Handpicked experience · Berlin
Berlin, Germany
A border still legible in the colour of the street lamps, the world's largest surviving gas-light network, and a chancellery Berliners named after a washing machine.
Explore the city in style on the back of a double-decker bus and get to see Berliner Dom.
Hop on a sightseeing bus that'll take you around Germany's magnificent capital in a way that suits you best.
Take a break and be mesmerized by the sight of Berlin's treasured monuments such as the Konzerthaus Berlin.
The parliamentary quarter under floodlight, when the buildings read most clearly
Set pauses where everyone steps down with a camera
A guide talking through the politics as well as the architecture
A one-hour format that fits either side of dinner
An hour by coach through the government quarter after dark, with a live guide and photo stops at the parliament building, the Brandenburg Gate and the square behind it. Short by design: it is an evening slot, not a day's sightseeing.
Mostly you ride and listen, with the guide working through what each floodlit building is and why it stands where it does. There are set stops where everyone gets out for photographs. An hour covers the political centre and little else, which is the point — this is the compact part of a very large city.
For decades the two halves of Berlin used different street lamps: sodium bulbs in the east, throwing a yellow-orange light, and fluorescent white in the west. Photographs taken from orbit show the division as a colour line running through the city, and enough of the old fittings survive that the effect has not entirely gone. From the ground it is subtler, but once you know to look for the warm side and the cold side you will keep noticing it.
Berlin has by far the largest surviving gas street-lighting network in the world — tens of thousands of lanterns, concentrated in the western districts, some of which need a technician rather than a switch. They are being replaced a street at a time, against steady public objection, so the soft yellow light you see in the older residential blocks is a genuinely disappearing thing.
The figure in the pedestrian signals here — hat on, arms out — was drawn in 1961 for East Germany by a traffic psychologist who argued that a friendly shape gets obeyed more often than an abstract one. After reunification the plan was to standardise him out of existence. A public campaign saved him, and he now lights up on both sides of the vanished border.
The chancellery on the river is one of the largest government headquarters in the world, and Berliners named it after the round openings punched through its facade, which they thought resembled a front-loading machine. It is best seen lit, when the frame stands out against the water.
The tour lasts about an hour and does not include entry to any building. Going up inside the parliament dome is registered separately and in advance. In midwinter the sky is dark by four in the afternoon, so early departures still count as evening ones. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
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The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
About an hour by coach, with live commentary and set stops where everyone gets out to photograph. It covers the political centre rather than the whole city.
Yes, in the colour of the light. The east used sodium lamps and the west fluorescent, and enough original fittings remain that orbital photographs still show a warm-toned half and a cool-toned half.
More than anywhere else in the world — tens of thousands of lanterns, mostly in the western districts. They are being converted street by street, so the number falls every year.
A design drawn in 1961 for East Germany by a traffic psychologist, on the theory that a friendly shape is obeyed more readily. Scrapped after reunification, then reinstated after a public campaign.
Because of the large round openings in its facade, which struck Berliners as the door of a front-loading machine. The nickname stuck, and the building looks best floodlit from the river side.
No. The dome is registered separately and ahead of time; this tour passes the building rather than going inside it.
In midwinter, yes — the sky is dark by four in the afternoon. In midsummer the late departures are the ones that get the floodlighting.