🌃 Berlin by Night: An Insightful Walk Tour

We arrived at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) at night. What an impressive structure! 🤯 It’s incredibly vast, with trains stopping on different levels, truly giving an “Inception-like” feeling.

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A Cold Welcome? The Cash Conundrum 🪙

Surprisingly, there was no prominent “Berlin welcomes you” sign for visitors’ photos outside. I sometimes find Berlin a bit “cold” in its practicality. We had to use cash to buy train tickets—one route was €9.10! Having to count out so many coins because there was no POS device for card payment, or even a simple QR code for scanning, was a hassle.

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Futuristic Visions and Somber History 🚶

The area around the station is under construction (a common sight in a growing city!). We walked past Futurium (https://futurium.de/en), a fascinating museum dedicated to futuristic environment and living designs.

Crossing a river, we came upon a powerful, yet somber, spot: a memorial dedicated to the minorities who died during WWII. A stark reminder of history etched into the city’s landscape.

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The Heart of German Politics 🇩🇪

Next, we passed the German Parliament (Reichstag Building). I learned there are over 600 seats in the German Parliament—it’s a massive legislative body!

From Wall to Gate: A Divided Past 🧱

After touring the “western Berlin” view, we arrived at the iconic Brandenburg Gate. Look down, and you can see a line of shining bricks on the ground—these mark where the infamous Berlin Wall once stood.

The famous Unter den Linden road is a wide, straight artery designed to allow tanks to travel across Berlin. The massive Victory Column states its dominance in what was formerly West Berlin.

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The Dual City: Legacies of the Split 🏙️

It was fascinating to see Humboldt University of Berlin. I realized that, due to the decades of division, Berlin still maintains a dual-system style in many aspects. There are two major Berlin Theatres, and even two of some schools! This organizational redundancy is a direct, enduring legacy of the Wall, thankfully supported by the huge economic scale of the reunited city.

• Humboldt University:
• Frederick the Great:
• Berlin Theatre:
• New Watchhouse:
• Berlin Cathedral:

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East Side Vibrancy and Culinary Rewards 🍻

We finished the walk near Alexanderplatz, which has a different, more vibrant energy.

• Graffiti Culture:
• Transit Layers: Seeing the train on the bridge with a tram running underneath it gave me a fleeting, multi-layered “Thailand feeling”!

Finally, time for a well-deserved meal! We found a restaurant providing Munich (München) food and music.

I finally ate the famous Schweinshaxe (pork knuckle)! It was €20, and the Radler was €6.80. A bit expensive, perhaps, but absolutely delicious! 🤤 The potatoes were soft and wonderfully chewy, almost like small savory breads.

A Delicious Conclusion! 🐷

Funnily enough, I recently posted an AI-generated photo of myself carrying a pig while running… so this meal felt like the perfect “after” picture! 😅