Berlin’s Best Sites

Last week we had a study trip to Berlin. The week-long study trip started with a 5 hour train ride to Wolfsburg. This train ride was honestly the best nap I had ever taken. I had stayed up the whole night the night before to watch the Superbowl because of the time change. I slept pretty much all the way until we were in Wolfsburg. Luckily my friend Robin woke me up so I could get off the train at the right stop. If only the whole group had Robin. I got off the train and as we watched the train leave we realized that about 10-15 people in our group did not get off the train. They were now on a straight shot to Berlin for the next hour while we toured the VolksWagon factory. I don’t know how they managed to not get off the train. It was the first time I witnessed a transportation error that couldn’t be blamed on the trains. Trust me, I’ve blamed a lot of delays and long travel days on the trains. Honestly, the rest of the group missed out. This factory tour was my favorite part of the Berlin study trip and it wasn’t even in Berlin! Being able to ride around and see all the different assembly lines building the cars was so cool. I loved being able to see how robots and humans came together to work flawlessly to pump out these high quality cars. I’m so glad I was part of the group that was able to see this factory. It was truly the highlight of the trip right at the start! We then got a train and I got some much needed sleep.

The next day we took a tour of the city. I really enjoyed the tour guide. He was very informative and kept things interesting. We got to see the Brandenburg Gate (Picture 1), parts of the Berlin Wall and the Reichstag. It was starting to get really cold. The rest of the day we went to a lecture on stormwater. Even though I am interested in water and water treatment, this lecture left me a bit bored. I would have preferred if we had gotten a tour of the facilities or something. It was still a good day because of the city tour. 

The next day we went to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. As a Jew, this was really important and hit me really hard. There’s not much I want to say on the subject. There are no words or sentences I could say that would show the impact this had on me. I can say that I do not want to go to another of those places ever again. It’s important that everyone goes to a camp at some point. I’ve now gone to one and I don’t want to go back. 

On Thursday we went to the German Museum of Technology. We went specifically for the train exhibit. The trains didn’t interest me too much. Maybe I was angry at them for all the stress they have caused me for the past month. Even the history of the trains didn’t spark too much interest. After the train exhibit we were able to go to whatever museum we wanted. I decided to just go to the other half of the Technology Museum. They had other exhibits on planes and boats and submarines. These were way more interesting to me. I really liked the sea exhibit. They had these model Galleons which were so cool    (Picture 2). They also had old tugboats and even submarines (Picture 3). This half of the museum was way better than the train section.

On our last day, we went to the Futurium. This was a really cool museum/experience. It was one of the museums where you got a wristband and then you could go to different stations to make different decisions. Your decisions would be saved on your wristband and then you would get a summary at the end. I started off at the genetic lottery, I got diagnosed with snailosis! Scary! This made up disease caused slime to secrete from my hands and feet. Luckily I managed to survive. The Futurium had a lot of cool sculptures in addition to the interactive parts. There was a cool one made out of butter but my personal favorite was the Hotwheel Wave (Picture 4).

I really enjoyed my time in Berlin. I think it was a really good study trip and I’m looking forward to the next one to Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Hopefully there are no issues with transportation for that trip. Would be much more complicated considering we are flying back. Hopefully there will be no issues. I’m starting to get tired of all of the delays. I’m still working out the kinks of traveling here. It won’t stop me from traveling though! I need to see more places as cool as Berlin!

Jonah R

Aktuelles. Deutsch. (n.d.). https://www.sachsenhausen-sbg.de/

Technikmuseum. Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin. (2025). https://technikmuseum.berlin/

Futurium. (2025). https://futurium.de/en