Wim Wenders shot Wings of Desire here. It's a quiet place to work and definitely a gorgeous place to visit. Combine it with a visit to the Philharmonic, just across the street. Affiliation is 30 euros per year and you have lots of desks all over the library to choose from.

On a leafy street in Kreuzberg is Kuratiert, a contemporary illustration gallery and shop selling prints, ceramics, textiles and more by some of the best creators from Berlin and the world. It also hosts regular dedicated exhibitions, and is a great place to browse for gifts, or just inspiration.

What’s not to like about The Sammlung Boros Collection? It’s a brilliant private collection of contemporary art held captive in a monstrous, symmetrical ex-Nazi bunker with two metre thick concrete walls, dominating an area of a thousand metres squared. It also doubled as a hardcore techno and fetish club in the ‘90s, of which traces linger in every corner.

Just until recently this place used to be one big old Aphoteke (Pharmacy). They have kept the Apotheke's  dark wood Art Deco charm to use in benefit of great coffee and fantastic brunch (try the french toast and you'll see I'm not lying). 

One of the most beautiful pieces of Berlin actually is a piece of another city (Al-Hillah, Iraq). Normally Berliners are laid back and like to hang around, drink beer and chat till sunrise. Sometimes they do get excited though, and then they start taking old war-battered stones and piecing them together to (re)form walls. The results are great as can be seen all over Berlin, but the Ishtar gate in the Pergamon museum is where they’ve really outdone themselves.