Fat Tire Bike Tours – Berlin Germany

It is time for a historical travel blog. Going back to my first tale of adventure… It is intentional that I have decided to start with my very first trip to Europe. Berlin, Germany to be exact. This trip was a life’s goal, and was a life-changer. Not only did I get to experience my first far away inter-continental adventures and foreign language impact (other than Mexico), but for my entire life I have been fascinated by World War 2 (WWII). Berlin is by most accounts the ground zero – or birth place of WWII.

While in Germany I had 3 friends in country at the same time as I. My friend Brandon suggested we take the Fat Tire Bike Tour while enjoying Berlin. He had taken the Barcelona Spain tour, and said it was the most incredible way to experience a city. He was very convincing, and I was ready so all four of us signed up.

The Fat Tire Bike Tours headquarters is at the base of Alexanderplatz tower (Fernsehturm). Alexanderplatz is is a large public square and transport hub in the Mitte (city centre) district of Berlin, near the river Spree and the Berliner Dom. Local Berliners often call it simply “Alex”. The tower is easily recognizable, comparable to the Space Needle, or Stratosphere towers in the United States. At the very base of the tower are a few shops, including Fat Tire Bike Tours.

Upon Check-In we meet our friendly host Wolf, and tour guide Randell. The price of our bike rental and tour was approx 20 Euros. Quite a bargain if you ask me! The tour lasted around 4 hours, and is by far the best way to tour the city.  After biking around town for a few hours, and learning in depth information from our friendly and informative guide – we stopped for lunch at Schleusen Krug.  A charming Beer Garden in the center of the enormous park region of the city called the Tiergarten.  Comparable to, if not larger than Central Park in NYC.  Beautiful!

Below are some of the highlights of the tour, and links providing loads of further reading on each subject:

• Berlin Wall seeing one of the last remaining portions of the landmark that is still standing.
• Brandenburg Gate rode through one of Berlin’s most famous monuments (and see the hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby out over the balcony!) LOL
• Marienkirche Berlin’s oldest functioning church
• Red Town Hall the city hall of the now-unified Berlin
• Marx & Engels Platz monuments that are still standing of communism’s founders in the former East.
• Palace of the Republic site of the former East German Parliament
• Hitler’s Bunker the former site of the infamous undergound bunker where Hitler committed suicide
• Victory Column the enormous monument deep within the tiergarten.  Also famous for where Barrack Obama gave his amazing speech to over 100,000 Germans while running for President.
• Potsdamer Platz the downtown of new Berlin
• Gendarmenmarkt the quaint square featuring the French and German Cathedrals and the Konzerthaus
• Nazi Topography of Terror open air museum in the former headquarters of the Nazi Gestapo & SS
• Soviet War Memorial where more than 2500 Soviet soldiers from the “Battle of Berlin” are buried
• St. Hedwig’s Cathedral
  
• Unter Den Linden Berlin’s most famous Boulevard
• Death Strip the brutal portion of the Berlin wall between Checkpoint Charlie and Brandenburg Gate where most of the killings of innocents took place as they attempted to flee to the west.
• Checkpoint Charlie the crossing point between Allied /Democratic West Berlin and Eastern / Communist Berlin
• Humboldt University
• Museum Island square featuring Pergamon Museum, Altes Museum, & Bode Museum
• Luftwaffe Ministry home to the Nazi Air Force
• Bebelplatz the infamous public square in Berlin where over 20,000 books were burned by Nazi’s in may of 1933
• Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe the controversial and powerful massive new memorial
• Reichstag beautiful house of parliament and site of one of Berlin’s final WWII battles
• State Opera House

In a nutshell, I cannot recommend this enough.  I enjoyed it so much, I have since also done the sister tours in London and Amsterdam as well!

Here are some photos from this amazing experience:

Below is a map of the Bike Tour’s meeting location: