bad nor wrong. it simply shouldn't be taught as a certain "alternative fact" for the original meaning of the name, which originates from the slavic tribes that lived northeast of the Elbe/Saale line. from Wikipedia: _"The name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of today's Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl- ("swamp") or Proto-Slavic bьrlogъ, (lair, den). Since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär ("bear"), a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore an example of canting arms."_ ... and thus with some remaining uncertainty (but very very improbable), someone might even argue in favor of a "bear's cave" :-)
@@Anson_AKB Note, that I didn't say that that was the ORIGINAL meaning- just that the name means 'little bear' in German- the official language of the current administrators of the municipality that has been the capital of the nation of the reunited Germany since 1990 !
@@wardarcade7452 Berlin with "E", and Bärlein with "Ä" (or if you don't have an ä on your keyboard, "ae" instead). thus two different words and not the meaning, neither old nor new, but only looking similar and thus being used as symbol. btw: on "Bärlein" and english "Berlin", the first syllable is stressed, on german "Berlin" the second (and "i" is longer like english "ee or "lean""). just let's keep the similarity a nice coincidence (without origin or real meaning), leading to a nicer picture/icon.
When you recapped the getting a car, I recalled our friends from Halle ordering a car for their daughter back in GDR times when she was born in 1963. Yepp, they received it almost on point six days after her 18th birthday.😮😂 She was so proud of her most basic Trabbi. Btw: I want to condense and extract your genome to preserve it for the future. Your two little ones definitely have the ultimate cuteness gene. ❤ Willa and Noah just make me smile. 😊😊😊
@@roesi1985 my aunt got it after 15-20 years at the end of the 80s ... in Berlin(east) thus i am not surprised that it took another 5+ years to catch up also in rural areas.
I ordered a car in East Germany at the earliest possible age of 18 and had to wait 16 years to get a new car! You could drive a newly bought car for 8 or 10 years and sell it for more than the new price! 16:12 Berlin is 9 times bigger then Paris and has more bridges than Venice. In the 1980s you could still see bullet holes from WW2 on some buildings in Berlin, I don't know what it's like today. 20:52 _She Moves Far Away Alle Farben feat Graham Candy_ ruclips.net/video/5WL96Z_dYIE/видео.html at abandoned Airport Tempelhof Berlin.
In most big cities in Germany you can take the bus line nr 100 to see the main Attractions and sightseeing spots. It’s normaly a circle line and a cheap way to go around
I was ready to write "You weren't in Berlin if you haven't tried Berliner Currywurst, Döner and Pfannkuchen!". Luckily I stayed to the very end.😊 Yes ist quite different to meet Berlin with some locals than just the touri way. They did a good job.
@@OurStorytoTell Oh that's nice! I do not know if Willa is a fan of princesses or not, but I at least got a very princess-y feeling walking through the rooms there. I will definitely check that video out.
@OurStorytoTell I also live in Berlin and am a Potsdam fan, also visit Park Babelsberg and the New Garden both beyond the Glienicke Bridge and both parks are World Heritage Sites. You will certainly not regret it, located on the Havel, in nice weather really cool.
I call Berlin my home for some 17 years and living most of my life in Bonn before it’s a huge difference. Though Bonn is not country side and was very international back in the day as West German capital. The big plus of Berlin is its diversity. It’s very heterogeneous. Instead of the expensive hopp on bus taking the bus 100 passes all the major tourist attractions but with a baby stroller bus is inconvenient. I kind of think that you stood on the east side of Brandenburg Gate and behind you in the back was West Berlin Tiergarten. Nikolaiviertel is not really old but restored in a historized way but not accurate. It was rebuilt from GDR government. So basically Berlin got two city centers east around Alex/Unter den Linden/Friedrichstraße and West with Kurfürstendamm/Tauentzien/Breitscheidtplatz. Food is a super plus in the city. The variety is endless. I adore Vietamese and Israel cuisine.. but was recently in Georgian restaurant and it was splendid. Enjoy
Yep Berlin ist immer eine Reise wert. Even after living in Berlin that long I do not know many places museums etc. and there is a lot of change going on constantly. And I love going to the Baltic coast, so in that respect Berlin is a perfect place. It only takes two hours for instance to go to the polish coast by car.
It's a little bit frustrating tourists are made to believe the cute traffic light figures are a (east-) Berlin thing. They are an east Germany thing! They are literally everywhere in east Germany! 😊
It's crazy how people react to the Berlin wall. But most seem to forget that there was a wall from the baltic sea to the czech border, too. At some places it was just a fence, but it also had the death strips.
And they also think the Berlin wall was always so colorful like it is now for example at the east side galery. But of course it wasnt. From the east side it was a pure blank white wall. And at this time you shouldnt get even close to it.
I was born there in 70. Berlin with sunshine is unbeatable. Even like it more than Hamburg or Munich. Very unique city culture; glad you had a local who advised you 😊
Your guides might mixed up the area at the Brandenburger Tor. The Quadriga is facing to East-Berlin.... a little help to remember that -> the West Berliners were only able to the the a**es of the horses back then. ;)
nice video, it´s always enjoyable to see your journey ^-^ I don´t want to be annoying but I would recommend you to give little noah a hat against the sun
Guys it’s great to see you visit Berlin. Your videos are fun and you are such a beautiful family. But I got the feeling (a little bit) you misunderstood a few things. Some of the things you said were also wrong or (rather) lacking details to such an extent that I felt like you missed a little bit of some of the crucial understanding of history to understand Berlin. Large parts of Berlin are still very much under construction. The West is where you should start your exploration, because you come from the West and you will feel right at home. West Berlin looks and feels like West Germany, because it was. It’s not “wealth”, primarily it’s a different culture. From there you should slowly make your way east and then with purpose and acknowledging the historical significance enter the former GDR in the East. For this to really hit home I would recommend watching a documentary on the wall and the GDR before you visit Berlin. You casually mentioned the wall near the Brandenburg gate following a strange uneven line. But you did not seem to have any knowledge of the fact that this line, where you were walking, used to be absolute no-man’s-land and completely inaccessible. All this modern hustle and bustle surrounding the Brandenburg gate was vacant, killzone, governed by the East German government’s secret service and police. I could go on, especially regarding the use of and importance of Tempelhof, but nobody cares. Just saying what you saw was 99% East Berlin. East Berlin is highly unusual in its historical trajectory. West Berlin is what Berlin would be like, had there never been any split/ communist rule in the east. So with that in mind one should visit Berlin from West to East and pay close attention to explanations of historical architectural differences, which will clearly show which buildings are historical reconstructions from a pre-Nazi time, specific pre-war Nazi architecture, typical GDR ready-made block construction and finally newer projects, which came into being after the reunification. Having acquired this knowledge one can understand what one is looking at when walking through Berlin.
