Carnival Splendor Inaugural - Warnemunde, Berlin

We'll collect you from the dock in Warnemunde drive you to Berlin where our guide will spend 6-7 hours in your company
before our driver will take you back to the ship.

The Schedule in detail

8.00am - Ship docks at Warnemunde-Rostock or Hamburg; your chauffeur - who is experienced picking up passengers off cruise ships - is waiting for you carrying a sign with your name on it.

10.45am - Arrive central Berlin. Our guide joins you for the rest of the day in Berlin, with the use of the minibus or bus which you have used from the port.

11.00am - 12.30pm - Your Berlin guided tour. Typically this will cover the following, with plenty of time to make stops to take photos; we can also adapt this to take more account of special interests, such as Berlin's Jewish heritage OR new architecture in the city OR more far-flung Third Reich places of interest:

 

• Brandenburg Gate
• The Berlin Wall
• The "Deathstrip"
• (stand above) Hitler's Bunker
• Checkpoint Charlie
• Nazi Air Ministry
• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Holocaust Memorial)
• Reichstag Dome (new home of the Bundestag)
• Pariser Platz (and site of new American Embassy)
• Unter den Linden
• Museum Island and Pleasure Garden (Lustgarten)
• Pergamon Museum
• Bebelplatz, scene of the Nazi Bookburning
• Catholic Cathedral (St. Hedwigs)
• Humboldt University
• State Opera
• Royal Armoury (Zeughaus)
• Palace Square (Schlossplatz)
• New Synagogue
• Red Town Hall
• Russian Embassy
• War Memorial (Neue Wache)
• Berlin Cathedral
• TV Tower
• Friedrichstrasse (1920s cabaret mile!)
• Site of SS and Gestapo HQs (Topography of Terror)
• Gendarmenmarkt
• East Side Galery
• "Stalinallee"
• Potsdamer Platz
• Royal Hunting Grounds (Tiergarten)
• Victory Column (Siegessäule)
• 1936 Olympic Stadium (where 2006 Soccer World Cup final will be held)
• Charlottenburg Palace
• Memorial Church (Gedächtniskirche)

12.30pm - 1.30pm - Lunch
It's your choice! Do you want to try traditional German food, or a smart restaurant or a "Bratwurst and fries" at a typical Berlin "Imbiss" (snack bar)? One tip - some really top-grade restaurants in the historic center such as » Vau or » Guyoffer outstandingly good value lunch deals; we can book a table for you if you decide in advance. Otherwise, see how the whim takes you on the day itself.

1.30pm - 4.00pm - Finish Sightseeing tour and then head for a museum - for example, the Pergamon or the Daniel Libeskind-designed Jewish Museum. Berlin is packed full of fascinating museums and art galleries; see our » Recommended Museums and Galleries for ideas. You should leave a minimum of an hour for a visit to any one of these … OR you might prefer to explore the shops!
For antiques galore, we would take you to Georgenstrasse; for Meissen ceramics, Unter den Linden, and for delicate Christmas ornaments to Friedrichstrasse or Hackescher Markt. Berlin museum shops stock a small but scintillating range of gifts and there are fascinating books on Berlin and German history in English available too. You can buy Birkenstock shoes from specialist shops while avant garde fashion boutiques are plentiful off Oranienburger Str in the Scheunenviertel! If you have a special request let us know… Last year, we helped a client find and buy a pickelhaube - one of those Prussian military helmets with a spike on the top!

4.00pm - If there's time - a short stop for coffee and cake (a great German tradition!) before hitting the road for "home". Did someone say cake? Our favorite subject - there's cream cakes and streusel cakes, doughnuts and black forest gateau, green pistachio layer cake and Swiss Gugelhopf. There's Linzertorte, and chocolate cake, marzipan cake and jellied fruit slices. Sponge cake with poppy seeds, iced raisin buns and more chocolate cake. Fruit basket cakes and something called egg nog cake. We know where to go - just follow us.

4.30pm - Sit back and enjoy a smooth drive back to the ship.