Beyond the Iron Curtain

Enjoyed all 3 cities. We pre-booked operas in Leipzig and Dresden which were very enjoyable. We also enjoyed a visit to the Reichstag in Berlin, free but you need to pre-book online. Hotels were all very good and we enjoyed meals at both the Berlin hotel and the Leipzig hotel. Walking tours were very good and we enjoyed a sunny Sunday walk along the canal in Leipzig. We added an extra night in both Berlin and Leipzig.

All three cities were very interesting and quite different. We stayed for 3 nights in Berlin and could easily have filled another day as there is masses to see. The guided tour (in English) of the Reichstag is well worth doing and a highlight, but you do have to book it sometime ahead. The walking tours were all great taking us to the main sites and providing a history of each place. 

The Hotel Honigmond was delightful and our favourite hotel. Whilst there we ate at the resturants Alpenstueck, Petrarca and Das Lokal, all very close and very good, particularly Das Lokal. All required booking and the hotel was very helpful here.

Leipzig was particularly charming and our favourite city. In Leipzig we can recommend the Restaurant Weinstock and The Letterman. In Dresden, the Alte Meister.

Another fantastic trip with Inntravel. I had visited Berlin previously but enjoyed revisiting with the very informative walking notes.Highlights in Berlin were the Palace of Tears, the East Side Gallery (we used Berlin card to take the train here) and the Reichstag which I had booked before we left. We loved Leipzig with all its old passageways, the background of the peaceful revolution and we travelled out to the Völkerschlachtdenkmal which was amazing. We had hoped to travel to Colditz from Leipzig but the bus/train service at the weekend meant this was not logisticallly feasible. The Zwinger and Frauenkirche were the highlights in Dresden. Our holiday coincided with record temperatures so we thoroughly enjoyed our paddle steamer trip on the Elbe. 

Hotels were all excellent with the Honigmond in Berlin my particular favourite.

A fantastic holiday. We stayed an extra night in each of Berlin and Leipzig which we would recommend as there is so much to see in and around both of these cities. Particular highlights were:

In Berlin, the Tränenpalast exhibition, the SS museum and the Holocaust memorials as well as the amazing Panorama of Pergamon (associated with the Pergamon Museum but at a separate site near to, but not on, the Museum Island).

In Leipzig, the Stasi Musem which has an absorbing, very informative, English language audio-guide, and the 2 hour English-language tour at Colditz (book in advance). Travel to Colditz: suggest allow time to get help at DBahn travel centre to buy the combined train/bus ticket. We changed from the train to the 619 bus at Grimma, rather than at Grosbothen per the holiday notes. When we travelled (July 2019): at weekends the bus was using stop 3, one of the group of stops by the station building; on weekdays it was using stop 6, which is about 50 metres further away, on the road. In Colditz, the bus doesn't seem to stop at Sportplatz any more, but the stop at Leipzigerstrasse or the next stop at the disused train station, where the route terminates, are both fine.

In Dresden, all the incredible buildings restored after the WW2 destruction, particularly the Frauenkirche.

We had particulaly good meals at the Syrian Cafe ('Yarok') and the 'Schnitzele' (good for Germas tapas) near the hotel in Berlin; at 'Barcelona', a Spanish tapas restaurant with a large courtyard, in Leipzig (Google or ask at the hotel for directions); and at 'L'art de Vie' (good food, plus they include a locally-produced wine in their wine list) near the hotel in Dresden. All are good for vegetarians.

In Berlin we recommend the Panorama Punkt, on Potsdamer Platz. The Platz has a long history anyway and the new buildings there are unusual and looking down from the top of the P.P. is well worth the 7.50E, at time of writing. There are 360 degree views of Berlin and there were no queues or prebooking as may be needed for the Berlin TV Tower. There are free toilets at the top and the cafe is very reasonable with good views. Oh, and it has the fastest lift in Europe. The bar with a hundred beers is in the same area and there are inside and outside seats in a relatively quiet area. We also enjoyed the 1 and and a half hour boat trip on the River Spree which took us to the Reichstag and beyond. There are longer trips which we would have liked to do given the time. We later walked around the outside of the new buildings at the Reichstag without hindrance which were interesting.

We ate at night near to the Hotel rather than walk in to where the crowds were. The Schnitzelei in a quiet 'yard' between two thoroughfares is very close to the Hotel; it is very popular and booking may be a good idea; there are seats inside and out. The Italian Restaurant Bonfini was a short walk and was good. We also enjoyed 2 meals at the cheap and cheerful Syrian cafe called Yarok which is near to the hotel (cash only, no reservations). We arrived just after the 2nd October celebration of unification and the Brandenburg Gate was cordoned off and protected. When we returned the next week it was all cleared away, so customers need to be aware of this if the Gate is a key element to their visit.

In Leipzig there is a good Italian, Pizzeria Rizzi, very close to the hotel (cash only) and we also had a good meal at Indian Crown nearby. A bit futher afield The Bayerischer Bahnhof serves local cuisine and its own excellent beers brewed on site in this former station and is well worth a visit.

