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Day trip from Berlin.?

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Any suggestions for a day trip from Berlin... I will be there 3 or 4 days in May and am thinking of either Hamburg or Dresden

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Dresden is a bit far. Hamburg is doable, if you leave early and return late. I've gone as far as Hanover on a day from Berlin so it's doable.

Really, though, the most logical and sensible day trips from Berlin are those that lie on the extended city Network, specifically on the S1 S-Bahn train line

Potsdam is about an hour and a half taking the S-1 toward Wannsee. It's a real quick walk to Park Sansouci, and then you just wander around. The gem, of course, is Schloss Sansouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great (and where he is buried, not with his wife, but with his dogs). Read up a bit on a court that the Bach family played at - and that was the Versailles, and then some, of Germany. Also the location of the Potsdam conference from 1945 is worth visiting, if you are a history buff.

In the other direction, but literally and figuratively, onothe S-1 is Oranienburg, the location of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. For me, Sachesnhausen, with it's extensive exhibits, and partially extant crematorium, was at least as moving as Buchenwald. If you've never been to a Nazi Konzentrationslager, you owe it to yourself to visit one once. And Sachsenhausen is a good one to visit, and very accessible from Berlin.

Dresden is do-able, but you'll spend a lot of time on trains. If you do, go early, and return late. It's 2 and a half to three hours by train. Hamburg is faster, 1.5 to 2 hours, so do able.

I'll also point out that Berlin has more than enough to fill 4 days. Indeed in 2005 I was in Berlin for a month and did not see everything I wanted to. Source(s): Personal experience. The Eyewitness Travel Guide to Germany. Lonely Planet Travel Guide to Germany www.bahn.de (for relative distance from Berlin to Dresden/Hamburg)
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from Berlin we went to Auschwitz/Birkenau... very moving
I wouldn't do a day trip to cities as far as Hamburg or Dresden (you'll need 4 hours to go there and back, and both cities are worth a trip on it's own).
3 or 4 days can be easily filled in Berlin (all my visitors needed about one week to explore the touristic sights of Berlin), but if you really wanna go outside for a day, choose Potsdam. It may easily be a delightful experience with all it's castles and baroque buildings from the 17th and 18th century. Additionally, it's only half an hour to 45 minutes from Berlin, so you have really the whole day to explore the city.
Must-sees are the Park Sanssouci (there is not only the castle Sanssouci, but also two or three other castles, a church and numerous smaller buildings), the adjacent Castle Charlottenhof, the Park Babelsberg with it's medieval looking castle, Park Sacrow with it's romantic Heilands church, the "neuer Garten" near Park Sanssouci with Cecilienhof Castle, the russian colony Alexandrowka, the dutch quarter near the center of Potsdam, and the nice Brandenburger Strasse, the main shopping street of Potsdam and the old market with it's big church.
It it's hot, feel free to bath in one of the numerous lakes :)

Here are some pictures:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/potsda...
Dresden, Leipzig. You can take the ICE train, it's driving very fast.
Potsdam and/or Spreewald. Don't waste time in the car/train/etc. there is plenty to do in and around Berlin. You could spend two weeks there and only scratch the surface.
My vote also goes to Potsdam.

Alternatively there is the Spreewald, if after so many cities you want to get out into the countryside for a bit of nature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/spreewald...

Other very popular day trips are Leipzig (because of the cheap Connex tickets) and the Tropical Islands spa.

http://www.my-tropical-islands.com/index...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/leipzig...

In my opinion Leipzig (just like Dresden) deserves more time than just a day trip. I could also think of a lot more interesting things to do than to lie around at an artificial beach. But that's all up to you, I suppose.