Berlin Half Day City Sightseeing for first timers: with a contemporary witness!

Hilke was very informative and made the tour a lot of fun too. There were four of us in the group and she was very in tune with our needs. Hilke never made us feel rushed at any of our stops. She always made sure to ask us if we had any questions or needed breaks for bathroom stops, snacks, etc.

Hilke provides fantastic tours. She and I talked several times before the tour and she accomplished everything we discussed and more. Her knowledge of Berlin was outstanding and covered both the prewar (World War II), postwar, and then current day Berlin. Hilke showed us the key sites and explained the history of what happened. As my wife, Helen and I looked back on the four hours with Hilke, we walked away with a deep appreciation of Berlin, past and present. We visited the following: (1) Checkpoint Charlie (2) Brandeburg Gate (3) Memorial to the murdered Jews in Germany and other countries where the atrocities took place (4) The Parliament (5) Jewish Quarter (6) The New Synagogue, a memorial to the Jewish people who were murdered during the reign of the Nazis (7) The political resistance to the victims of the people resistance of the Nazis. (Book Burning) (8) The remnants of the wall. (9) the memorial to the murdered members of the Reichstag. (9) We rode the Subway through the stations where the East Germans used to have guards looking for defectors from East Germany to West Germany. We wanted to understand the history that occurred in the 1930s and 1940s. Hilke’s knowledge of everything we saw was extremely valuable. If you are interested in understanding the timeframe of 1930s and the Twenty First Century Berlin, Hilke could not be a better choice. She took her time in explaining the details of each of the areas we covered. Her knowledge runs deep and she will paint a picture of what happened. If you were on your own in Berlin, it would be hard to understand significance of the many sites. Hilke kept us out of tourist traps and stores. My recommendation is to have Hilke as your tour guide. Hilke works with you to understand your needs and will adjust the tours to your liking. I would suggest using an AI to understand the importance of the sites so that your visit to Berlin can be customized between you and Hilke. I had three calls with Hilke before the tour and that contributed to its success. Hilke considered what we wanted to see and our objectives and blended it with her knowledge, and it turned out beautiful. One last thing. Working with Hilke, we had a driver named Peter provided by Hilke. Peter is excellent and provides comfortable transportation. Peter was prompt to meet us and transported us to all sites. He also added his color to the locations visited. The bottom line, Hilke is the best and a most knowledgeable tour guide. You will be educated on a most interesting time in history.

Hilke was a wonderful tour guide, we thoroughly enjoyed the morning we spent together. I'm always nervous on a walking tour that we won't be able to see enough, but Hilke had us on an efficient route that hit all the highlights, but still with a few moments to rest and chat. We especially appreciated the way she went beyond what's said on signs and plaques, but actually shared some of her own viewpoints of the events and how it relates to today, which we love to think about and discuss. We didn't just enjoy a tour, we made a friend.

Hilke was a fantastic guide - incredibly knowledgeable and lovely sense of humour to go with it. We crammed in a lot in our half day walking tour and Hilke bought everything to life having been there when the wall came down. Thank you so much! Thoroughly recommended

Terrific guide. Super knowledgeable and fun to be with. Handled our group of 12 with ease.