Nate Hawkins

Berlin Travel Guide Nate Hawkins

With a population near four million and growing, Berlin ranks as Europe's second largest city behind London; it also serves as Germany's national capital and comprises one of the country's sixteen states. The Spree and Havel rivers cradle the metropolis in the Northeast region, providing a temperate maritime climate. While the winters can be quite snowy, the temperature is usually bearable, and the worst of the chill is offset by the beautiful Christmas markets that abound during the Yuletide. Crisp springs gradually transition into ideal summers to which visitors flock from all over the world: the summer days are long and consist of picnics in parks, outdoor concerts, and street festivals; the nights are warm and friendly, with every pub and club peopled with carousers. Immigrants from over 180 nations call Berlin home, giving it the cosmopolitan atmosphere of a world city as much as a German one. Despite being one of the world's population centers, it is remarkably green and aesthetic, composed one-third of forests, parks, gardens, rivers, canals, and lakes.