berlin travel

Good news for people planning a summer break to Europe this week, as British Airways slashed a number of its one-way European fares by as much as 50 per cent in some cases.

Bordeaux and Prague are being offered for as little as £29, Amsterdam for £35 and Berlin for an extremely attractive £39.

Berlin is one Europe's most historically important cities and an experience that is incredibly difficult to categorise.

It is the place where two opposing civilisations clashed in the latter half of the twentieth century; it is now surprisingly multicultural with East Berlin growing increasingly trendy and less of a stark contrast to the affluent West.

Of course any visitor to Berlin will be fascinated by the part it played in the Second World War and the Cold War as it was the supposed location of Hitler's final days, a focal point for Russia’s Red army and the place where the fall of Communism began.

There are walking tours starting off from all over the city that take in this history, and on foot is certainly the only way to truly discover the city's many nooks and crannies.

There are still a few sections of the Berlin Wall left standing to pose by for a picture, while a number of monuments also bear witness to the intense struggle to secure Berlin in the form of pockmarked bullet holes.

You will certainly want to stand on the site believed to be Hitler's Bunker, where he killed himself with his loved ones as the net began to close in, and the recently opened monument to the Holocaust is an abstract masterpiece provoking moving contemplation.

The Topography of Terror runs along the street where the secret police, the SS, used to have its headquarters, charting the horror with photographs and personal testimonies. Meanwhile Checkpoint Charlie marks the place where officials passed from the Russian-controlled zone to the West, with a museum that tells tales of the incredibly daring feats carried out in an attempt to cross and be united with friends and family.

However, there is much more to Berlin than its bruised past. It offers cultural treasures, fine food and a thriving nightlife. Museuminsel is a picturesque area with a number of magnificent art and history museums at one end of the famous thoroughfare Unter den Linden. At the other end stands the grand Brandenburg Gate, perhaps Berlin's most famous monument.

Anyone with a fondness for the film Cabaret will delight in the selection of shows to choose from, and if you're looking for a quiet stroll, the towering trees of the park Tiergarten are the perfect place. There is even a zoo conveniently near to the railway station.

In East Berlin the Television Tower in Alexanderplatz dominates the skyline, with boisterous bars, plentiful shops and restaurants suited to all tastebuds. However, the hearty traditional German food and beer should certainly be sampled at least once.

For an eclectic, heady mix of sights and activities, the Berlin experience will be hard to beat.