Like my Pompeii tour in 2017 and my Sicily tour in 2018, this trip was an archaeological tour arranged through Andante Travels, a company based in the UK with which I have now traveled 4 times. This trip was different from the others, however, in that it was a “Bare Bones” tour. This meant that, compared to my previous trips, the price of the ticket did not include all of the food and the hotel accommodations were not as high-end. It also meant that the guests did not spend the entire trip together as a group. We still had an archaeologist guiding us around the city, explaining the sites we were visiting, and answering any questions we had, but we also had significant free time to wander around Berlin and visit places that were not on the itinerary. We were also released periodically to eat meals on our own time and at our own expense. This brought down the overall cost of the ticket and allowed for a more customized experience, giving me room to make sure that I visited all of the places I wanted to see during my brief time in Berlin. Over the course of the trip, I saw:

The DDR Museum

Alexanderhaus (also known as the House by the Lake, from Thomas Harding’s book of the same title)

Bebelplatz

Kaiser Wilhelm II Memorial Church

Karl Marx Allee

Some of the last sections of The Berlin Wall

The Bridge of Spies (featured in the Tom Hanks movie of the same name)

Platform 17 at Grunewald station

The German Resistance Memorial

The Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag

The Soviet War Memorial

The Neues Museum, Pergamon Museum, and German Historical Museum

Martin Luther’s House in Wittenburg

The New Synagoge

Checkpoint Charlie

…and many other places as well!

We were accompanied on this tour by Nick Jackson, an experienced archaeologist, historian, and guide with a wealth of knowledge about Berlin and the city’s history. Having lived in Berlin for the last 20 years, Nick was exactly the right person to tour the city with. His endless knowledge of the history of Berlin was matched by an equal understanding of its public transit system, which made getting from place to place a breeze. I would be happy to go on tour with him again.