GERMANY

After more than a decade of putting itself back together again, Germany continues to improve as a holiday destination. A lot has changed, yet repeat visitors still find the things they always liked and more. Like those who have visited before, you’ll be charmed by its people & its beauty. Germany oozes big-city charm, small picture-postcard towns, wonderful harvest festivals, a wealth of art and culture and the perennial pleasures of huge forests, delightful castles and fine wine and beer. In the south, the Alps attract ski-lovers in winter and hiking enthusiasts in summer. Water-sports are another popular pastime and the country offers terrific facilities for adventures of this kind, be it on a lake, the sea or a river. Discover it better via these pages before you go.

Informative Websites:

http://www.hoteltravel.com/germany/guides/tips.

Visa:  The visa is to be obtained prior to arrival in the country

How to get there:

Air: Main airports are Frankfurt, Munich & Dusseldorf

Train: Intercity (IC) trains connect the country well.

Car: Country is connected with excellent highways

Ferry: Rhine is Main River besides Main, Danube & Mosel. 

Bus: Busses operated by Bahnbus.

Germany has excellent roads. The national network and the motorway network is known as Autobahnen.

Regions in Brief

- Northern Germany’s biggest city is Berlin followed by Hamburg which is the third largest city.

- Bavaria region is the most prosperous with Munich as the capital. Other regions include the Romantic Road, Fussen and the Black Forest region.

- Western Germany famous for its history and ancient cities like Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Cologne.

-Southern Germany’s main city is Munich, the second largest city.

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT:

Currency:

The Euro is now the official currency of 12 EU member states (including Germany). Euro (€) = 100 cents. Notes are in denominations of €500, 200, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5. Coins are in denominations of €2 and 1, and 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 cents.

Currency Exchange Foreign currencies and travelers cheques can be exchanged at banks, bureaux de change, post offices, airports, railway stations, ports and major hotels at the official exchange rates.

Credit and Debit Cards These are accepted in approximately 60 per cent of all shops, petrol stations, restaurants and hotels.

Travelers Cheques generally provide the best rate of exchange. To avoid additional exchange rate charges, travelers are advised to take travelers cheques in Euros, Pounds Sterling or US Currency Restrictions There are no restrictions on the import or export of either local or foreign currency.                                                                                                                         Banking Hours Generally Mon, Tues, Wed and Fri 0830-1300 and 1430-1600, Thurs 0830-1300 and 1430-1800 in main cities. Main branches do not close for lunch.

Climate:

A fine destination year round, most people visit between May and September when sunny skis are most likely and much life moves outdoors. The shoulder season (from March to May and October to early November) bring fewer tourists, lower accommodation prices. In April and May the climate is mild and sunny.

Time:

Germany is 4 hours and 35 minutes behind India.

Clothing:

Bring comfortable shoes, a sweater, clothes you can layer and an all-weather coat. On the cruises, informal dress is the general rule but there may be some occasions were formal dress is required.

Electricity:

Electricity 230 volts AC, 50Hz.

Dialing code:

The country code is: 49
the city code is: 30

Tipping

Germans generally round up €1 when tipping. However, tipping is not practiced as liberally as it is elsewhere. Most Germans only tip in restaurants and bars, or when they are the beneficiary of a service, such as a taxi ride. Note that tips in Germany are not left lying on the table, but handed directly to the server when you pay.

Language:

German is the main language. English is widely spoken      

Events

From pagan harvest romps to black tie opera galas, Germans are keen to party. Winter festivals occur throughout Germany, with big cities such as Cologne, Munich and Mainz erupting into carnival commotion just before Ash Wednesday. Germany's rich musical heritage is showcased in a plethora of festivals. Some towns concentrate on a particular composer, such as the Thuringian Bach Festival in March or the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth each July, whereas others focus on a particular style. The jazz festivals in Frankfurt (March), Stuttgart (April) and Berlin (October) are lively and popular. Autumn is a great time for harvest-inspired mayhem, especially in the Rhineland, where the Rhine in Flames Frolics feature barges laden with fireworks. Mention must be made of Oktoberfest, Munich's annual lager frenzy, but it's a bit like being stuck in a nightmarish soccer crowd and is more an example of tourism at its lowest ebb than a display of German culture. Most towns in Bavaria have festivals devoted to beer and they're much nicer than Oktoberfest. Christmas celebrations are embraced wholeheartedly by German families, most extravagantly in Munich, Nuremberg, Essen and Heidelberg.

Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is the heart of the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region, located in northeastern Germany. With a population of 3.4 million in its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city, and the second most populous city in the European Union. The metropolitan area comprises a population of between 4 and 5 million people, coming from over 180 nations

The eternal city is the seat of the papacy and the capital of the Christian world, and combined with it’s more than 2000 years of history, exquisitely rich artistic and architectural patrimony of Rome can often leave a tourist feeling overwhelmed.

UNESCO Berlin joins Buenos Aires as the only “City of Design” worldwide (UNESCO title awarded January 2006)?First German city to be appointed to the “Creative Cities Network” Honors remarkable social,economic and cultural achievements in the field of design.

Getting Around

Air: Tegel is the busiest airport followed by Tempelhof & Schonefeld .

Train:. Has several high seed train coming into the city. Two main lines are Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten (western zone ) and Berlin Ostbahnhof ( eastern zone )            .

Bus: Has convenient bus connections but are rather slow and comfortable

Taxi: Easily available .

Ferry: F10 , ferry service shuttles between Kladow to Wanness .

City Layout
- The center of activity is west Berlin is Kurfurstendamm , a wide boulevard.

- Schloss Charlottenburg area and its museums is a major sightseeing area .

- Strasse des 17 juni runs through Tiergarten Park and leads to the famous Brandenburg Gate

-  The Brandenburg Gate is the start of eastern Berlin’s most celebrated street Unter den Linden . It runs from west to east , leading to the Museum island .  

Attractions

Brandenburg Gate

The impressive and symbolic Brandenburg Gate that lay forlon for so long in the no man’s land behind the Berlin Wall is now once again renovated and accessible, along with the newly reconstructed Pariser Platz that links the gate to the beautiful Unter den Linden Boulevard.The Brandenburg gate is probably the most well-know landmark in Berlin, it now stands as a symbol of the reunification of the two sides of this great city.  Location: Paiser Platz at Unter de linden

Checkpoint Charlie

The famous border crossing point in the wall dividing West and East Berlin has now become a shrine to the wall’s memory with addition of a museum, Haus Am Checkpoint Charlie.

Location: Friedrichstrasse 43-44, 10969 Berlin
Subway U6 Kochstr., U2 Stadtmitte
open hours: daily 9am - 10am

Eastside Gallery

The remains of the Berlin Wall have now become the largest open-air art gallery in the world. The longest section of the wall, which has been preserved, stretches from Ostbahnhof station to the Oberbaumbrucke, and has been given over to graffiti artists from around the world.

Potsdamer Platz

This vibrant square is the heart and soul of the ‘New Berlin’, which has emerged since the fall of the wall in 1989. Postdamer platz, now boasts and exciting mix of restaurants, as hopping centers, hotel and cinemas. Focus of the square is the 22 storey Debis Haus, designed by Renzo Piano, featuring an atrium with cathedral-like dimensions, and its neighbouring Potsdamer Platz Arkaden, a shopping mall with an Imax cinema.

Reichstag

Berlin's Reichstag is home to the German parliament and became a major tourist attraction after 1999, when Norman Foster's fabulous glass dome on top of the building opened to the public.

Hamburger Bahnhof

This gleaming white museum is one of the best collections of contemporary art in Berlin. The Hamburger Bahnhof is housed in a converted train station. The Hamburger Bahnhof: built in 1845-47 as terminus of the Hamburg to Berlin railway, is sited in Berlin. The original buildings, a combination of late Neo-Classical masonry with the iron skeleton of the platform hall, were closed in 1884. Between 1904 and 1906, the station was converted into a transport and engineering museum.  It houses one of the largest private collections of contemporary art in the world including over 2,000 works of art by around 150 different artists. 

