It's been a few months since I've last been to the main tourist spots (Zoological Garden etc.), but I've never seen an English-speaking tourist having any conversational trouble. One of those tourist translation books won't hurt, though. :)
Concerning the TLP: I can't help with hotels or pensions (I live here, so I've never needed one), but there truly are many parks and gardens: The Tiergarten (western part of the city, near the Zoo), The Treptower Park (more to the east), both free of charge and easily reachable via metro - and the Erholungspark (translated: Recreational Park) Marzahn near the eastern border of the city (entrance fee approx. 3EUR IIRC, but it has beautiful "themed sub-gardens" like the Chinese and Japanese Garden).
Your hotel sounds nice, but it's a bit off - about 45min to the Zoo. If that's no problem for you, I'd take it.
Hope this helps so far... ah, if you know a few German words, these URLs might be helpful...
Berlin Public Transportation Service
Maps of German Cities
Feel free to email me if you have more questions (email address is in my diary, remove everything in square brackets, as usual)! |
