Berlin doesn't so much interest you in the stark twists of history as slap you with them, right in the face. Take its extraordinary majestic boulevard, Unter den Linden. On one side: bullet holes in the classical colonnade of the Altes Museum. On the other: the derelict relic that once housed East Germany's Communist HQ. At the apex is the Brandenburg Gate, the glory of Prussia.
Split down the middle in 1961, Berlin, the coalface of Cold War politics, has wasted little time reinventing itself as the reinstated German capital since the Wall came down in 1989. The gleaming new centre is Potsdamer Platz, a small copse of skyscrapers. The Reichstag, home of Parliament, has a dome by Sir Norman Foster, and the ribbon of new government buildings runs alongside, the perfect showpiece.
But don't expect some cutesy 'heritage district' - Berlin is vast and diverse. In the tree-lined Kurfürstendamm, West Berlin's great shopping street, a time-warped atmosphere of faded luxury prevails - think afternoon coffee and cake at grand cafes among ladies with lapdogs. But since reunification, the focus has shifted east to the Mitte, and some of the most thriving districts are in East Berlin. Among them Prenzlauer Berg, where 19th-century tenements glower over cobbled streets, tattered Kneipen (pubs) serve beer and bangers, and lounge bars sit cheek by jowl with Michelin-starred restaurants.
Berlin radiates the same unique, edgy excitement it always has. Hackescher Markt, in the Mitte, brims with bars and curiosity shops. Artists' studios survey streets of rattling trams, and life is classically bohemian - it's de rigueur to go out at midnight and, in Kreuzberg, late-night bars twinkle until 5am at the earliest.
But plenty happens before the witching hour: the former two parts of the city, communist and capitalist, have bequeathed some 170 museums, 135 theatres and three opera houses. The whole blends glamour, grit and gravitas. Willkommen in Berlin.
YOUR FIRST visit
o Go to the Reichstag (Platz der Republik 1;
00 49 30 2273 2152, www.bundestag.de; free). It's the seat of government,
and the most visible symbol of the city's rebirth. Built in the late 19th century, burned down in 1933, bombed in World War II, it is now crowned with a glass cupola, with great views and a strange spiral staircase within. Midday queues are an hour long.
o Check out Museumsinsel (Bodestrasse; 00 49 30 2090 5555, www.smb.spk-berlin.de; £5). This glorious constellation of Neoclassical buildings is still under construction, but parts are open, such as the Pergamon Museum, full of antiquarian delights including a 12th-century Assyrian Palace.
o Wander round 1960s arts complex the Kulturforum (www.smb.spk-berlin.de). It includes the New National Gallery (Potsdamer Strasse 50; 00 49 30 266 2951; £4): in a glass cube by Mies van der Rohe you'll find Warhols, Beuys and big hitters of the post-war scene. Don't miss the Gemaldegalerie (Matthaikirchplatz 8; 00 49 30 266 2951; £4), with works by Raphael, Rubens and Vermeer.
o At Checkpoint Charlie (Friedrichstrasse 43-45; 00 49 30 253 7250, www.mauer-museum.com; £6.50), see photographs, a field of crosses to represent the fallen, and a remade section of the Berlin Wall (pictured above). This landmark was once the US border, and lives on in a witty, gritty reconstruction.
o Visit the ruined church Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Breitscheidplatz; 00 49 30 218 5023, www.gedaechtniskirche.de), a World War II casualty near the top of the Kurfürstendamm.
o See the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (www.holocaust-mahnmal.de) - a field of solemn grey concrete slabs by New York architect Peter Eisenman, covering a whole block south of the Brandenburg Gate. Opening in May.
o Forsake 20th-century grit for the Baroque Schloss Charlottenburg (Altes Schloss Neuer Flugel; 00 49 30 320911, www.schlosscharlottenburg.de; £8.20; opposite).
