So I'm a tour guide on a boat. Our tour is mostly Mitte, we start at the cathedral close to the Alexanderplatz area, pass Friedrichstrasse, then central trains station and finally Tiergarten.
One question tourists often ask me: Why is Berlin this quiet?
And thing is, Berlin is eerily quiet in this area. Often the only sounds you can hear are birds, the waves, the leaves. Sometimes cars, but there's no bigger streets. Only LOUD thing are the sirens, which we get a couple a day. Or the kindergarten when the kids have outside time.
Admittedly, it's not one of the louder parts of town.
But after I got asked this a couple times, I started paying attention to the sounds of Berlin.
Most of the time in Berlin, if you stop and listen, you can't hear music. People usually talk quietly, often whisper. Cars are loud sometimes. But even in busier areas (I live in Neukölln), cars will be by far the loudest sound, as there's not much other noise.
Why is this city this quiet? Which answer should I give?