Berlin

[Dowding]

Just got back from 5 nights in Berlin.

Have to recommend it to anyone, loved the place. Germans have a bad press in Britain when it comes to being rude on holiday, but frankly, the Berliners couldn't have been nicer - never had an occasion where they weren't friendly and willing to help out when my limited German failed me.

Of all the big cities I've visited at home and abroad, Berlin is where I'd happily live, it's that good.

If anyone plans on visiting the place, be sure to check out the Insider Tour company's Famous Walk. Apparently they've been featured on the history channel in the US and the guide was superb in terms of detail. They also do a Third Reich and Cold War tour which concentrate on those specific areas of history, but I couldn't persuade my girlfriend to do those (she did really enjoy the tour we did though and I didn't really have to sell it too much).

Respect is definitely deserved for what Berlin has achieved since unification - the new architecture around the city is stunning and the public transport system is something I'm very envious of.

[Replicant]

I hope to travel up to Berlin sometime next year.  I must say that I really love Germany and its people, especially down in Bavaria where I am.  The only way I can describe the attitude of people is that it's how I'd imagine Britain to have been in the 1950s.  I say that in a polite way, because there is a huge emphasis on religion, Sunday being a day of rest, politeness and they all respect each others spare/free time.  It is also so much cleaner, tidier, relatively cheaper (even though Munich is most expensive place to live in Germany, it's still reasonable compared to the UK) and the most obvious thing is that there is little vandalism and virtually no violence!  And this is from people who drink gallons and gallons of beer!  Why is the UK so different?  I wish I knew!!  Oh, the public transport is first rate compared to home!!