The central ‘Mitte’ area of Berlin is packed tight with galleries and museums, which means you can cram a lot into a short amount of time, if that’s what you want. The best of the lot is the Me Collectors Room, which shows off large chunks of the Thomas Olbricht collection alongside other contemporary private artworks. The permanent ‘Wunderkammer’ display offers over 200 pieces from the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, with a solid focus on the strange and macabre. There’s even a Mark Ryden original that fits in nicely.

Flughafen Tempelhof was once the symbol of nazi-pride when Hitler notoriously comissioned construction of the smallest duty free shop in the world (and a beautiful example of fascist architecture). After the war, Tempelhof became one of the frontiers of the cold war with the U.S. battling the communists (who undoubtedly wanted to get rid of the small duty free shop altogether) via the Berlin Airlift. It turned out to be a huge succes, and enabled the allied forces to remain their presence in Berlin and save the small duty free shop. The real free-market victory will come in about two years though, when project developers will take over and start building houses, blocking my view onto the airfield.

It is an English language bookstore centering on non-western, diasporic, and queer perspectives. Many many many rare and special books carefully selected by Siddhartha Lokanandi that is the soul of this place! Check it, it is unforgettable :)

This place is like being in the Canary Islands, where my hometown is. The wonderful botanical garden has around 22.000 different plant species. I can find here all the tropical species from the island where i grew up: birds of Paradise, palms or dragon trees.

I never heard about Havel until some friends and me checked out the google earth for a trip at the weekend. We went there in the german winter, oh yes...in the winter. I loved this place because is a small city island with a lake (which was frozen at that time) and with lovely houses and an old mill. I have never been there in the summer but i can imagine how wonderful would be.