Berlin has since the 1920s laid claim to a culture of Volkskuche, or 'Volxkuche' - so-called 'kitchens of the people'. The website Stressfaktor provides an up to date list of where these kitchens are, at what time, and on which days. Most are in former squats, now turned into legitimate 'project houses'.

Based in the Scheunenviertel area of Berlin’s Mitte district, Eve and Adam’s salad and smoothie bar was opened late 2007 by owner Jens Riewe – after leaving his high-flying job in the marketing sector. Smoothies are not yet the 'in thing' in Germany and the concept of establishing a 100% organic salad and smoothie bar is 100% revolutionary.

Germans love their meat. The longer you spend in Germany, the more you’ll learn this. Although Germany is also the 'greenest country' in the world, and quite frankly as fascinated by Bio and Organic produce as it is by pork, there’s still more than a little obsession with chunks of fleisch. Check out the grill wearing guys at Alexanderplatz if you’re looking to sample some traditional German bratwurst in a unique and memorable way.

Take Brewer's Berlin, take one of their legendary walking tours. The company has been running for over 20 years, led by the highly regarded elderly English gentleman Terry Brewer, recommended by every guide book under the sun, a tour with Brewer's is a quintessential Berlin experience. And seen as though they're all such lovely people, they'd decided to offer their walking tours for free, although it's always polite to tip the tour guide at the end.

The four museums, soon to become five with the re-opening on the Neues Museum, of Museum Island all offer free admission on Thursday evenings from 6pm to 10pm and over the next ten years are to be upgraded and connected by underground walkways. Berlin's state museums have had to come a long way since the Second World War, to re-establish themselves as world class centers of culture.

What is commonly refered to by Westerners as the Berlin Wall, was known to East Germans for 40+ years as the ‘anti-fascist protection barrier,’ erected to protect themselves from corrupt western power infringing on their socialist paradise. A paradise without bananas, not even in the supermarkets.

Despite the fact that it had been stood empty for over 12 years, nearly 2,500 Soviet soldiers gave their lives to take the German parliament building back in 1945. Ironic, or sad, then that the Reichstag building somehow managed to end up in the British sector of Berlin after the end of hostilities, only a few hundred metres from a huge mass grave housing the Soviet casualties (also in the British sector).

When everyone else is moaning about their first day at work after the weekend, you’re walking around a museum in the German capital established by two of the most famous names in the art collecting world.