Between the wars and the reconstruction of the city, you can, on your Berlin sightseeing tour, find many great museums honoring Berlin’s past. However, one museum you will find highly unusual is the DDR Museum. Most museums typically have people who observe artifacts on display. But the DDR Museum lets visitors have an interactive experience that lets them experience the daily life of residents in East Berlin. Since this is one of the few private museums in the country, it gives the owners more freedom to operate it in their own way. The DDR Museum lets you do a variety of things. You can go through the old drawers of German memorabilia and even pretend to be a Stasi officer. But the biggest thrill for visitors is the Trabant cars that you can rent and take for a stroll throughout the city. The Trabant is a classic car that is over 50 years old. The cars at the museum are repainted and given maintenance, so you don’t have to worry about breaking down. All of these attractions help give visitors the feel of really being in a different time in Germany.
Another unusual attraction is mostly demolished Berlin Wall. Even though most of it was destroyed in 1990, a small portion of it has been restored and stretches along the borders of Mitte and Wedding. A tourist walkway was also constructed in front of the wall, so people could walk along it and view this rare piece of German history. Many parts of the wall have the original paintings that were on the wall when it was originally demolished. Some people have painted over the originals without the artists’ permission, but much of the original art still exists.
A trip to Berlin would not be complete without a Berlin shopping experience, and hence visiting Europe’s largest department store Kaufhaus des Westens (abbreviated KaDeWe), which means “Department Store of the West.” The 60,000 square meters of retail space has more than 300,000 items for sale from both big time retailers and small businesspeople. There are vintage stores, luxurious stores and second hand stores. No matter what your budget is, chances are you will be able to afford something great when you are there. But the really unique thing in this giant retail department store is the streets. That’s right this place is so big that they actually have named the pathways in between the stores with street names. On top of that, there are seven floors to explore. So you could literally spend a couple of days going through this place.