Currywurst was invented in post-war Berlin when an inventive Schnellimbiss owner matched bratwurst with a curry sauce, curry having been introduced by British soldiers who occupied the city. Not only did currywurst prove popular with the soldiers, but the German population at large and the rest is history.
Great video, as a Russian-German, I've been to Berlin last in 2017 at the yearly pro-life rally, which is attended regularly by people from my church! Please note, that unlike in the USA and France, the German President has only ceremonial, representative roles. Love your channel!
Not quite true...the German president is also our last safeguard of democracy. He can stop laws from being implemented for example. Technically he stands above the chancellor, even though the chancellor naturally has more every day sway.
@@michaelwiebe4282 Yeah, I didn't realise it either until fairly recently, but the ranking is actually Bundespräsident, Bundestagspräsident and then the Chancellor is ranked third. There are a number of checks and balances in our system.
Some visitors are more focused on seeing urban areas, others appear more appreciative of natural areas. When I visit Germany, I will leave Berlin for others to see, and I will gravitate to the German Alps region.
I very much appreciate your vision of Berlin. I see that you are not only intrigued by the touristy sights of Berlin but much beyond. As a Berliner who used to live and grew up in the Western part of the divided city, there are so many places I could show you, so much I could explain to you especially on what it was like to live in a divided city (of course from the perspective of West-Berliner, part of the excitement is that East-Berliners' accounts would be entirely different) that we'd bssically completely avoid the most touristy city centre - as almost every Berliner does. Berlin is for us everything else that is there to discover in the places we live and work and spend our free time. This is where you get the most authentic vibes of Berlin. I used to live ten minutes away from the Berlin wall that was a street called Bouchéstrasse, which was one of the most peculiar places at the wall being a really narrow street with a wall on either side and such a narrow noman's land in between that the houses on the Eastern side almost touched the Eastern inland wall. It was one of the very few places where you could find houses on opposite another. Almost everywhere the houses on the Eastern side were torn down for being too near the border. It was mostly deserted land with derelict factories abandoned by force. This was quite a unique stretch of the Berlin wall. Nowadays it's impossible to imagine that there was a wall dividing s narrow residential street. Berliner Unterwelten at U-Gesundbrunnen carries out interesting underground excursions to discover underground bunkers, discarded underground lines, escape tunnels or at least explanations on that. Go round the quarters of Berlin street life in Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, Schöneberg, Wedding, Charlottenburg, Neukölln or Friedrichshain. There's a lot to discover. Or just take the Ringbahn, go to Tempelhof airport, Mauerpark, Park am Gleisdreieck or for astroll through the Tiergarten or the lakes and forests in our near Berlin.
My son and I were in Berlin inJune od 2022. We were there for 10 days and saw a lot. I can't believe what you did in 2 days. It made me tired watching.
Berlin, besides from being Germany's biggest city, naturally has more history due to having been Germany's capital on and off. What I like about it is the 'whole wide world flair'. You can actually meet people from all over the world, not only tourists but also young people from all over the world working and temporarely living in Berlin. Also, as you mentioned as well, Berlin had lot's of parks and lakes and convenient public transportation. Berlin is also famous for it's street food due to the fact that Döner as well as Currywurst were founded/sold there for the first time.
Berlin is great to visit, there is just an enormous amount of things to see and experience. Living there however is a totally different thing, it's not for everyone. I lived there for 2 years and I hated it.
This is bull.... that is only an excuse to.make my hometown even uglier....itblooked better after the war....who are the people right now ruining our city asnd calling it art. It's a skandal
Visiting tourist spots is not equal to knowing a city. And Berlin does not really qualify as something fit to change your view on Germany… Clickbait-title, I know… If you live in a certain place in Bavaria maybe the people in the next village are totally different. They are for sure in the next federal state. Ask a Hesse if he has anything in common with a Bavarian…. So just explore the tourist spots, enjoy the differences the places you visit offer but if the way you think about Germany has changed it means only, that you have just a superficial touristy insight. Like when a German thinks that all american cities are like Las Vegas, all people are like Trump, all Americans carry at least on gun when they leave their houses and your favourite pasttime is Rodeo… 😉
I love Berlin and I don't think the rest of my life is enough to see everything there. 😁😁 😅 But it's always exciting to come to Berlin and immerse myself in this city. 👍 🙋🏼♂️
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
@ 3:53 you stand on the East Side, behind the Brandenburg Gate is the West Side! ;)
Rainer? Alles gut?
@@JakobFischer60: Wieso? Er hat doch recht! Der Mann im Video stand auf der Ostseite. Schaue es dir nochmal an.
@@liamberlin6413 Ich zitiere: 3:58 "Right now we are standing on the side that used to be West Berlin". Da stand er aber auf der Ostseite.
The boundary used to run about 100m to the west of the Brandenburg Gate. The East German border guards used to have an observation post on top of it.
@@phoebus007 That's right, the border ran in an arc around the Brandenburg Gate on the western side.
I was there when the wall fall. It was unreal. I watched the News and went outside. So many Trabbis full packed with people. They were frightens that the wall closed soon, left their homes to live in Westgermany. In that night I met 2 eastgerman women and they asked me if they could stay with me in my flat one or two nights. A start for a wonderful friendship
What an experience! Wow, thanks for sharing 💛
Loved the video (and many of your other videos). I'm an American (born, raised, and live in LA), my wife is German (born in the Bitburg area - I notice one of your older videos is about Trier, which is a stone's throw from where she was born). We have family there, including cousins and a niece in Berlin, and amusingly, you had another video about Regensberg, and other parts of my wife's family (her sister and other nieces) live in Abensberg, which is very close to Regensberg. I've been there many, many times.
Last time in Berlin was earlier this year; we spent New Years in Berlin, which is something completely unimaginable unless you've experienced it. Fireworks going off throughout the entire city literally all day on the 31st until at least 2 or 3 AM on the 1st.
The "TV Tower" has essentially two ways of going up: 1) just to the observation deck, and 2) there's a restaurant up there. I'd definitely suggest going to the restaurant. No, not cheap, and the tickets don't include your actual meal, but the center part is stationary and the outer ring where the tables are actually spins around slowly, and there are windows all around. It generally takes about an hour to make a complete circle, and you see the entire city from every angle. It really is a MUCH better view of Berlin than the Reichstag Dome. Like I said, a little on the expensive side, but well worth the splurge for the view - and especially, if you're going to be eating there. The food is pretty good as well.
It looked like you were filming the Brandenburg Gate (Tor) from the "front" which is the east side, from Pariser Platz which is the end of the street, Unter den Linden. It was actually part of EAST Berlin/East Germany during the cold war; Google a Berlin wall map and you can see clearly. The WEST side - essentially the back side - faces towards Tiergarten and the Strasse des 17 Juni (June 17th Street).
There's a kinda cool kid's playground in the Tiergarten; IIRC, towards the south side, and actually, looking it up, not far from the Berliner Philharmonie and the Kulturforum, which is a cool building to see, even if you don't go inside. If you go back, I'd guess your kids would like the playground (I know because we were there with the cousins' young kids).
