by Hi my lovely readers!
It was sooo good to see my family again last week and to head into Berlin for one day of sightseeing and shopping.
My Mum and I decided to visit the Aquarium Berlin located at, as we locals call it Ku’damm or Kurfürstendamm, because I haven’t been to a zoo or aquarium for a very long time and I really wanted to see animals.
The aquarium is located next to the zoo and both are called Zoological Garden Berlin. You can visit both or just one, depending on your needs. It was raining so we decided to just pay the aquarium a visit as it was indoors.
Normally the Ku’damm is busy, there are a ton of people walking around as it’s one of those shopping areas with a mix of high street stores, some boutiques and big and well know department stores.
But man, I have never seen the city this empty, which was nice, but at the same time weird. The tourists are literally nonexistent and there were only a few families with younger children visiting the aquarium.
Which I guess is a good thing if you want to visit now as there are no queues really, you’re I guess less likely to catch Covid compared to playing tourist in London right now and you have lots of space and can take your time when visiting attractions.
I guess the reason for this emptiness is that Germany had really strict Covid rules and still does compared to the UK for example where we have dropped almost all Covid restrictions, you don’t even have to wear a mask anymore and life seems to have gone back to normal, at least right now.
The Covid rules vary slightly from state to state, but Berlin has eased the restrictions a little now. Previously unvaccinated people couldn’t do anything and were basically excluded from visiting restaurants, sightseeing venues, well they were excluded from public life. They could only go to the supermarket and pharmacy. This has changed now though. Still Germany is very strict at checking vaccination statuses and passports.
After our aquarium visit my Mum and I went shopping and at almost every single store, I believe except for one, we had to show our vaccination passports with the barcode as well as a photo ID/passport to proof that the vaccination passport belongs to us.
I had no problem with my UK vaccination passport, but it was a bit cumbersome and annoying to show it at every single store I must say. My family and I also went to a restaurant during the week and they checked every single vaccination passport as well.
The mask policy is also really restrict in Berlin. You can’t use public transport and enter shops unless you wear a FFP2 mask, which are the more expensive masks conveniently. And people will point out that you’re wearing the wrong mask if you come with a normal surgical mask. So be warned.
I guess the ever changing rules, restrictions and also to some extent stricter rules and enforcements are deterring people from visiting. But I think now would actually be a great time to visit before all the tourists return and it gets busy again as the city is opening up bit by bit.
