Recently in Berlin Category

Want to get a real sense of Berlin and its history but don't feel like hoofing it around the city on foot? Fat Tire Bike Tours is the perfect solution. Living up to its motto, "See more, less effort, more fun," Fat Tire's leisurely tours will have you pedaling from site to site, meaning you'll get to take in more of the city in much less time - and without too much effort.

The tours cover about 6.5 miles in the course of four-and-a-half hours on flat, bike-friendly roads. The bicycles are as smooth as the ride itself - purchased new at the start of each season, the quirky cruisers have cushy seats, fat tires, and fun bells. But it's the tour itself that has all the bells and whistles. If history is what you're after, consider either the Third Reich/Nazi Germany or Berlin Wall & Cold War Tour. The former takes you to the Jewish Quarter of Berlin, the massive former headquarter of the Nazi Air Force, a civilian air raid shelter, the area above Hitler's Bunker, and the new Holocaust Memorial, among other stops. You'll leave with a better understanding of how Hitler came to power, the effect World War 2 still has on the city, and how his rise and fall connects with the Berlin Wall. On that tour, you'll see a kilometer-long stretch of standing wall, hear tales of espionage, and see a Deathstrip Watchtower. If you want a little of both, opt for the All-in-One City Bike Tour, which includes samplings from each, along with a beer garden stop. Kick back and relax when you're done at the Westin Grand, Berlin.

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Currywurst_photo.jpgDeutsches Currywurst Museum celebrates a German national fast food phenomenon known as currywurst, a snack usually made with sliced pork sausage and laden with a curry-based sauce. No longer a well-kept secret in Germany, currywurst is exploding in popularity in New York via food carts that have imported it to America and is starting to make rumblings in other cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. In any case, it might rightfully still be a surprise that an entire museum is dedicated to currywurst, but it's sure a great place to start from ground zero and learn about it. Guided tours are now luckily available in English, or you can simply have your own curious wander around, snap some photos behind a snack shop booth while fantasizing about having your own currywurst stand, watch clips of the super sausage in German popular culture from film to television, or take home some kitschy gifts. It'll all be fuel for your next currywurst adventure: Finding a good one to eat on the street after your visit!

This unique attraction is located just a few blocks from your stay at The Westin Grand, Berlin. It is sure to be a memorable part of your experience in a city bursting with fascinating future memories. What are the strangest museums you've ever visited during your travels? Please let us know about them in the comments section below.

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Touring Germany's Car Museums

Monday June 7, 2010

Do you have a thing for German automotive engineering? Does the thought of racing down the Autobahn quicken your pulse? In the past decade, Germany's famed car companies have all built museums showcasing their history, their racing prowess and their iconic designs. And as luck would have it, each is near enough to a Starwood hotel that a road trip to all of them would rack up SPG points like so many miles on the odometer.

Start in Berlin, at the Westin Grand, and drive two hours west to Wolfsburg, which you should recognize as the headquarters of at Volkswagen. VW's Autostadt is a virtual amusement park, with an interactive exhibit on green initiatives, incredible car silos and even driving attractions. Follow it up with a trip to the August Horch Museum, dedicated to the founder of Audi, in Zwickau near Leipzig and the Westin Leipzig.

Be ready for a day on the road, because our next stop is BMW Welt in Munich, about four hours south. The architecturally stunning campus provides BMW with a grand setting for all sorts of cultural programming in addition to highlighting its latest models. Get a good night's sleep at the Sheraton Munich Arabellapark.

Head west to Stuttgart for a triple dose of luxury: Mercedes, Porsche and Le Meridien Stuttgart. You may recognize the Mercedes Museum from the company's commercials. Don't worry, no windows will be shattered, but your mind might be blown on the tour of the thoroughly robotic factory next door. At the Porsche Museum you can walk right up to every single car on display, even the legendary 917 series, and afterward settle into seats upholstered in red Porsche leather in the museum's steakhouse.

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Berlin's Art Gallery Weekend

Friday April 30, 2010

BerlinGalleryWeekend.jpgBerlin is renowned for its amazing array of art galleries. So you can be sure that one of the most fun weekends to visit the German capital is at the end of April, when 40 galleries throw open their doors for a whole weekend of art openings.

