What are Berlin’s must-see sights on a break with Dad?

Simon Calder answers your questions on paying for food and drink after a flight diversion, split-ticketing on planes, and enjoying the German capital

From the Reichstag to the Palace of Tears, Berlin is at its loveliest in early summer (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Q I am heading for Berlin with my 75-year-old father in May. We have four days and nights to fill. Recommendations for places to eat, drink and sightsee, please?

Name supplied

A Your timing is perfect: early summer finds the German capital at its loveliest. One practical matter: the new airport has fast, frequent and inexpensive rail connections to the city centre from a station directly beneath the centre of the terminal. A taxi would be an unnecessary expense.

I shall prescribe several must-see sights that, I hope, will be new for you, as well as easily accessible for a gentleman in his seventies. First, the dome of the Reichstag: the German parliament. This crystal palace is open to visitors who book online in advance (reservations open about six weeks ahead). Once you have this confirmed, the remainder of your sightseeing can be more flexible. The Humboldt Forum opened in 2021, with a brief that is not exactly narrow: “Human history, art and culture.” The venue is spectacular, and you can access the roof terrace for a fresh view of the city.

Close by, the Pergamon and Neues museums do their bit to represent human history, art and culture in splendid surroundings. But for your father, who grew up during the Cold War, probably the most powerful memorial dates only from 1962. The Palace of Tears at Friedrichstrasse railway station is where people checked out of East Germany to the West – a profoundly emotional experience.

Around the now-flattened Checkpoint Charlie, you can learn more about the divided city. There’s a good exhibition on the actual site, and an interesting museum just south, which has been going since before the wall came down. With a generous amount of time to spare, I recommend a day out in Potsdam – easy to reach by train in about half an hour, and venue for a palace to rival Versailles.

It is difficult to go wrong when eating and drinking in Berlin: almost everything is delicious and good value. I like the bars, restaurants and street food stalls around Hackescher Markt (directly outside the S-Bahn station of that name). When I visited Berlin most recently, earlier this month, friends in the city introduced me to the excellent Hugo & Notte restaurant on Gendarmenmarkt – occupying the magnificent crypt of the Huguenot church, often called the French cathedral. Make it the venue for your last dinner in Berlin.

The plane eventually landed in Marrakech three-and-a-half hours late (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Q We flew out from London Stansted on Saturday to Marrakech. The flight was about half an hour late leaving but then diverted to Madrid due to a medical emergency. We spent about three hours there, apparently due to an issue with the aircraft that needed to be checked by engineers. While we were on the ground in Madrid, the cabin crew were charging for water and food. Is that allowed?

‘Timber 61’

A I see that your flight diverted when it reached the north coast of Spain and headed for the Spanish capital. There were other, closer airports, such as Asturias and Santiago, where it could have landed; I presume the medical emergency was urgent enough that it could not wait a further 90 minutes to reach Marrakech, but not so severe that it was a matter of getting the aircraft on the ground as soon as possible. Also, medical care in Madrid is likely to be of the highest order.

There are all sorts of reasons why engineers might need to inspect the aircraft. For example, the plane would have landed more heavily than expected due to the weight of unburnt fuel. Whatever the reason, I can imagine it was frustrating to be unexpectedly hanging around in Spain; your plane eventually landed in Marrakech three-and-a-half hours late. A round of complimentary drinks and snacks might have assuaged the situation but there is no obligation on an airline to do so. European air passengers’ rights rules do not consider the issue of care during a diversion.

The passengers waiting at Marrakech for the flight back to Stansted will have been given snacks and drinks because they were waiting to depart (as opposed to being halfway to their destination). In addition, though, they arrived in Essex in the early hours, which is never ideal. Aviation is full of surprises, and each time things go awry it is best to put it down to experience.

Booking a series of connecting flights can save money... but will add time and hassle (AFP/Getty)

Q Pre-Covid, I found a website that could find you bargain airline travel from A to B if you were willing to add in one or several stopovers – maybe a bit akin to split-ticketing on trains. Would you know what that site might be called?

Christopher C

A On many air routes you can save substantially by choosing a change of plane rather than a direct flight. For example, three weeks from today, a London-Toronto return costs £705 return on Air Canada. But you can easily save £180 by opting for an American Airlines journey via New York JFK to Toronto. The journey will take several hours longer and involves going through US Customs & Border Protection (together with the need for an American Esta). But price-sensitive travellers may well think the extra hassle worthwhile to save one-quarter on the fare. And because it is a “through ticket” issued for connecting sectors, if anything goes awry with the first flight, the airline is responsible for finding an alternative route to the final destination.

I imagine the website you have in mind is slightly different: one that offers “self-connect” itineraries. These appear on Skyscanner and other search sites, with self-connects clearly indicated. This process involves booking a sequence of two or more individual tickets with no legal connection between them. I have this week done just that for a flight from Birmingham to Seoul, South Korea. I fly on Ryanair from the West Midlands to Beauvais in northern France; from there to the Croatian capital, Zagreb, also on Ryanair; and finally on a new-to-Europe Korean budget airline, T’Way, to Seoul. If either of the first two flights goes wrong, I may lose all the money for the trip: T’Way’s attitude will be: “The plane is waiting in Zagreb, and if you can’t get there it’s your problem, not ours.”

Some online travel agents, such as Trip.com, offer a degree of protection for “self-connect” itineraries but recovering from a failure to make the connection can be messy and expensive.

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