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Timeride, a virtual journey to the past

 

Taking the bus and getting a tour through former East- and West-Berlin, while you can hear the experiences from somebody who lived during that time in the meantime. That’s what Timeride in Berlin offers with their virtual reality experience, with each visit you can hear a different story while you look your eyes out. Employee Leonie tells more about this timeride to the past. 

 

How old is this experience?

“Timeride opened in Berlin in august last year, so this experience is half a year old. But Timeride exists since two years. We have other locations in Cologne, Dresden, Munich and we will open our next location in Frankfurt.”

 

Why was there chosen to use technic to show the impact and story of the Berlin Wall?

“When it comes to Virtual Reality, the technic is completely new. Which gives us the possibility to go back in time. We want to create a real 360 degree experience. Not like a museum or a book where you can read about history, but something where you can see and feel what it used to be like back in the days. And of course, that’s something which you can only make with new technology. Because you can create a 360 degree photo and really make an atmosphere around the customer.”

 

How long did it take to create Timeride?

“I’m not sure, because it depends on the location. With our first location in Cologne, it obviously took a little longer. Now it has been done before and they know how to do it. With each location, there’s a new team of historians and creators. The process gets quicker, the more locations we get. For this location, I’d say that it took a year, but I’m not sure.”

 

Was Timeride's intention to interest young people in the company?

“That is an interesting question, because we have a broadly oriented interest group and the target group we want to reach is also very broad. It also depends on the location, for example in Berlin we have many seniors who visit us. We also have many school groups, so young people who want to learn something about history. But the target group that comes the most are the elderly. They lived in the 80's, have the same experience and now want to go back in time to see where they used to live as a child. The range goes from tourism to people born and raised in Berlin. I can't say we have a target audience, it's for everyone. ”

 

What do the older visitors think of Timeride?

“What they think of it varies a lot. There are people who come out of the experience crying and who are very touched by their own memories. We also have people who say "the cars, they actually look different." And then there are those who say "I know exactly what you meant, it looks exactly like how I experienced it." Everyone is very different and therefore it is interesting for us to work here. Because then you speak to those people and learn from their experiences.”

 

What do you think is the most important thing people see when they visit Timeride?

“I think the most important thing people see is that history is subjective. Everyone has their own experiences. Not only in the VR experience, but we also work with eyewitnesses of that time. And you can choose one of those eyewitnesses as your audio guide in the virtual reality experience. So you will hear a different story every time you do Timeride. I think that's the most important. Nothing is just a fact, of course there are facts, but everyone experiences those facts very differently. I think that's what makes history interesting. ”

 

 

Are there people who come back to do the same tour but with a different audio guide?

“Yes, we even have tickets for that. Then you can come back and buy a ticket where you can redo half of the attraction. This time with a different voice and therefore a different audio guide. ”

 

 

What makes this attraction more unique than, for example, a museum?

“This attraction is more unique than, for example, a museum, because you can be in the experience. It is not just looking, it is really feeling. You are on the bus and you feel the movements of the bus. You can look behind you, you have a 360 degree vision. It's around you, you're in it. ”

 

There are still people who feel like there’s a division between East and West Berlin, do you think Timeride helps solve this feeling?

"That is a very good question. I am not sure if it would help, as I said earlier it is very different how people experience it. We have people come in and say "oh that's stereotypical," and other people say "that's exactly how I experienced it."

I wouldn't say it helps bring people together, but it does explain what happened in this city to people who didn't live here in the 1980s. For example, I am from Hamburg myself and I had no idea what the differences were between East- and West-Berlin.

That's what you learn here. You get a sense of how big the differences were. And I think the more you know about that, the more it brings you together. But it remains subjective. ”

 

What is the thing that visitors did not know before their visit, but realised afterwards?

“Often the first thing tourists say is that they had no idea how divided or different East- and West-Berlin were. Because it remains a city, even if a wall runs through it. I don't think many people realise how different both parts were. They were actually two different countries. It was not the same city at all, they had different music, different rules, clothes and things for people to buy. A lot of people didn't know it was so different. ”