BerliCon WDC - August 3rd to 06th, 2006
What to do in Berlin? Where to go? Sightseeing, pub rotation, party, guiding tours, shopping...
From time to time, we will update this page and fill it with tips and hints, maps and links. At your arrival in Berlin we will provide you with relevant information, too.
You can contact us: berlicon@diplomacy-bund.de
Note that there will be 5 rounds of diplomacy, but you may only play 4. A good excuse to take off an afternoon to explore Berlin.
Brandenburger Tor
Origin: http://www.berlin.de/RBmSKzl/berlin_images/index.html
Guided tours
Sascha and André will take care of guided tours and the nightlife program at BerliCon WDC. We're glad they volonteered for this inhumane job... stay up all night and party, or spend a whole afternoon with friends at the most amazing cultural and historical sights of Berlin... what we know about them from previous cons they will carry this burdon with dignity ;-)
Sascha for example will take a big car and show you around in his home town. He will offer several tours, you can sign on during the convention. Where he will take you depends on your wishes. He can offer 3 basic directions:
1. The Prussian Berlin
Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate, the remains of the castle, Unter
den Linden where the Prussian Kaisers promenaded, Gendarmenmarkt and
other famous places from before 1900. Why not a trip to Potsdam (which
borders on Berlin) with its huge Park and Castle Sanssouci and the
Dutch Quarter.
2. The Wartime Berlin
Topography of terror, Unconditional surrender and the Holocaust
Memorial to name only a few possible stations. But also the Cold War
between 1945 and 1989 left its mark, think of the Wall and the
Communists' "Halle des Volkes".
3. The Modern Berlin
Reichstag home of today's Parliament with its amazing cupola,
Kreuzberg - Germany's most multicultural quarter, Friedrichsstraße and
Potsdamer Platz show what Berlin has become after 1989.
Lean back and enjoy, take pictures and breath the "Berlin air" as people say here. All for free.
Alexanderplatz / Fernsehturm
Origin: http://www.berlin.de/RBmSKzl/berlin_images/index.html
Insights
Our hotel is situated in the student quarter and party district Prenzlauer Berg: dozens of opportunities to go out right around the corner, pubs, cafés, bars, and clubs.
Just to name a few historical sights: Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate (visible on our Euro coins), Rathaus Schöneberg - the place where Kennedy said 'Ich bin ein Berliner', the wall museum at the former frontier post Checkpoint Charlie, Alexanderplatz with the 'Fernsehturm', a 386m tower with a view over the whole city, Unter den Linden where our Kaisers used to promenade, Glienicker Brücke, the brigde at the borderline between Potsdam and West Berlin where FRG and GDR used to exchange their spies during the Cold War, Potsdam's world famous rococo Park Sanssouci and the most lovely Dutch quarter, and inbetween numerous buildings, museums and streets that tell stories about Berlin's moving history.
Also today's politics have their impact on the townscape. See the Kanzleramt (our 'White House') where Gerhard Schröder used to work and Angela Merkel is about to move in, the Reichstag that houses the German parliament under its remarkable glas dome, and Schloss Belevue, the castle of the German President. (You didn't know we have a president? Well he has got nothing to say, our real president is André, that's why ;-) )
Don't forget to stop by at Kreuzberg, Berlin's multicultural heart, the club and pub district Friedrichshain, and Tiergarten, the so-called green lung of the city.
Send your wife shopping at noble 'Mitte', the quarter that was modernised after the Fall of the Wall (but you better don't give her your credit card ;-) ), and eat Sushi at Potsdamer Platz and Sony Center, Berlin's only 'kind of' scyscraper area with its amazing architecture.
What, it is too much for a weekend, the more so as you would like to become Diplomacy World Champion along the way? OK then you might want to or stay longer or come earlier a couple of days, at the same hotel, for incredible EUR 21 / night. See our offers page.
Potsdamer Platz
Origin: http://www.berlin.de/RBmSKzl/berlin_images/index.html