Mid-range · 12-hour walk · Berlin
Berlin in a day: the Reichstag to the Wall
The Reichstag dome, the Gate and the memorial, the spy museum and Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt, Museum Island, the DDR, the TV tower at dusk and the Wall by night.
Berlin's history is laid out along one line, west to east, and a day here walks it: the parliament and the Brandenburg Gate, the memorial to the murdered Jews, the Cold War at the old border, the Prussian museums on their island, the East German capital around Alexanderplatz, and the longest surviving stretch of the Wall to finish. Book the Reichstag dome early — it is free, but only with a registration.
The route, stop by stop
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Reichstag dome
Norman Foster's glass dome over the Bundestag, with a spiral ramp round the mirrored cone that lights the chamber below. Bring the ID you registered with.
60 min here Walk here → -
Brandenburg Gate
Three minutes south. The last of Berlin's old city gates, stranded in the death strip from 1961 to 1989, and where the city celebrated when the Wall came down.
20 min here Walk here → -
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
2,711 concrete slabs on a sloping field, higher than your head in the middle. Walk into it rather than around it; the information centre underneath names the victims.
30 min here Walk here → -
German Spy Museum
On Leipziger Platz, where the Wall once ran: an Enigma machine, the Stasi's buttonhole cameras and a laser maze to finish. More fun than the subject deserves, and still honest about it.
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Checkpoint Charlie
The Allied crossing point, now a replica hut and actors in uniform. Give it five minutes, then read the free open-air panels on the corner, which are better than anything paid for here.
20 min here Walk here → -
Gendarmenmarkt
Lunch nearby. Two matching domed churches face each other across the concert hall on the most elegant square in the city.
45 min here Walk here → -
Museum Island
Five museums on one island in the Spree. The Pergamon is closed for restoration until at least 2027, so the Neues Museum is the one, for Nefertiti in a domed room of her own.
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DDR Museum
Across the river, East German daily life you are allowed to touch: a Trabant to sit in, a tower-block flat to walk through and a Stasi listening room.
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Berlin TV Tower
The GDR's 368-metre statement, finished in 1969 and still the tallest structure in Germany. Book a timed slot for sunset; the restaurant a floor above the deck turns once an hour.
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East Side Gallery
Arrive by train from the previous stop
Two stops on the S-Bahn to the longest surviving stretch of the Wall, 1.3 kilometres painted by artists from around the world in 1990. Dinner in Friedrichshain, behind it.
More in Berlin
Every walking route in Berlin, or the full Berlin guide for where to stay and what a day costs.