2. Berlin: Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Live Commentary
Explore Berlin's top sights on a convenient hop-on hop-off bus ticket. Listen to facinating stories about the city with live commentary. Have the freedom to jump on or off throughout the validity of your ticket. Visit top areas like Tiergarten, Gendarmenmarkt, and Potsdamer.
If, for example, you start your tour at Kurfürstendamm, you will pass the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and reach KaDeWe, one of Europe’s largest shopping centers, through Tauentzienstraße. Next you continue on to Lützowplatz and the embassy district at the Tiergarten and over to the Philarmonic and the West Berlin Kulturforum.
The next stop is the historically significant Potsdamer Platz. In the 1930s, it was one of the most public squares in Berlin. After the Second World War, this was no man’s land, where the Berlin Wall divided the city. Today, seeing the vibrant life and the newly erected towers reminiscent of New York’s urban canyons, you will hardly believe that for years there was nothing here other than the Berlin Wall, spring-guns and GDR soldiers. Also, the Legoland Discovery Center is on Potsdamer Platz.
From there, continue to Berlin’s other important historical sites. In the Niederkirchner Straße you can find the city parliament, the Martin-Gropius-Bau, a museum with changing exhibitions, the Topography of Terror, which exhibits the history of the Nazis and of the Jews’ suffering under the Nazis, as well as the Ministry of Finance, which was once the Nazi Ministry of Aviation.
From there you drive on to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the former border crossings between East and West Berlin. A permanent exhibition looks back at the Cold War period.
On Friedrichstraße you come across one of the nicest spots in Berlin, the Gendarmenmarkt, with two similar buildings, the German and French Cathedrals. The Konzerthaus Berlin is in the middle of the square.
After the Gendarmenmarkt it’s on to Alexanderplatz and the TV Tower. The stop for these sights is the Neptune Fountain. This used to be the Berlin City Palace. Here you will also have the opportunity to go shopping.
The next stop is Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, in front of the Radisson Hotel. From here you can transfer on to a boat if you wish to experience Berlin by boat as well as bus. Also, the Aquadom, Sealife Berlin and the Berlin Dungeon are located at this stop, as well as the Berlin Cathedral, which holds the sarcophagi of the Hohenzollern family. From here you can also admire the golden dome of the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Straße. The “Hackeschen Höfe” are only a few minutes away.
Next you'll go over the glamorous street Unter den Linden to the Museum Island, Bebelplatz, Humboldt University and to the stops Unter den Linden 36 (Friedrichstrasse) at ZDF Capital City Studios and Unter den Linden 74, where one of Berlin’s most important attractions is located: Madame Tussauds Berlin.
From here the ride continues to the Brandenburg Gate. On the way you will see the UK, Russia, France and US embassies, followed by the Holocaust Memorial. The stop there is at Platz des 18. März.
The road leads on past the Reichstag and the government district. You will soon reach the new Hauptbahnhof. From here you have the world-famous view of the German Chancellery, the Reichstag and – as a special surprise – Berlin’s “Fujiyama”.
Finally you will cross Berlin’s ‘green lung’, the Tiergarten. This park is bigger than New York’s Central Park. The tour then brings you past the Congress Hall to the stop at Bellevue Palace, the official residence of the President of Germany. From here you can also see the Siegessäule with the golden Victoria statue at the top.
On the way back to Kurfürstendamm you will see, for example, the old Hauptbahnhof of former West Berlin, the Technical University and much more.
The stops:
01 - Kurfürstendamm 231 (in front of Karstadt)
02 - KaDeWe (main entrance)
03 - Lützowplatz (opposite Hotel Berlin)
04 - Philharmonic / Kulturforum
05 - Potsdamer Platz (at Kolhoff-Tower)
06 - Potsdamer Platz / Linkstraße
07 - Topography of Terror
08 - Checkpoint Charlie (at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum)
09 - Gendarmenmarkt, Markgrafen- / Taubenstraße
10 - Alexanderplatz, Red City Hall, Neptunbrunnen (not in service during the Christmas market in December)
11 - Karl-Liebknecht Str. 5, (to the boat)
12 - Museumsinsel
13 - Humboldt University
14 - Unter den Linden 36 / Friedrichstraße
15 - Unter den Linden 74, Madame Tussauds Berlin (out of order)
16 - Brandenburg Gate, Ebertstraße
17 - Reichstag, Scheidemannstr.
18 - Hauptbahnhof, exit Rahel-Hirsch-Straße
19 - Haus der Kulturen der Welt
20 - Bellevue Palace
21 - Bikini Haus, Budapester Straße
22 - U-/S-Bahn station Zoologischer Garten
