Berlin in one page: how the city fits together

Berlin is a polycentric sprawl — there is no single 'center', and that's the point.

Mitte holds the headline sights: Museum Island, Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag. Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain (linked by the Oberbaum bridge) are the food, street-art and nightlife belt. Prenzlauer Berg does leafy cafés and Sunday flea markets at Mauerpark. Charlottenburg is the old West: the palace, KaDeWe, and a quieter, grander pace.

Getting around: the U-Bahn/S-Bahn run all night on weekends. Buy a day ticket (AB zone covers everything you'll want), validate it once, and you're done — there are no gates, but inspections are real and fines are €60.

Rhythm: museums closed-Monday rules vary; nightlife starts after midnight; Sunday almost everything retail is shut but museums, brunch and parks run at full tilt.

Skip / instead: skip Checkpoint Charlie's souvenir scrum — the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße tells the story properly, with an intact death strip.