Berlin

Foster's glass dome spirals above the Bundestag chamber. Free, but register online well ahead and bring the passport you booked with.

Bernauer Straße keeps a preserved stretch of death strip, a watchtower and an open-air record of who died trying to cross.

Nefertiti's bust inside Chipperfield's patched-together ruin. The Pergamon next door stays shut until June 2027.

1.3km of painted Wall along the Spree. Go early; by noon it is a scrum around the Brezhnev-Honecker kiss.

Pariser Platz, then five minutes south to the 2,711 concrete stelae of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Both free.

Berlin Brandenburg sits 25km south. The FEX and S9 trains reach the centre in 30-45 minutes for the price of an ABC ticket.

Fast trains reach Hauptbahnhof from Hamburg in under two hours, Cologne in about four and Munich in about four.

Cheap coaches use ZOB in the west; ÖBB Nightjet sleepers run overnight from Vienna and arrive in time for breakfast.

May, June and September: long days, open-air bars, no August heat.

November to March, skipping the Christmas market fortnight.

Christmas and New Year, plus Berlinale week in February.

Take the Reichstag dome slot you booked, then walk through the Brandenburg Gate to the Holocaust Memorial.

Cross to Museum Island for the Neues Museum, or circle the Berliner Dom and Lustgarten if the queues bite.

Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg: butchers, bakers and lunch counters in an 1891 hall, closed Sundays.

Walk the East Side Gallery, then cross the Oberbaumbrücke into Kreuzberg for coffee and second-hand shops.

Sundowner on the Klunkerkranich roof, dinner in Neukölln, then decide how brave you feel about Berghain.

25 minutes on the S7. Frederick the Great's vineyard terraces and a palace park that swallows a whole day.

S1 to Oranienburg then a 20-minute walk. A former concentration camp north of the city; entry is free and sobering.