The Zoologischer Garten Berlin (Berlin zoological garden) is one of the biggest zoos in Germany and with the largest number of species of the world. Today the zoo houses approximately 14,000 animals from 1500 species on a 35 hectare site in historical animal houses. Highlights include giant pandas, which can only be seen at a few zoos in the world. All of the animals are housed in enclosures that are specially designed to recreate their natural habitat. The Berlin Zoo is the most visited zoo in Europe with visitors from all over the world. It is open all year long and can easily be reached by public transportation. Visitors can either enter the zoo through the exotically designed Elephant Gate beside the aquarium on Budapester Straße or through the Lion Gate on Hardenbergplatz Child 3 & under are Free of Charge. It is located in Berlin Tiergarten near the S-Bahn and railway station in the city center.

To get there: U-Bahn: Tierpark (U5); Tram: 17, 80; Bus: 294.

 Website: http://www.zoo-berlin.de/

Category .

Aviary, bird museum or exhibit
Castle, chateau, palace
Garden or botanic display
Musical activity or concert hall
Zoo or animal collection

Jewish Museum

If you only visit one museum during your time in Berlin, make it this one. Museum covers some two millennia of German Jewish history and is the largest of its kind in Europe. The main emphasis is on culture, art and science and the 14 different sections cover every major historical period. The Holocaust Tower is the most powerful part of the museum. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, it is place of quiet and stony stillness that subtly conveys the horrors of the past.  This is an unsettling and haunting place and one that you owe it to yourself to visit.

Excursions

Potsdam

One of the best excursions from Berlin is a visit to Potsdam, with its pleasant main shopping street and Dutch Quarter, as well as nearby palaces and gardens of Sanssouci of King Fredrick’ s summer residence. Potsdam is located approximately 20 kms from Berlin city centre and is reachable by S-Bahn S7 or the regional train RE1, both leaving from Bahnhof Zoo.

Spreewald

To the south east of Berlin lies the nature reserve of the Spreewald (Spree Forest). The best place for one to start the tour is from the large harbour in Lubbenau or one of the smaller ones in Lubben or Burg. Spreewald is located 110 kms from Berlin. Regional trains depart from Konigs Wusterhausen in SouthEast Berlin (journey time-40 min) and from Bahnof Zoo (journey time 1 hour 30 min.) and Oustbahnhof (journey time – 1 hour)

Events:

Berlin Love Parade

The Love Parade began life as something of a political movement way back in the summer of '89, and four months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was organised on the initiative of Matthias Roeingh, aka "Dr. Motte", a DJ of the Berlin underground scene who wanted to use the international language of music as a medium for spreading peace and love, and promoting world unity. In his words: "Music knows no boundaries or nationalities."

Carnival of Cultures

The street parade will take place on June 4th from 12.30pm to 9pm, attracting more than 4,000 participants from 70 countries. Live musicians, stiltwalkers and jugglers will all help to keep the massive crowd entertained. Music, dance, masks and theatre all play their part in the celebrations, with a particular focus on the electronic music for which Berlin is renowned. The entire festival lasts from June 2nd to 5th, with four separate stages and some 380 food, drink and craft stalls to choose from.

Festival of Lights

The FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS™ turned Berlin into a sparkling metropolis with a firework of illuminations and events for two weeks from 16 to 28 October. World-famous historical landmarks and spots in Berlin, e.g. the Brandenburg Gate, the TV or radio tower, was staged impressively by means of light, events, projections and fireworks. Complementary to the festival there were numerous cultural events dealing with the subject “light”. The lights of the festival are extinct for this year, but next year they will enchant Berlin again in the last weeks of October (from 14 to 26 October). The FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS™ included more than 40 sights, squares and buildings spreading a magic light strip all over the city from East to West, among others Brandenburg Gate, Victory Column, German, French and Berlin cathedral, etc.

Shopping:

More than18, 000 shops, Shopping from Monday to Saturday until8 p.m.

Various malls and shopping streets: Kurfürstendamm, Friedrichstrasse, Potsdamer Platz