Modern Berlin
A walk through a new center
A whole new Berlin has sprung up where once the Wall stood. Hardly any other part of Berlin has changed so drastically than the area between Potsdamer Platz and the Central Station.
It is here, at Europe’s largest intersection train station, that our tour of the new center begins. This controversial, scandal-rocked prestige project stands rather lonely on the northern banks of the Spree, as, very sowly, a new urban quarter begins to take shape in its shadow. Just across the way- already visible from the train platform- awaits the Government Quarter, with the new Chancellery and, what Kaiser Wilhelm referred to as the “Reichs monkey house” , the Reichstag.
We’ll tell you why you can peek right on to the Chancellor’s balcony from the Swiss Embassy even though everybody else has to peer behind security fences. Of course our tour includes a stroll through the Brandenburg Gate – the symbol both of Germany’s division and its unity. The site of Hitler’s self aggrandizing head-quarters, the Reichskanzlei, with the infamous “Führer Bunker”, is now strewn with the ubiquitous prefabricated apartment blocks as well as the gray granite maze of stones that form the Holocaust Memorial. Our tour ends at the Potsdamer Platz, once home to the world’s first traffic light, the Wall and Europe’s largest construction site, now a world of glittering steel and glass. This is where companies like Sony and Daimler have created monuments to themselves out of sky-scrapers.
In around 2 hours you’ll discover plenty of interesting and entertaining things about a part of town with a dynamic and sometimes curios history, as well as an exciting present.
Next dates and booking for “Modern Berlin Tour”
Follow your own schedule and take Modern Berlin Tour as a private tour with your own berlin-on-bike-guide.
How to find Berlin on Bike
All of our tours begin at the “Kulturbrauerei” in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district. The painstakingly restored brewery complex is the ideal place to test out your bike before the tour. A variety of restaurants and beer gardens just around the corner offer the perfect way to relax and reflect after a fabulous tour. The easiest way to enter the brewery is on the Knaackstraße 97, just beyond the intersection with the Danziger Straße . After that you just follow the yellow “Berlin on Bike” signs.Directions from Eberswalder Straße metro station
- take the exit marked:”Danziger Straße”
- head toward the street that leads away from the elevated train tracks to the left. Cross over to the right hand side of the street.
- after 150 meters you’ll reach the Knaackstraße, turn right. After 30 meters turn left through a large archway.
- follow the yellow “Berlin on Bike” signs