You commented about how it seemed wealthier in the western neighborhoods, and that's absolutely due to the Cold War division between West and East Berlin. The west side was capitalist and not communist, and the whole REASON for the wall was to keep the poorer easterners from fleeing to the west for better jobs and better lives. Considering that it wasn't THAT long ago that the wall fell (1989 - just 34 years ago), a lot of people are still there and there's still a marked division between East and West.
The East, though, has been becoming trendier, as many of the famous sites are there, and with cheap housing after the wall fell, a lot of artsy types tended to move in. Over the years, it has become hipper and trendier and prices have gone way up.
You didn't mention the Gendarmenmarkt, which is worth a see. Potsdamer Platz is also notable, but has been under a lot of construction (it had basically become a huge mall).
The Berlin HbF is interesting in a way, being MULTIPLE levels with different types of trains on different levels. Modern, but kinda cool just in how big it is and how it is laid out.
You mentioned the Humboldt, but it is only one of SEVERAL notable museums on Museumsinsell (Museum Island). You were standing in front of the Rotes Rathous (Red government building... not sure if there's really a direct translation into English) which is a well known and notable building, but I don't think you mentioned it. It is near Alexanderplatz, which is where the TV Tower is. You mentioned the diversity of restaurants when standing there, but sadly, it is VERY touristy and most of what's around the square are terrible, fast food places.
The Nikolaiviertel has been rebuilt after most of Berlin was destroyed, but it is still pretty cool, and the old church there is pretty nice as well.
You made no mention of Checkpoint Charlie, which is one of those "have to see" places but is incredibly touristy, incredibly tacky, on a par with Times Square in NYC. The current location of the checkpoint is actually not quite where the original one was, but relatively close.
The East Side Gallery is very cool, and yeah, it is LONG. I forget, but well over a kilometer (1.3 or 1.7 seems to stick in my head... I could look it up). Looking at the sign on the backside (near the Spree) you can see how it wasn't just a single wall but how the whole area made it extremely difficult to cross. Not far from there is the MB Arena which is worth a 5-10 minute walk if you're already there. No, you can't go inside, but it is a pretty impressive building. Bunch of touristy restaurants all along there.
The food hall at KaDeWe is one of my favorite, and we bought a bunch of chocolate (and other stuff) there in January when we were there. I've been to Harrods several times and they have an amazing food section as well, but the thing with Harrods is that it is very closed and small rooms, versus KaDeWe which is more open and spacious. Plus I like that they have different kinds of foods from all around the world.
The "Jewish Memorial" (technically, "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe") is interesting, and while certainly not "pretty" it is overwhelming. The idea behind the different heights of the concrete rectangles is so that when you start out at the edges, it doesn't seem to overwhelming, but as you get further into it, you are intentionally made to feel isolated.
The Topography of Terror is a museum about the Holocaust, and definitely worth seeing. I was there when parts of the site were being constructed, and they'd just dug down and uncovered some of the rooms of the basement of the former SS headquarters, which had been on the spot right under where the Berlin wall had been built. Talk about bad juju. It is different now, with that exposed section being different; I remember seeing the tile walls of the rooms which were likely used to torture people pretty much directly under where a section of the wall had stood (and which had been placed back there).
Germany almost tries to hide it, but you can potentially find the area under which Hitler's bunker stood; when I was there years ago, they were in the process of tearing down some of those old Nazi government buildings which had actually been government buildings along that street LONG before the Nazis came to power. Not far from there had been a Cold War guard tower, just sitting in what was now a residential neighborhood. All are gone, and the bunker has long since been closed up. There's basically a parking lot for an apartment building over it.
Berlin is VERY international. One almost sad thing is that it seems that quite literally, there are more signs in ENGLISH than in GERMAN. Virtually every sign in German is also translated into English, and there are also a lot of either American or wanna-be American stores and such, all with signs in English. I don't think that Berlin is really German culture at all; it is BERLIN culture, which is actually in and of itself MANY different types of cultures. Almost anything goes. It is, above all, a big city, more like New York or LA than the rest of Germany.
Berlin has some sights, of course, and you and I have mentioned some of them. But overall, it isn't really a very PRETTY city like Paris. There's graffiti everywhere, perhaps less now than maybe 10 years ago, but especially if you go into the poorer neighborhoods (like Neukoln and around there), you'll find it on just about every surface possible.
I've flown into Tegel, and am glad to see it gone. It was literally the absolute worst airport I'd ever flown into or out of. I've heard people say it is worse than many third world airports. Brandenburg (BER) is certainly better, laughable from the standpoint of how screwed up things were there (check out the history of BER and how everything was screwed up and over budget), but certainly not a GREAT airport, either.
Never been to Tempelhof. Very popular, but there are just much better places to get away from it all.
I do hope you get to go back to Berlin (it isn't THAT far from Bavaria) because there IS so much to see and do.
Wow what a comment! Thanks for taking the time to write everything out. Amazing and easy to read suggestions/tips for us and everyone else who watches the video- big thanks! 😊 You said it best that Berlin is really it’s own culture!
Wrong. The shot in front of the Brandenburg Gate was on the east side! 3:29ff
3:48: No, you are standing on Pariser Platz, which used to be East Berlin, but the no man's land of the Wall. Behind you is Tiergarten, which used to be West Berlin.
Genau so war's
Willa's little "over da!" made me laugh so much, it's so cute to see how her head is starting to work in both languages :)
0:17 I remember when Pariser Platz was a void where nobody was allowed to enter.
I can highly recommend a Berlin Underground Tour for your next visit. They are either WW2-themed or Cold War-themed and offered in all different languages, too. The WW2 tours bring you through the bunkers where the people lived during the end stages of the war while the Cold War ones bring you past tunnels people dug to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. Very moving to see either.
That is such a good recommendation! Thank you!
@@OurStorytoTell I second this one...pretty much every tour they do is great. I mean, I thought I knew everything about flights from the GRD after years of documentaries about the various attempts, but they managed to approach the subject from yet a different angle which made it so much more real.
@@OurStorytoTell 1.16 min Did you know the correct translation for Bundestag is "loony bin"? Now you have learned something again. 😉
Tempelhof field is the former airport of Berlin (THF), not only during Nazi reign and WW2. It later was the airport in the American sector, famous for the candy bombers during the eastern campaign to block the western city for about one year. Berlin's biggest airport at that time was built within a few months also for that reason at Tegel, to get supplies into West Berlin. There even was a third airport inside the town at Gatow, so that every sector of the Western allied forces had their own airport (the fourth Berlin airport was in the east just outside town at Schönefeld, where in the 2000s today's new Berlin airport BER was built). All of the four old airports were closed for different reasons and at different times. THF has been closed mid 2000s.
