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Travel
The Congress takes place at the Berlin Congress Centre (bcc) in the East centre of Berlin - right next to Alexander's Square Alexanderplatz (commonly known as Alex) - a busy place with many shops and an intersection of many buses, s-bahns, trams, and underground lines (u-bahns).
Berlin's tallest landmark, the Fernsehturm (TV tower) is close to the square, making the Alex an easy place to find from most of Berlin.
If you are new to Berlin, you should get a city map and a map of the local train system. You can get maps of s+u-bahns, underground and metro buses at many BVG shops for free, and city maps are available for a few euros.
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Address
bcc - Berliner Congress Center Alexanderstr. 11, 10178 Berlin OpenStreetMap: http://tinyurl.com/26C3-bcc-OSM GoogleMaps: http://tinyurl.com/25C3-bcc
Alexanderplatz station
The Alexanderplatz train station can be reached by buses, trams, S-Bahn, U-Bahn and regional trains. Basically, ask anyone "how to get to the Alex".
Arrival by local transport
The bcc Berliner Congress Center is located southeast of Alexanderplatz. Leave the train station at exit Alexanderplatz and turn right, pass along the World Time Clock and proceed to the pedestrian crossing at Grunerstraße and cross Alexanderstraße afterwards. Then you should be standing in front of the bcc.
Arrival by train
Probably the best way to travel to Berlin by train is from Hannover, Nuremberg or Hamburg via the ICE (InterCityExpress) routes. The trains stop at Hauptbahnhof station. Look up your connections with the Online Booking System of the Deutsche Bahn.
Participants planning to travel directly to the Congress by train should get off at Hauptbahnof and take the S-Bahn to Alexanderplatz from there.
There is a [special event ticket] by Deutsche Bahn for your travel.
Arrival by plane
Berlin can be reached by commercial aviation through the international airports Tegel (TXL) and Schönefeld (SXF).
Tegel Airport (TXL)
By bus only:
from: Tegel Airport via: bus TXL unto: Alexanderplatz time: 37mins
in words: Take the bus TXL unto S+U Alexanderplatz Bhf/Memhardstr.. The ride should take 37mins. There is a short cut, changing to S-Bahn at S+U Hauptbahnhof. Go to the main entrance and then upstairs to the platform with two S-Bahn tracks. Face to the long distance tracks and you find the right direction.
You need a ticket AB and be prepared for a short walk over the Alexanderplatz.
Airport Schönefeld (SXF)
Since Schönefeld is in Zone C you must purchase an ABC-zone Ticket ("Berlin ABC"), and you must validate it before travel!
You can buy the ticket at yellow ticket vending machine at the airport terminal and validate it on platform of the regional train.
In the bus the driver sells also single tickets, but there take only Euro cash in small notes (Tip: Change the amount for ATM to something with 5 at the end or so that you get at least one 5 EUR note)
Airport Schönefeld has a direct connection to Alexanderplatz by regional trains RE7 or RB14. There is a 6 minute walk from the terminal building to the train station.
There is a bus connection (X7, 171) to underground station Rudow at line U7. The entrance to the station is near the bus stop. From there you can ride with every train (direction Rathaus Spandau or Rohrdamm ) to Hermannplatz and change there to U8 (direction Wittenau or Osloer Str). The interchange between the platforms is nearly in the middle of U7 platform.
There is also an connection via S Ostkreuz which means you have to make a walk to S-Bahn station and change at Ostkreuz, where you have to walk also 2 minutes.
from: Airport Schönefeld via: RE7 (x:25) or RB14 (x:55) unto: Alexanderplatz time: 21mins (+6 min walk)
from: Airport Schönefeld Terminal via: bus X7 (Su x:01,x:21,x:41) unto: U Rudow (bus X7 terminates there) change to U7 unto: Hermannplatz change to U8 (direction Wittenau or Osloer Str) unto: Alexanderplatz time: 44-48 mins from: Airport Schönefeld via: s-bahn S9 (x:13, x:33, x:53) unto: Ostkreuz (x:38, x:58, x:18) change to S8 unto: Alexanderplatz (x:42,x:02,x:22) time: 38mins (+6 min walk)
In words: The S-bahns leave every 20mins (at 13,33,53) and take 38mins unto Alexanderplatz.
The regional trains come every 30mins - the RB14 at x:55 and the RE7 at x:25. Each train takes 21mins until Alexanderplatz.
Route via Südkreuz: You could take a bus to Südkreuz (20mins) first - but even though it takes only 5mins to go to S-Hermannstrasse, you'd have to take the U8 to Alexanderplatz for yet another 15mins. Add waiting for change-over and you fastest connection is 53mins. So this route is deprecated.
Tempelhof Airport (THF)
You're a real hacker landing on that airport! ;-)
Spaceship Landing Area BCC
Probably already occupied by the Fairydust. Sorry.
Arrival by car
You must buy an emission-rating decal "Umweltplakette" for your car to be allowed driving within the Berlin center (within the s-bahn ring). Please note, that this badge is not available for all kinds of cars. There are restrictions that exclude older cars from the usage within certain parts of the city. Since January 1st 2010, these restrictions are extended to even more cars (only green badges allowed).
Also, parking space here costs quite some money, too. Usually two Euros per hour, up to three Euros per hour. There is no free-of-charge parking space anywhere around the bcc for at least half a kilometer!
The garage at the Alexa shopping mall has many places and is open from 07:00 to 24:00 - fee 1 Euro per hour or 10 Euro per day.
However, not all areas of Berlin are parking zones, so it's probably the cheapest way to park the car either North of "Jannowitzbrücke" (U8) or East of the Strausberger Platz (U5). Both locations are one stop away from the bcc by subway, so you can go by subway with only a "Kurzstrecke" ("short way") ticket which costs 1,30€.
Lifts
This wiki has a special page for announcing and requesting lifts to and from the congress: Traveling groups
But you can also check out the following sites:
MitFahrZentralen (MVZ) - Overview:
- http://bellnet.de/suchen/reisen/mitfahrzentralen.html
- http://drive2day.de aka http://hitchhikers.de free of cost :)
- http://mitfahrzentrale.de
- http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de
- http://mifaz.de
Community
See the accomodation page for offers & requests of rooms to share.