Berlin beyond Mitte

Tempelhofer Feld

Tempelhof airport closed in 2008 and the airfield, roughly 300 hectares, was opened as a public park with the runways, taxiways, and grass left exactly as they were.

Berliners voted in a 2014 referendum to prevent any building on it, which is why it remains an enormous flat open space in the middle of a dense city, used for cycling, kite-buggying, barbecues, community gardens, and skating down a two kilometre runway.

It is free, it is open until sunset, and it is the single most characteristic place in the city: publicly owned, defended by referendum, and largely unimproved.

The lakes

Berlin has a large number of lakes within the city boundary or a short S-Bahn ride away, and from June to September the city relocates to them at weekends.

Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke in the southwest are the closest, reachable on the U3 and S1, surrounded by forest, with a path all the way round and clean swimming.

Wannsee is the big one, with a large lido, boats, and the Pfaueninsel peacock island. Muggelsee in the far east is the largest and the least visited by outsiders.

All of them are on the normal public transport network with a standard ticket, which is the part visitors do not realise.

• Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke: closest, forest, clean, S1 or U3
• Wannsee: largest lido, boats, Pfaueninsel
• Muggelsee: biggest, far east, quietest
• Standard transport ticket covers all of them

The neighbourhoods

Neukolln, particularly north Neukolln around Weserstrasse and Sonnenallee, has been the centre of gravity for young Berlin for the last decade: bars, cheap food, and a Turkish and Arab commercial street that is one of the best food corridors in Europe.

Wedding, north of Mitte, is the current frontier: cheaper, less developed, with a strong African and Turkish presence and a growing bar scene.

Kreuzberg 36, around Kottbusser Tor and along the canal, remains the most politically charged and the most alive. The Turkish market on Maybachufer on Tuesdays and Fridays is excellent.

Prenzlauer Berg is beautiful, expensive, and full of families and cafes. Friedrichshain has the clubs.

Sunday in Berlin

Sunday is the best day of the week here, which is unusual in Europe. Shops close, but everything else opens.

Mauerpark on Sunday has a large flea market and the Bearpit Karaoke in the amphitheatre, where a man with a bicycle sound system runs karaoke for a crowd of a thousand people. It is one of the genuinely great free things in Europe.

The Boxhagener Platz and Arkonaplatz flea markets are smaller and better for actual buying. The Turkish market on Maybachufer runs Tuesday and Friday rather than Sunday.

Note that supermarkets are closed on Sunday. Buy food on Saturday or use a Spatkauf, the corner shops that stay open late and on Sundays.

The strange places

Teufelsberg, an artificial hill built from war rubble in the Grunewald forest, topped with an abandoned Cold War listening station covered in graffiti. Paid entry, worth it.

The Spreepark, an abandoned East German amusement park in Plaenterwald, partially reopened with guided tours through the remains.

Kleingarten colonies, the allotment gardens that ring the city, thousands of tiny plots with sheds, each governed by strict rules. Walking through one is a genuinely odd and specific German experience.

The Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, which is enormous, sombre, and almost empty of visitors.

Practicalities

Berlin is big. Kreuzberg to Prenzlauer Berg is 30 minutes. Plan two neighbourhoods a day and use the U-Bahn and S-Bahn, which are excellent.

A day ticket for zones AB is the right default. Zone C covers Wannsee, Potsdam, and the airport.

Cash is still used more than in most of Western Europe, particularly in Spatis, bars, and small restaurants, though card acceptance has improved. Carry some.

Club entry is at the door and refusal is normal and not personal. Do not arrive as a large loud group at 23:00 and expect to get into anywhere serious; the queue culture rewards small groups arriving late and quietly.