There was also until 1952 the Johannisthal Air Field (Flugplatz Johannisthal) in East Berlin's Adlershof neighborhood (in today's Treptow-Köpenick borough). Opened in 1909, it was Berlin's primary airport until the opening of Tempelhof in the 1920s, the first commercial airfield in Germany, and known as the birthplace of heavier-than-air flight in Germany. Numerous aviation pioneers operated workshops there, such as Anthony Fokker and Germany's first female pilot Amelie Beese.
from 1722 to WW1, the area was used for military purposes (parades, drills, etc).
in 1881 even the Hawaiian king Kalākaua was guest of a parade :-)
starting 1922 the airfield was built, and used until decided to be obsolete when BER was planned.
during the last years (and also just a few weeks ago), the Formel E car race took place on that area.
@@berlindude75Thanks! Used to live in Engelhardtstr. in the 80's. Engelhardt was an early pilot who got killed in a crash in 1911. Sad to see the very sorry state of the few remaining industrial buildings of the former airfield and surrounding aircraft industry.
Das wissen wir,alle....mensch meier....all of this we know.. mude mit der nazi.zeit. mude mude mude....wir leben heute....
11:33 This is where they filmed a part of "In 80 days around the world" with Jackie Chan.
Danke!
Vielen Dank, Howie!
@@OurStorytoTell Its my pleasure
Lovely, you finally made it Berlin, that's a great video. And again Willa is rocking the show😊
Oh, you went to my favourite bookstore in Berlin! I always went there when I was in Berlin when I was younger.
The Berlin Wall was built, was operational and has fallen all in my lifetime. Incredible to think how it divided a city in such modern times. I have a cousin who was in the British Army in Berlin when the wall came down, but I didn't find this out until 2020 when I went there and met him by chance. Im booked to go back for a week in 3 months time and can't wait.....
It really is such an interesting thought! Enjoy your time! We are happy you get to make a visit 😊
I am 58 and I was born in Southern California. My mom was born in 1938 in Berlin and I have dual citizenship. I spent nearly every summer in Berlin my grandparents home was in Schlachtensee. I have most of my family in Schlachtensee. I never imagined the wall coming down it was normal for me going to West Berlin as a child. Most Americans are so oblivious to the rest of the world. I’m so glad you made it to Berlin
Thanks for sharing!! We are late responding but we enjoyed reading this. What an interesting experience it must have been to experience both. Cool you have dual citizenship! We wish! 😊
@@OurStorytoTell the famous, lux hotel in Berlin by the Brandenburger thor was a family driven hotel starting early 1900. For many generations. It has been made into a german TV serie with all it s history before and during the war. Lots of drama and romance and tradegy. True story. Forgot the name 😊loved it.
@@OurStorytoTell hotel Adlon😊
Yes Americans are. What their media and system made them. Not their fault......praise God for u tube to hear us all.....amen
Such a fun video, I always like seeing the city I live in from a different perspective! And wow, you really did a LOT in such a short amount of time, no wonder your feet hurt a bit after day one :-)) Looking forward to seeing your food adventures!
Wow respect one of the best videos of Berlin in English I've seen so far. I will show your video to my international friends to get an impression of Berlin. Thanks for that!
Nice video! Just to let you know because I saw it in your video and didn´t know it myself before: Of course you only want the best for your baby and this is why I hope my comment finds you well without being offensive. Children under 1 year should never (!) ever be exposed to direct sunlight as the risk of skin cancer gets elevated by around 50% with that. Please consider rethinking how you protect your children from the UV-radiation - especially the little one. You can always check the UX-index in your weather app and as it reaches UV-index 3 you should always use proper protection like a good sunhat with uv-protection.
Loved to see you guys exploring Berlin, the place my grandparents were and also my dad was born. It is such a diverse place. So many cultures, so much history, so many different places to be entertained (and fed 😉). Hope, you have enjoyed your trip. Lots of love to you! ❤️
Great video! I just discovered your channel and have loved following your family's adventures. I’m a new subscriber! Tanner, I noticed you mentioned living in Belize and working in public health-I’m originally from Belize and also a public health professional, now in Taiwan (living here for 4 years) . I hope your family is enjoying your time in Asia! Take care!
Hey!! So happy to have you here! 🤍 Your story is really cool! Before we had kids, we made it to Belize together and that’s where Risa fell in love with the country too!
It’s awesome to hear you live in Taiwan! You’ll definitely have to check our Taiwan videos out! Where in Taiwan do you live?
I remember visiting West Berlin as a little kid (early 80's). I wasn't old enough to go on the tour to East Berlin, but I remember getting to go on a tour of the Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. And I remember visiting Tempelhof though I don't remember it being an active airfield at the time. My other memory of the trip was our family took the Duty Train overnight from Frankfurt to Berlin and we stopped somewhere along the way and remember sneaking a peak out of the train car window at the Soviet Soldiers standing guard on the train.
Thank you!!!! As a German I ve never been to Berlin. Now I became interested in visiting!
Es wird Zeit,sie werden es nicht bereuen
I was fortunate enough to visit Leipzig back in 1997ish. It was still like night and day from the lovely Swäbia my husband’s family was from and where I would move. A few years later, we had befriended a couple who had moved from the East in our birthing class. The stories they told were so interesting.
And nowadays Leipzig is possibly the most booming city in Germany, its crazy. Also one of the largest already.
I can remcommend the Deutsche Bahn building next to the Potsdamer Platz where you can go to the viewing terrace on top to have a nice view of the city center.
Glad you visited my home town 🥰 can’t wait to see the next video
1:11 the U5 line from Alexanderplatz to Brandenburger Tor was built just recently - may have something to do with the stations still looking clean......
Some others are up to 100 years old, and sometimes not renovated for decades
the oldest line was built in 1904, thus almost 120 years ago.
You can actually smell the age of the station.
In 2007 I could just walk up the stairs of the Rechstag, without any appointment, get in and get on the roof. No bars, security only when necessray. Berlin was way more relaxed back then.
i guess that the bomb attack on the weihnachtsmarkt in 2016 had something to do with that.
Glad you got a big sponsor! You guys are heading in the right direction. I always enjoy your videos . How far away is your home from Berlin ?
1:10: This is so nice because it is completely new. It was opened in 2009.
Berlin was my first trip outside of the USA I was 19 it was in 2007. I didn't get to see all of this stuff but the road you mentioned for the parade I walked it all the way up to the Reichstag Haus when it was October and the leaves were changing and it was so beautiful. Things definitely have changed from what I see in the video. When I went inside ke de we it wasn't that big or full yet it was mostly empty. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the wall or the east side of Berlin but maybe someday I can go back and do that. From the Reichstag we walked to the Sony center and they had a lego museum or whatever that had a big giraffe made out of legos outside. Too bad the place I tried this really good doner is no longer there it was near the kaiser church on other side of the bridge in your video when primark was behind you. I honestly loved Berlin and have wanted to go back again ever since. Like you said even though its such a huge city there's so much greenery available with parks everywhere and that's what I love to find in cities
Ye, one wouldnt imagine that New York central park gets dwarfed by all the parks in berlin
my dad was born in former east germany. He somehow managed to leave before the wall was build. I remember very well the strange feeling we had when we crossed the border to visit my grandparents and other relatives. I can confirm that we got a lot of looks with our western vehicle. I also can confirm that it was a hazzle to buy a car. first of all only 2 type of cars were available. Trabant & Wartburg. Maybe also a Lada, not sure on that one. So when a child was born, the parents buy a car just to receive it 15 years later. this was a common practice.
In addition to the Trabant (Trabi) from Zwickau in Saxony, the Wartburg from Eisenach in Thuringia and the Lada from the USSR, there was also the Moskvitch, which was also manufactured in the USSR. And Skoda from the former Czechoslovakia also existed. From today's perspective, it's unbelievable that you had to wait 15 years for a new car, but it was really like that back then.
@@OidaDreXack i didnt know about lada and moskvitch..thanks for adding it
There were a couple of more brands you could buy. If you dont know it 100% dont write it in a commentary please. Because other people will believe it. Trabant, Wartburg, Lada, Skoda, Dacia, Polski Fiat, Saporoshez, Moskwitsch, Wolga, Barkas. Es gab sogar einige Westwagen in sehr kleinen Stückzahlen und zu hohen Preisen zu kaufen. VW Golf, Volvo, Citroen, Mazda, VW Bus
@@goodtf1 Du Brain, dann erzähl doch auch was du über Barkas und so weiter weißt! Ich bin im Osten geboren und einen Mazda gab es vielleicht in Ost Berlin! In Thüringen sind die zumindest nicht gewesen!
@@OidaDreXack ich bin auch im Osten geboren. Und bei uns im damaligen Bezirk Rostock gab es einige Westwagen. Konnte man aber auch an einer Hand abzählen.
Thumps up for Willa and her "over da"! 😂 That's gotta be the cutest "Denglisch" expression I've ever heard! ❤
It’s so fun to hear her speak Denglish!
I was only able to spend one day in Berlin on a trip a few years ago. What struck me (as a human being and a former teacher of history) was the way modern Berliners have chosen not to hide the tragedies of their past, namely the Holocaust and Soviet occupation which resulted in the division of their city, but to have open memorials throughout the city (e.g., the Holocaust Memorial, memorial plaques throughout the city marking embarkment places for the shipment of the Jews to the camps, the remains of a bombed out church, the lines of bricks embedded in the streets & sidewalks marking the existence of The Wall, the TV tower, museums showing the work of the Stasi, and more) so that these horrors remain fresh in our mind. I love looking at old buildings and I'll never forget walking by the facade of a train station on our walk towards Potsdamerplatz. On my way back I wanted to get a picture of that beautiful facade, but then was stopped dead in my tracks when I then noticed the signage listing the over one hundred convoy dates and the number of souls for each date that were transported from that train station to Theresienstadt. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the station, only the sign.
Such a great observation! Thanks for pointing that out. We are always impressed with how most Germans face their country’s history! It’s admirable for sure!
The video fits well because I will be going to Berlin for the first time at the end of the year. I am extremely interested in medicine and am a big fan of the Charite I saw in the video at 8:17 min. The Charite is the best hospital in Europe. They're working on the medicine of the future there, and a lot of things won't exist elsewhere for 10 years, and some of it sounds like science fiction there. Thanks to my insider knowledge, I know how good they are there and that's why I'm going to have an operation there at the end of the year.
So for me personally, the best thing about Berlin is the Charite (haha im a weirdo).
Dr. Carmen Scheibenbogen at Charité and her Team saved my life :)
@@mariah.2024 Im Happy for you 😀.
You Guys should take a Rivercruise on the Rhein from Cologne to Koblenz and Bingen
Its beautiful
So well edited and fun to watch. :)
Thanks so much for watching!
East Germany, under the Communists, used to discourage religion so it was always considered extremely ironic that when the sun shone on the ball at the top of the TV tower, standing in East Berlin, it reflected as a giant cross.
The Berliners called this "the vengance of God".
Great video as always. you guys are very talented in making videos. Was the currywurst the east version or the west version?
Rembember how and when the wall fell in late 1989, cause my son was born that year. It came so suddenly on the news. We were just SHOCKED and so surprise. I was in my mid 29s just like you with 2 kids
I can highly recommend to meet Berlin by a boat trip, especially the "Brückenfahrt" ("Bridge Cruise"). You'll pass many remarkable places and building within 3.5 hours with an audio guide in English, gastronomy on board and much rest for your feet 🙂
That does sound like a great way to see the city 😊
Yes for sure. These boat trips are the best, i recommend it to everyone. In summer time the real beauty of the city and the surrounding areas come to shine. Depends on the tour, but visit the lakes and forest inside Berlin are super relaxing and fun. Nice contrast to the busy areas in the rest of the city.
the U5 is the newest Ubahn line, it only opened a couple of years ago, 2018 i think. And it goes right through the city centre. You bet the stations are pretty dope.
The U5 is much older than that, but the extension taking it from Alexanderplatz through to the main station (hbf) only opened around 2021-2022. The older stations look really old but the new ones, like Unter den Linden, are spectacularly modern
That‘s wrong. When you stand on the Pariser Platz (Brandenburger Tor, Hotel Adlon, US-Embassy) you are on the formerly East Side of Berlin. When you pass the Brandenburger Tor in direction to the Reichstag you enter the west. There is a line of cobblestones to mark the border between East and West.
If you not sure of which side the City you are, then look to the traffic lights for pedestrians. Mostly only in the East you can see the famous Ampelmännchen.
U5 stations you saw were clean, because they just opened not long ago.
You were on the east side, crossing over to the west side at Brandenburg gate not the other way around 😅
Thanks for clarifying!!
I haven't been back to Berlin since I left Germany in 1982. Modern Berlin looks completely different and nowadays very sophisticated. In the 1970s while I lived and worked in Cologne my late sister lived in West Berlin with her German medical student boyfriend and they later got married and had two kids. The Berlin Wall was ominous everywhere and took unexpected sharp turns to reflect the boundaries between West and East. On the Western side there were viewing platforms from which you could see over the Wall and gaze at the houses on the Eastern side. East Berlin looked entirely dilapidated. Even to get to West Berlin by road you had to drive along the East German Transit Corridor from Helmstedt for about 170km without stopping, except for fuel. The East German side had watchtowers and heavily armed border guards at the border crossings. It was a pretty frightening experience, taking one right back to World War 2. After reunification (former) West Germany spent upwards of 2 trillion euros between 1990 and 2014 on rebuilding East Germany from the ground up. New motorways, completely new telephone network, huge infrastructure developments. And still for a number of years there were many East Germans, the so-called Ossis, who bitterly regretted the loss of their state and rejected capitalism. RUclips has many videos about the times before and after the Wall fell. The original border between East and West Germany was 1400km in length and actually stretched from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia. This strip of mined and heavily controlled land has since been made safe and turned into a nature reserve and one can hike along it all the way, taking 24 days in one case, but usually around 100 days. See www.bund.net/gruenes-band/
Been there done that. My beloved home town. Ick bin ein Berliner......regardlessxwhst endless Hollywood films etc fascination of Americans. They won. Write....harsh bad language. Nazis...bombarded. ugly rebuild East west.....my home town....look at G aza today.....god help us....
