BERLIN FINDS: Walking along Tiergarten

Living in Europe might be expensive in many ways, but there are also many wonderful things you can enjoy for free like Berlin’s beautiful parks. Berlin is a green city with many parks in the different areas – parks that people really take advantage of during nice weather. Berliners love to take walks with their loved ones, their dogs, have picnics, take their kids to the playgrounds and enjoy sunshine and fresh air. I love this about Berlin and below is a photoblog of the famous Tiergarten.

Tiergarten literally means Animal Garden. At 210 hectares, it is the largest urban park of Berlin, and second largest in the entire Germany. I love going to Tiergarten, even the commute going is so lovely.

The Tiergarten in Berlin used to be the hunting grounds for the Prussian kings, before it was transformed into the city’s largest park in the 18th century. Today, the green heart of Berlin is bordered by the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate on the eastern side, Potsdamer Platz and theMemorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe on the southeastern edge, Berlin’s Zoo in the west, and Bellevue Palace, residence of the German President in Berlin on the northern rim of the park.

– Go Germany

I am in love with the lamp posts and the lighting. There are public toilets in the park, but this is basically a portapotty, without any flushing mechanism so I would recommend looking for a restaurant nearby instead, especially for elderly, because there is no light inside, the space is SO tiny and it doesn’t smell great at all. There is a river where they have tour boats. I would love to go on the ones with the restaurant inside. I hope we can go before winter or it will have to wait till next year. There are so many different plants and trees – so lovely! Sunbathing is really popular. There are areas with the “FKK” sign, which allow nude sunbathing.

Freikörperkultur (FKK) literally translated as free body culture is the name for the general movement in Germany. The abbreviation is widely recognised all over Europe.

True to it’s name there is a Zoo inside. We’ve only ever seen it from the walking path. One day we should go in. The owls look bigger than DiploDog.
DiploDog was really intrigued by the aviary. He loves birds. We saw some lamas too! The park benches are inviting. I would love to come back with a picnic basket , some wine and a book. The bridges, like most we’ve seen, have Love Locks.
There is a restaurant beside the lake, but reservations are needed especially on holidays so we ate outside. We got beers and a pretzel from stalls nearby. The prices are a bit high because it’s a tourist area – €2.50 for pretzels and €4 for a 0.5L beer.
There are row boats for people to use. I was intrigued by it, but neither TD and I have ever rowed a boat so we feared capsizing. Besides, I don’t think DiploDog would be pleased to go on a boat haha! It was lovely to see the golden colors of the fallen leaves against the green of the grass.By sunset it is time to head home. I don’t think walking in the park when it’s dark is recommended. While waiting for the train home, I always see this wall.