In Dresden if you book the bus tour after 4pm you have time to do the tour to 'get your bearings' and then do a couple of free guided walks the next day before the middle of the afternoon - we had an excellent English speaking guide and with only 1 other person on one of the walks and just a couple on the other they felt like personal tours. We ate 3 enjoyable meals at the friendly "L'art de Vie" (it is convenient for the hotel) but didn't manage to attend a performance there.

Check out the concerts and opera schedule to avoid disappointment. The concert we attended in Leipzig was a fabulous experience. We enjoyed a trip to Wannsee and a sail on the lake as it was hot in Berlin and we had walked a lot! Easily done with the Berlin Card.

This was a most interesting holiday. We booked an extra night in Leipzig so that we could visit Colditz for the 2 hour extended tour which was fascinating and well-worth doing. We also enjoyed an orchestral concert at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. As we had been in Berlin fairly recently, we decided to visit Schloss Sansoucci at Potsdam. In the end we enjoyed a whole day in Sansoucci Park where there are other palaces to visit. The Berlin card proved to be very good value.

Three very different places, each with their own appeal. Berlin was interesting, Leipzig was charming, and Dresden was astonishing. The German people were very welcoming and we had some great places to stay. It has whetted our appetite to visit other parts of Germany.

Our highlights?

Berlin generally

Open air concert in Dresden

Music in Leipzig churches

Mendelssohn House

Bach Museum

Old Masters Gallery

Neuesmuseum Berlin

We found the whole trip interesting and informative but the definite highlight was Leipzig. The small size of the city, the intimate little passages and the colourful buildings provided an uplifting contrast to the sombreness of Berlin. Hotel Furstenhof was worth every penny of the upgrade as it was comfortable and welcoming with wonderful food both at breakfast and in the bistro. We also ate well at Kummell Apotheke in Madler Passage. The other joy was the music - we booked in advance for a concert at the Gewandhaus, stumbled across a Sunday morning concert in the Mendelssohn House (book if you can and arrive early as it was packed) and heard the Bach Motette in Thomaskirche. Dresden was a different experience with the wonderful restored Frauenkirche, the echoes of the apocalypse and the unbelievable golden and bejewelled extravagance of Augustus the Strong.

If I was doing this holiday again I would spend more days in each city and certainly more days in Berlin on the return trip (I used the Berlin Card on the return trip). I would book more events in advance. I did see the Green Vaults, see a good concert in Leipzig and eat in some of the recommended restaurants. The recommended restaurants were good with reasonable prices and I wished I had visited more. The walking notes gave a very good feel for the Cold War. Although the walking notes say they are '2 hours' duration you will take longer as the sights are so interesting. On the Berlin walk I found the Tränenpalast, the Topographie des Terrors and die Mauer very moving. The Museum der Runde Ecke the Stasi HQ in Leipzig gives a good grasp of the Stasi madness. The Leipzig coffee museum was quirky and fun. In Dresden Castle the Green Vaults both old and new are not to be missed. I was in Dresden castle for over four-and-a-half hours and about three hours in the Zwinger Palace. The  Dresden transport museum was small but pretty good for hands-on bicycle fans. I did not get going on the Dresden paddle steamer but no doubt Inntravel will one day have a walking holiday in Saxon Switzerland involving the steamer. So one day I will be back!!

I had been to Berlin before and on a previous trip saw the Berlin Philarmonic in their excellent concert hall. It is worth booking in advance. The Museum Island in Berlin is very good especially the Pergamonmusuem (which I visited again). Potsdam is also excellent. The Berlin TV tower is fun (but this time around for a view I went for a ride in the fastest lift in Europe instead). If you have not been to Berlin before do the walking notes on the first day as they set the scene for the whole trip and do the other sights of Berlin later perhaps spending a a few nights there again after visiting Dresden. If you did not manage to book things in advance online you might be able to book things in person on the first day for your return trip if not for your first day. You can also leave shopping to the end of the holiday in Berlin although Dresden and Leipzig had good shops, too. In fact most of the Dresden streets were empty when I was there in November because everyone was in the shopping malls. It was also cold.

If you book a ticket for the Gewandhaus in Leipzig online you can pick up the ticket before the concert starts if the ticket office is closed. It says this on the German web page but not the English version when I was there. The hotel staff checked. The hotels were all a high standard and in good locations. The trains were a bit off during my visit because of work on the lines but the train staff were very helpful.

The highlights were 1) The Topographie des Terrors in Berlin and, although one knows the history, this modern presentation is brlliantly informative and a must for everyone; 2) The Stasi headquarters in Leipzig, with the building untouched from its last day of use; 3) The Musical Instrument Museum in Leipzig, we walked into a chamber orchestra rehearsal and were allowed to stay for an hour, the only members of the public; 4) The unexpected sheer concentration of palaces and churches in Dresden in such a small area and an amazing classical music concert in the Frauenkirchen, only recently lovingly restored after its total destuction in 1945.