Hey guys, great video!
Just one little correction: In front of Brandenburg Gate you wer standing on the East Side. The park side is the West ;)
Nice one! Berlin is pretty cool, been there myself before. I was a little kid when "the wall fell", and i remember that we were at a birthday party of a friend of my mom. Even as a kid, i had seen the developments the days before, and because i was sure we're all gonna sing along to the national anthem at some point, i wrote the lyrics down on a piece of paper. To my surprise, while the TV was on and i was glued to the screen, feeling a sense of joy at us becoming one country again, the adults only cared about the birthday celebrations...
12:40 About walking for a long time: I have found that it is crucial to have shoes which provide a good cushioning/rebound effect. Avoid shoes with hard soles at all costs. The best cushioning IMO is provided by Adidas Ultraboost shoes. I'm sure there are others from Nike and Reebok etc. which can achieve something similar, i'm just mentioning the ones i use. These will make you last much longer on your feet without any aches, i found.
One of my daughter in laws is from Berlin. We still not been able to visit this city yet
But i hope we can later on in the year or at least next year .
Looks amazing 😻 thank you for sharing. Have a Good week 🥰
Over da! 😊
As a student i worked in the Reichstag. Only 1 Meter behind the Building began the forbidden Zone of the GDR-Frontier-Zone. This was so surreal!
3:45 - As can be seen on the map, the directions are just the opposite of what was told ...
the "Pariser Platz", the Brandenburg gate itself and the Adlon belonged to that forbidden zone in the east, while the Reichtag building (that is still the name of the building although it now houses the Bundestag) and the big park that can be seen in the background (through the Brandenburg gate) are in former west berlin.
and yes, it sometimes was surreal, but when you lived there all your life, it simply was what you were used to. and meeting with friends on the meadow in front of the Reichtag (before 1989) to hang out and play Fußball was quite normal.
Dussmann 😍😍😍 my favorite shop in Berlin
Never judge a country by its capital. London is quite outstanding in the UK, Dublin is the only major town in an otherwise rather rural (and very beautiful) Ireland, Washington DC does not encapsulate what life is like elsewhere in the US (as you very well know, I am aware of that), Paris is nothing like rural France or mediterranean France ... Berlin is unique in Germany. The biggest town of Germany, the most mixed up one culture wise (for which it is reknown and very loved), right now I think it is only more expensive to rent in Munich than in Berlin ... The only thing Berlin really represents for Germany is - how varied Germany is. Not in the regions themselves, but there are so many different regions of Germany which are very varied - and all of that plus a huge influence from other countries is showing up in Berlin.
Or its largest city, if not the capital, eg. New York.
"right now I think it is only more expensive to rent in Munich than in Berlin ..."
Reading this basically shows everything that went wrong. Because Munich has always been ridiculously overpriced in rent. Berlin used to have the cheapest rents ever imaginable, just 15 years ago.
"The biggest town of Germany, the most mixed up one culture wise (for which it is reknown and very loved), "... But also hated and feared.
@goodtf1 Depends on how you define „mixed up culture wise“. For example, Berlin is not the city in Germany with the largest share of immigrants. And it is also more German in the outer districts than in the city center, which is crowded by people who just moved to Berlin.
I'm really happy to finally see you in my hometown Berlin, the city is really something different than the rest of Germany, it has its own charm. If you want to taste different foods from different countries and cultures, then Berlin is the right city for you. You would definitely like my old quarter, where I grew up, Prenzlauer Berg with Schönhauser Allee, Kastanienallee, Oderberger Straße and Weinbergsweg up to Oranienburger Straße with the large synagogue. In case you haven't seen this yet..
Have you tried the Brammibal's Donuts?street food highlight is the Markthalle 9 in Kreuzberg on every Thursday evening. The Prater Biergarten is nice in the evening as well, located in the Kastanienallee in Prenzlauer Berg, close to the underground station Eberswalder Straße.
Thanks for watching! We are excited for you to see our next videos about Berlin! We definitely tried the donut shop 😋😋
Tanner: you said it wouldn‘t seem so long ago that the wall was around Berlin? It‘s more than 30 years ago, that‘s longer than the wall was even standing.
Yet I can still remember the feeling during the 1980ies that it'll take decades until it could possibly disappear. The last quarters of 1989 and the year 1990 felt incredibly unreal and crazy.
@@michaelburggraf2822 I know, I was there, living in Potsdam, being 20.
Cudos for doing this with two little kids!
Next time you go to Berlin you might want to consider taking cargo bikes to get around with the kids. Bikes are the best way to get a comprehensive overview of Berlin.
Since you seem to like the nicknames Berliners have for their attractions, like "Gold-Else", the one for the TV Tower is "Tele-Spargel". 😊
The "Bundeskanzleramt", seen here at 16:24 in the background (about 11 o'clock) is called the "Bundeswaschmaschine" (Federal Washing Mashine). 😮
Did your friends live in East Berlin or West Berlin? This would make a huge difference and they would tell you very different stories about the times when the Wall was still standing ...
Next time, I'd recommend to also visit the Mauermuseum other museums to dive a bit deeper into history. It's really impressive to hear about all those stories and to imagine what it must have been like (I only remember a tiny bit, as I was a child when the Wall fell, but I've heard so many stories that it's very real to me)
6:59- Nice that Miss Willa perked up seeing the 'Berlin Bear' in the park! This is as good a time as any to teach her that the name of the city of Berlin itself means 'little bear' in German and the city uses a picture of a black bear on its back feet as its symbol! FWIW, the symbol of Madrid, Spain is another little bear shown starting to climb a strawberry tree (!). Great that all four of you had such fun in Berlin and that Miss Noa seems to be starting to follow her big sis's footsteps getting comfortable traveling! Thanks for sharing this with us!
Although "Bärlein" means "little bear" and its symbol is a bear, this is not the original meaning of the name. the town was founded on swampy grounds and thus (using the old words) it would rather mean something like "swamp settlement".
@@Anson_AKB Thanks for the correction. However, I think a little bear would have been more appealing to have encountered than a 'swamp settlement' so I'm not surprised the inhabitants opted to go for having their town name matching the Little Dipper (ursa minor) in the sky!
