We're all Berliners now

Thousands of East Germans drove their Trabants over the border when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. For 30 years this tiny car kept the masses moving, but once liberated most took the first opportunity to swap them for something a little more reliable. Today you’re more likely to encounter a stretch limo on the streets of former East Berlin with the city’s rebirth as a party mecca, with probably the hippest bars on the planet and a thriving international restaurant scene to boot. If you’re not a night owl though, don’t let its reputation for all-night raves put you off. There’s so much to do here, that sheer exhaustion is likely to see you tucked up in bed by ten.

Our guidebook was crammed full of alternative ways to get acquainted: join the fastest human abseil in the world; see the city through film or eat your way through a tour of Berlin’s food cultures. There’s even a museum dedicated to the humble ‘currywurst’ – a tasty sausage and culinary emblem.

For a slice of East Berlin life we booked onto a ‘Trabi Safari’. With its gas guzzling two-stroke engine, this car was one of just two makes East Berliners could buy and only then, after being on a waiting list up to 12 years. Our guide, Axel, drove the lead car, with the tourist contingent, following somewhat hesitantly in a convoy of three. In constant radio contact, I was torn between listening to tales of life under communist rule, trying to find first gear and not losing sight of Axel and ending up in Poland. Despite my inability to get through a set of traffic lights without stalling, not a single horn was tooted; the locals just politely overtaking. Near the former US-controlled border crossing Checkpoint Charlie, we were flagged down and asked to produce our western identity cards before being waved through – all part of the tour experience. What it was really like to live through the separation of East and West is hard to imagine, but Berlin confronts its past head on and poking fun at the now affectionately named ‘Trabi’ is just one example. Driving by the East Side Gallery; the longest part of the wall still standing and covered in graffiti and artworks, Axel explained that 136 people are known to have lost their lives trying to escape to the West and the real figure is probably higher. This outdoor gallery is testament to an outpouring of emotion after the falling of the wall in 1989; the most iconic of all being a satirical mural depicting Communist dictators Brezhnev and Honecker kissing.

If you prefer two wheels to four and fancy some exercise at the same time, then Berlin’s Fat Tire bike tour is a good option. Next day, our guide Craig, a fresh-faced history graduate from New Zealand, took us to all of the major sights, filling in our gaps in knowledge with humour and great aplomb. The capital of Germany again as of 1999, Berlin is Germany’s largest city, almost nine times as large as Paris; the centre has more trees than Paris, more bridges than Venice, 150 concert halls and theatres and 170-plus museums and exhibitions. It soon dawned on us not to even think about getting around on foot. The city, though, is enjoying a cycling boom with miles of routes built into the pavement systems.

At the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by architect Peter Eisenman, we left our bikes for a while to wander through the maze of 2,711 polished concrete blocks, becoming disorientated and gradually feeling completely trapped. All around Berlin you’ll see graffiti – you can even do a walking tour – but not a speck here. Ironically the site is just a stone’s throw from Hitler’s bunker, now a nondescript grassy area surrounded by high-rise apartments. Across the city at the Jewish Museum, personal documents, photos and keepsakes tell the same harrowing story. Handwritten letters, describe the desperation of those travelling on trains to concentration camps. Eight rooms tell the story of Jewish life throughout several centuries and the steel and glass construction of the building alone is stunning. Shockingly we managed about a quarter of the museum; we still had the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag; Germany’s seat of government, to pack in before sundown. During Berlin’s division, the West German parliament assembled once a year in this neo-Renaissance building, to show that Bonn was only a temporary capital. You can do guided tours of the whole building but the real highlight for us, on a perfect blue-sky day, was a visit to the gleaming glass dome, which sits on top of the original 19th century architecture.

The design by Sir Norman Foster, of London Gherkin fame, is one of Berlin’s most iconic landmarks. A lift takes you to the building’s rooftop and a spiral walkway allows you to walk to the top of the dome, providing far-reaching views across the cityscape, with the accompanying audio guide adding yet more layers of historical context to digest. After an amazingly good value Thai dinner – ten euros for a two-course meal – we headed home to our super comfortable hotel beds. Our base for this all too short visit was Motel One. Under the motto ‘great design for little money’, this modern, clean hotel chain delivered on every promise. For only 76.50 euros, including a scrumptious breakfast, our rooms were well designed and spacious.

The piece de resistance of our stay was a date at the Italian Supper Club in Berlin, one of the many alternative ways to see the city. The day before the dinner our hosts, Chiara and Marco, two 30-something artists from Venice, emailed us details of our five-course menu including potato gnocchi on topinambur cream, buffalo mozzarella and semidry tomatoes with deep-fried carrot leaf in prosecco tempura and gorgonzola ice cream with strawberry cream. By now, super slick at navigating the city’s underground and tram system, we arrived early and rang the apartment doorbell, waiting with anticipation to meet our fellow diners. Up three flights of stairs, not dissimilar to an old tenement building in Edinburgh, we were greeted with an iced campari soda and introduced to the other guests; four Berliners and an English girl who was living in Budapest. For a donation of 45 euros we dined master-chef style at a table laden with white linen, flowers and candelabras. Conversation flowed as freely as the wine; everything from top tips on where to shop (Bernauerstrasse was judged the must-see street), to how lucky one German guest had felt growing up in the western part of the city. “I could always see the wall from my bedroom window and my parents told me how special we were to live in the West,” he said.

But how special now, I thought, for English girls to dine in the apartment of two Venetians with four Germans we’d never met in a part of the city formerly cut away from the rest of the world in the Eastern bloc.

Fact file

Tourist information: visitBerlin.com

The Berlin Welcome Card offers discounted entry at over 100 venues and includes unlimited transport: visit berline.de/welcomecard

Trabi Tour: trabi-safari.de

Motel One: Rates 69 Euros single room, doubles 84 euros, breakfast 7.50 euros – motel-one.com