Beginning Friday, April 30 and running through Sunday, May 2, Gallery Weekend Berlin attracts an international set of art fans. From Mitte to Charlottenburg, districts across Berlin will be abuzz with the excitement that comes with vibrant showcases of new art and plenty of freely flowing wine. It's possible for energetic devotees to see them all, but proper planning will help to make the most of your visit. A few of this year's highlights include a show at Galerie Haas & Fuchs of 26 artists, including Damien Hirst and Ian Davenport, who studied with Michael Craig-Martin at Goldsmiths College in London. Then there are the large-scale satellite images by German artist Andreas Gursky at Sprueth Magers, and American sculptor Jimmy Durham's works at Galerie Wien. Wherever you end up, whether it's along Auguststrasse, Linienstrasse, or Zimmerstrasse, you can bet on being properly surrounded by one of the most exhilarating art scenes in the world. And you'll never be too far away from the centrally located Westin Grand, Berlin.

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The Wild World of Walton Ford in Berlin

Monday February 15, 2010

From savage lions to monstrous gorillas, elegant animals are exceptionally crafted like an Audubon ibis. But look how graciously rendered these lovely watercolors are. Don't let Walton Ford's 19th century elegance fool you. Look closer and you'll be pleasantly disturbed. A master of natural-history illustration, the Berkshire-based artist's very first European show opened last month at Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof. "Bestiarium," which runs through May 24, includes a series of 25 large-scale works created over the past two decades. A plume of smoke billows from the charred tail feathers of a gorgeous peacock in "Eothen." White wolves surround a blood-thirsty buffalo in "Le Jardin," based on one of American Indian painter George Caitlin's sketches. Each image is the result of extensive research, and each one tells a detailed narrative usually involving allegory and commentary on colonialism.

Take a journey through Ford's weird, wonderful world during your visit to the German capital. Housed in a former train station, the Hamburger Bahnhof is one of Europe's most exciting contemporary art museums. It's within walking distance of The Westin Grand, Berlin, and a quintessential stop on your Berlin itinerary. On your way back to the hotel, take a stroll through the Tiergarten, a former royal hunting ground, and look at the pigeons and squirrels in a whole new light.

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An Art Tour of Berlin

Thursday October 15, 2009

Pergamon_Museum_Berlin_p1.jpgArt is life in Berlin, where the historic meets the hyper-modern, from the architecture down to the creative people who make this special city tick. Public transportation makes it easy to explore Berlin's museums and art galleries, but if you're staying at The Westin Grand, Berlin, you can actually walk to some incredible -- and incredibly different -- spaces for art in the fashionable Mitte neighborhood. Thousands of years of imagination are just steps away from your comfortable home base.

The relatively compact Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin (Unter Den Linden 13) would be one's closest stop and a good place to begin. It's a great spot to view special showcases that normally focus on one modern artist, but it won't take you very long. Continue down the same road to find the classic Deutsches Historisches Museum (Unter Den Linden 2), an institution that reaches back to the early cultures and Middle Ages of what is now Germany to document the very creation of a society through paintings, archaelogical artifacts, fashion, prints, and more. Similarly, the Pergamon Museum (Bodestrasse 3) stretches to the past, but focuses on the ornate beauty of Middle Eastern and Islamic art. After the history lesson, jump forward a few thousand years for your final stop on this artistic walking tour: Kunsthaus Tacheles (Oranienburgerstrasse 53), a massive and towering building that once was a department store and is now a gathering space for cutting-edge current multimedia artists. What are your favorite places to see art in Berlin?

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It's October, so naturally my thoughts go to Oktoberfest! Munich's festival ends this weekend, but Berlin's is just getting started — and this one's also very much about the beer. Great beer halls spring up at the Zentraler Festplatz at Kurt-Schumacher-Damm, along with stages for live Bavarian music, booths selling pretzels and sausages, and throngs of men and women in traditional lederhosen and dirndl dresses. Get your fill while staying at the Westin Grand, Berlin.

But if gigantic steins of beer and brass bands aren't enough for you, there are a couple fun beer-related tours you could opt for. Berlinside Out offers a tour of the city's breweries past and present, culminating in a whistle-whetting stop. Or if you can rustle up a dozen or more people, contact Bier Bike to rent one of their bars on wheels and pedal around the city while enjoying a nice draught beer!