@@wardarcade7452 yes, a cute little bear is much nicer to look at, and having an association of the name with bears as the symbol of the city is neither bad nor wrong.
it simply shouldn't be taught as a certain "alternative fact" for the original meaning of the name, which originates from the slavic tribes that lived northeast of the Elbe/Saale line.
from Wikipedia: _"The name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of today's Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl- ("swamp") or Proto-Slavic bьrlogъ, (lair, den). Since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär ("bear"), a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore an example of canting arms."_ ... and thus with some remaining uncertainty (but very very improbable), someone might even argue in favor of a "bear's cave" :-)
@@Anson_AKB Note, that I didn't say that that was the ORIGINAL meaning- just that the name means 'little bear' in German- the official language of the current administrators of the municipality that has been the capital of the nation of the reunited Germany since 1990 !
@@wardarcade7452 Berlin with "E", and Bärlein with "Ä" (or if you don't have an ä on your keyboard, "ae" instead).
thus two different words and not the meaning, neither old nor new, but only looking similar and thus being used as symbol.
btw: on "Bärlein" and english "Berlin", the first syllable is stressed, on german "Berlin" the second (and "i" is longer like english "ee or "lean"").
just let's keep the similarity a nice coincidence (without origin or real meaning), leading to a nicer picture/icon.
KaDeWe has a splendid food section
Berlin is unique/different in every way.
When you recapped the getting a car, I recalled our friends from Halle ordering a car for their daughter back in GDR times when she was born in 1963. Yepp, they received it almost on point six days after her 18th birthday.😮😂 She was so proud of her most basic Trabbi.
Btw: I want to condense and extract your genome to preserve it for the future. Your two little ones definitely have the ultimate cuteness gene. ❤ Willa and Noah just make me smile. 😊😊😊
the same also applied to phone lines. an aunt who needed a phone for her job finally got it 15-20 years later, when she was no longer working.
@@Anson_AKB In rural areas, we didn't have phones until the mid-90s.
@@roesi1985 my aunt got it after 15-20 years at the end of the 80s ... in Berlin(east)
thus i am not surprised that it took another 5+ years to catch up also in rural areas.
I ordered a car in East Germany at the earliest possible age of 18 and had to wait 16 years to get a new car! You could drive a newly bought car for 8 or 10 years and sell it for more than the new price!
16:12 Berlin is 9 times bigger then Paris and has more bridges than Venice. In the 1980s you could still see bullet holes from WW2 on some buildings in Berlin, I don't know what it's like today.
20:52 _She Moves Far Away Alle Farben feat Graham Candy_ ruclips.net/video/5WL96Z_dYIE/видео.html at abandoned Airport Tempelhof Berlin.
In most big cities in Germany you can take the bus line nr 100 to see the main Attractions and sightseeing spots. It’s normaly a circle line and a cheap way to go around
I was ready to write "You weren't in Berlin if you haven't tried Berliner Currywurst, Döner and Pfannkuchen!". Luckily I stayed to the very end.😊
Yes ist quite different to meet Berlin with some locals than just the touri way. They did a good job.
If you ever get to Berlin again, consider visiting Schloss Charlottenburg or even Sanssouci. They are really pretty and not too big castles.
Stay tuned because we visit Sanssouci in Potsdam in a future video 😊
@@OurStorytoTell Oh that's nice! I do not know if Willa is a fan of princesses or not, but I at least got a very princess-y feeling walking through the rooms there. I will definitely check that video out.
@OurStorytoTell I also live in Berlin and am a Potsdam fan, also visit Park Babelsberg and the New Garden both beyond the Glienicke Bridge and both parks are World Heritage Sites. You will certainly not regret it, located on the Havel, in nice weather really cool.
I call Berlin my home for some 17 years and living most of my life in Bonn before it’s a huge difference. Though Bonn is not country side and was very international back in the day as West German capital. The big plus of Berlin is its diversity. It’s very heterogeneous. Instead of the expensive hopp on bus taking the bus 100 passes all the major tourist attractions but with a baby stroller bus is inconvenient. I kind of think that you stood on the east side of Brandenburg Gate and behind you in the back was West Berlin Tiergarten. Nikolaiviertel is not really old but restored in a historized way but not accurate. It was rebuilt from GDR government. So basically Berlin got two city centers east around Alex/Unter den Linden/Friedrichstraße and West with Kurfürstendamm/Tauentzien/Breitscheidtplatz. Food is a super plus in the city. The variety is endless. I adore Vietamese and Israel cuisine.. but was recently in Georgian restaurant and it was splendid. Enjoy
The diversity is amazing in Berlin!!
Yep Berlin ist immer eine Reise wert. Even after living in Berlin that long I do not know many places museums etc. and there is a lot of change going on constantly. And I love going to the Baltic coast, so in that respect Berlin is a perfect place. It only takes two hours for instance to go to the polish coast by car.
I recommend: always take a local to guide your tour - regadless where ever you go
Tempelhof was Berlin Airport from the 20s up to around 2007 or 8
It's a little bit frustrating tourists are made to believe the cute traffic light figures are a (east-) Berlin thing. They are an east Germany thing! They are literally everywhere in east Germany! 😊
I tell that everyone, too! These were just the normal traffic lights in the east, and often still are.
i am sure many germans would know that, but how would an american or any other foreigner know that?
@@uliwehner my point exactly. They just assume, cause they don't know any better and nobody bothers explaining things...
It's crazy how people react to the Berlin wall. But most seem to forget that there was a wall from the baltic sea to the czech border, too. At some places it was just a fence, but it also had the death strips.
And they also think the Berlin wall was always so colorful like it is now for example at the east side galery. But of course it wasnt. From the east side it was a pure blank white wall. And at this time you shouldnt get even close to it.
Charlottenburg Palace is also beautiful
I was born there in 70. Berlin with sunshine is unbeatable. Even like it more than Hamburg or Munich. Very unique city culture; glad you had a local who advised you 😊
You can live in Berlin for 30 years and still find ever new places and especially architectural developments...
Your guides might mixed up the area at the Brandenburger Tor. The Quadriga is facing to East-Berlin.... a little help to remember that -> the West Berliners were only able to the the a**es of the horses back then. ;)
Haha we won’t forget that now 😂😂 and I’m sure it was just us mixing it up, not the guides!
Kondrauer sparkling water from the area you live, that's my advice for you. 😊
nice video, it´s always enjoyable to see your journey ^-^ I don´t want to be annoying but I would recommend you to give little noah a hat against the sun
Love your videos 🙂... quick technical note: if you'd use 60 or 30 fps instead of 24 it would look much smoother and nicer 🎬 👍
Guys it’s great to see you visit Berlin. Your videos are fun and you are such a beautiful family. But I got the feeling (a little bit) you misunderstood a few things. Some of the things you said were also wrong or (rather) lacking details to such an extent that I felt like you missed a little bit of some of the crucial understanding of history to understand Berlin. Large parts of Berlin are still very much under construction. The West is where you should start your exploration, because you come from the West and you will feel right at home. West Berlin looks and feels like West Germany, because it was. It’s not “wealth”, primarily it’s a different culture. From there you should slowly make your way east and then with purpose and acknowledging the historical significance enter the former GDR in the East. For this to really hit home I would recommend watching a documentary on the wall and the GDR before you visit Berlin. You casually mentioned the wall near the Brandenburg gate following a strange uneven line. But you did not seem to have any knowledge of the fact that this line, where you were walking, used to be absolute no-man’s-land and completely inaccessible. All this modern hustle and bustle surrounding the Brandenburg gate was vacant, killzone, governed by the East German government’s secret service and police. I could go on, especially regarding the use of and importance of Tempelhof, but nobody cares. Just saying what you saw was 99% East Berlin. East Berlin is highly unusual in its historical trajectory. West Berlin is what Berlin would be like, had there never been any split/ communist rule in the east. So with that in mind one should visit Berlin from West to East and pay close attention to explanations of historical architectural differences, which will clearly show which buildings are historical reconstructions from a pre-Nazi time, specific pre-war Nazi architecture, typical GDR ready-made block construction and finally newer projects, which came into being after the reunification. Having acquired this knowledge one can understand what one is looking at when walking through Berlin.
Berlin is still my favorite European city. Hi from Bali.
Nice video. Berlin is such an eclectic city! Your kids are so cute! You guys are blessed :)
Berlin breathes history.
Currywurst was invented in post-war Berlin when an inventive Schnellimbiss owner matched bratwurst with a curry sauce, curry having been introduced by British soldiers who occupied the city. Not only did currywurst prove popular with the soldiers, but the German population at large and the rest is history.
Great video, as a Russian-German, I've been to Berlin last in 2017 at the yearly pro-life rally, which is attended regularly by people from my church!
Please note, that unlike in the USA and France, the German President has only ceremonial, representative roles.
Love your channel!
Not quite true...the German president is also our last safeguard of democracy. He can stop laws from being implemented for example. Technically he stands above the chancellor, even though the chancellor naturally has more every day sway.
@@swanpride Thank You! I am German, and was in no way aware of that!
@@michaelwiebe4282 Yeah, I didn't realise it either until fairly recently, but the ranking is actually Bundespräsident, Bundestagspräsident and then the Chancellor is ranked third. There are a number of checks and balances in our system.
Finally! Berlin is my favorite German city! 🙂Looking forward to watch more Berlin experiances of you!
Hey thank you!! We hope you enjoy them ☺️
Thank you for showing me Berlin. I lived 23 years in Germany, but I never made it to Berlin.
Thanks for watching! We are happy you could explore the city now 😉
Some visitors are more focused on seeing urban areas, others appear more appreciative of natural areas. When I visit Germany, I will leave Berlin for others to see, and I will gravitate to the German Alps region.
We totally understand that! We gravitate towards the nature areas too, but it is definitely fun to see the cities too!
2:30 you should use another app for information. The Reichstag was not used for the Bundestag before 1999. 1989 was before the reunification.
I very much appreciate your vision of Berlin. I see that you are not only intrigued by the touristy sights of Berlin but much beyond. As a Berliner who used to live and grew up in the Western part of the divided city, there are so many places I could show you, so much I could explain to you especially on what it was like to live in a divided city (of course from the perspective of West-Berliner, part of the excitement is that East-Berliners' accounts would be entirely different) that we'd bssically completely avoid the most touristy city centre - as almost every Berliner does. Berlin is for us everything else that is there to discover in the places we live and work and spend our free time. This is where you get the most authentic vibes of Berlin. I used to live ten minutes away from the Berlin wall that was a street called Bouchéstrasse, which was one of the most peculiar places at the wall being a really narrow street with a wall on either side and such a narrow noman's land in between that the houses on the Eastern side almost touched the Eastern inland wall. It was one of the very few places where you could find houses on opposite another. Almost everywhere the houses on the Eastern side were torn down for being too near the border. It was mostly deserted land with derelict factories abandoned by force. This was quite a unique stretch of the Berlin wall. Nowadays it's impossible to imagine that there was a wall dividing s narrow residential street.
Berliner Unterwelten at U-Gesundbrunnen carries out interesting underground excursions to discover underground bunkers, discarded underground lines, escape tunnels or at least explanations on that.
Go round the quarters of Berlin street life in Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, Schöneberg, Wedding, Charlottenburg, Neukölln or Friedrichshain. There's a lot to discover. Or just take the Ringbahn, go to Tempelhof airport, Mauerpark, Park am Gleisdreieck or for astroll through the Tiergarten or the lakes and forests in our near Berlin.
My son and I were in Berlin inJune od 2022. We were there for 10 days and saw a lot. I can't believe what you did in 2 days. It made me tired watching.
Berlin, besides from being Germany's biggest city, naturally has more history due to having been Germany's capital on and off. What I like about it is the 'whole wide world flair'. You can actually meet people from all over the world, not only tourists but also young people from all over the world working and temporarely living in Berlin. Also, as you mentioned as well, Berlin had lot's of parks and lakes and convenient public transportation. Berlin is also famous for it's street food due to the fact that Döner as well as Currywurst were founded/sold there for the first time.
Berlin was always capital city. When Germany was divided it was still capital from east Germany.
@@goodtf1 part of it, at least
Berlin is great to visit, there is just an enormous amount of things to see and experience. Living there however is a totally different thing, it's not for everyone. I lived there for 2 years and I hated it.
It's much too expensive
Capitalist Torture
did you experience that the people in the south are more friendly?
Hey use computers in berlin ? At least they dont work so the image is save
Berlin is famous for malfunction . I dont live there. So no problem
It just might appear as a barbeque but it's actually our Internet 🤣
Hope you could also eat some more International food 😄
@ LOCAL TOUR GUIDES
Berlin is not Germany. Berlin is Berlin 😂
I say the same about NYC!
This is bull.... that is only an excuse to.make my hometown even uglier....itblooked better after the war....who are the people right now ruining our city asnd calling it art. It's a skandal
RUclips needs to put a 'CUTENESS' warning on all your videos ... the girls are just tooooooo adorable!!!
Visiting tourist spots is not equal to knowing a city. And Berlin does not really qualify as something fit to change your view on Germany… Clickbait-title, I know… If you live in a certain place in Bavaria maybe the people in the next village are totally different. They are for sure in the next federal state. Ask a Hesse if he has anything in common with a Bavarian…. So just explore the tourist spots, enjoy the differences the places you visit offer but if the way you think about Germany has changed it means only, that you have just a superficial touristy insight. Like when a German thinks that all american cities are like Las Vegas, all people are like Trump, all Americans carry at least on gun when they leave their houses and your favourite pasttime is Rodeo… 😉
That's a Bretzel
I love Berlin and I don't think the rest of my life is enough to see everything there. 😁😁 😅 But it's always exciting to come to Berlin and immerse myself in this city. 👍 🙋🏼♂️