By the way, in addition to the beer, you'll find big gingerbread hearts elaborately decorated with German sayings at Oktoberfest. They're a great souvenir, but don't bother sampling them — they're usually pretty stale. They're meant to be worn around your neck!

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Berlin Wall.jpgPeter Foreman is the Director of Sales & Marketing at Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur.

I have always visited Berlin in the winter.  This year, I was lucky enough to explore the city during summer which allowed me to walk around in a little more comfort (warmth) and as such, I discovered The East Side Gallery - the world's largest open air gallery - is an ideal and very easy outdoor walk along a 1.3KM section of the Berlin Wall. 
 
The gallery highlights an original part of the Berlin Wall or "Iron Curtain" which divided the city in two for over 28 years.  This section of the wall, in the former East Berlin, was in pristine condition prior to 1989 as GDR government officials and their guests drove along this road between Berlin's Schonefeld Airport to the city centre.
 
In 1989, this section of the wall became famous due to the artwork painted by artists from all over the world at the time of the fall of the wall.  The gallery was given government protection in 1990 and shows more the euphoria that engulfed Berlin at the time of the wall falling than the terror that surrounds the history of the wall.  Today, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, more than 100 artists from 21 countries have restored or repainted their former artwork to its original glory.  The Westin Grand Berlin is within walking distance of U-Bahn & S-Bahn train stations, which provide access to the East Side Gallery.

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Ever since Carrie Bradshaw sunk her teeth into that pink buttercream cupcake, Magnolia Bakery has been the number one spot for cupcakes in New York. In Los Angeles, everyone from Tom Cruise to "Gossip Girl" Blake Lively has been spotted queuing up for the sweet treats at Sprinkles Cupcakes. But where do you go in Europe, for that little round handful of deliciousness? Cupcakes are hardly known on the Continent, and in the UK they call them "fairy cakes." Um... cute, but uh, kinda cheesy.

Now here's a place that might not immediately come to mind when dreaming about cupcakes, but during the two years I spent living in Berlin, I discovered two of the most adorable little places ever. Picture the ideal spot for your little girl's fifth birthday, and you've got the Cupcake Bakery in Prenzlauerberg. Vintage teapots, tons of doilies, and a waitress with rosy cheeks and braids set the scene, while an assortment of double chocolate, carrot cake, and vanilla buttercream cupcakes get the taste buds running. Over in Friedrichshain, Cupcake Cafe is equally cute, but has more of a hip, 1950s soda parlour slash rockabilly vibe. In the delightful display case, tiny deer figurines stand guard beneath porcelain cake stands brimming with fluffy pink, green, and baby blue-topped cupcakes.

Both spots serve light lunch offerings in addition to their delicious desserts, and are easy to get to from the The Westin Grand, Berlin. Where in Europe do you visit to get a really good American style cupcake?

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Berlin is a sprawling city, but it's sparsely populated, which is great if it's a quiet spot with a lot of elbow room you're after. Searching for a little more action? Head over to Friedrichshain. A 10-minute taxi ride from The Westin Grand, Berlin, it's a funky neighborhood with a bit of a rock and roll edge. Day or night, you'll always find a mix of both locals and out-of-towners sitting with a tall glass of beer under the wide awning of one of the many sidewalk cafes.

The neighborhood's pastel buildings are awash with street art and graffiti, but don't let irreverent appearances deter you from exploring the myriad shops near Simon-Dach-Strasse and Boxhagenerplatz. One of my favorite stores is called Schwester Herz, which means "Sister Heart" - so cute. It's a beautifully stocked space, brimming with cool design products like Brandenburg Gate cookie cutters and tote bags made from a synthetic fabric developed in the GDR. Around the corner, Olivia offers all sorts of chocolates. Try a few of their miniature cakes and fill your pockets with South American candy bars. One of the area's prettiest streets is Niederbarnimstrasse where you can gawk at Blattwerk's gorgeous floral displays and pick up a silk-screened T-shirt at Heimat. Stick around for dinner and indulge on fabulous Italian food at Miseria e Nobilta, try the "Incredible" pizza at Il Ritrovo, or yummy Vietnamese food at Chily at 17 Niederbarnimstrasse.

If it's a Sunday, most of Friedrichshain's stores will be closed, but  a fantastic flea market brimming with antique treasures sets up on Boxhagenerplatz at 10 in the morning, year round!

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