Neues Museum, Berlin
One of Germany's biggest ever reconstruction projects, the Neues Museum reopened in November last year, having been left to decay for over 60 years. Originally built in 1841 but desecrated in the Second World War, the brick and mortar exterior has been left largely untouched, but the museum has undergone an internal overhaul helmed by David Chipperfield, for which he won a 2010 RIBA award. The renovation was controversial, as elements of the museum's war damage have been left untouched so that bullet-dented bricks remain alongside modern white staircases. Explore the permanent Egyptian and Papyrus collections which include the 1350BC bust of Queen Nefertiti.
Stay at Soho House Berlin, a boutique hotel and private members' club in the trendy central Mitte district. The impressive late-Bauhaus construction was built as a department store and later used for offices by the post-war Communist regime; the 40-room hotel is now a haven of urban decadence, with a rooftop pool, Cowshed spa, private cinema, stripped walls, velvet sofas, vintage record players and vinyl LPs in the bedrooms. Doubles from 100 (sohohouseberlin.com).
Eat & drink Translated literally as 'a slice of the Alps', Alpenstueck in Mitte offers Bavarian food at its best – the Wiener schnitzel will have you yodelling (alpenstueck.de). With its gilded stucco walls and cherub-strewn ceiling, cocktail bar Hausbar on Rykestrasse 54 in Prenzlauer Berg is a little pocket of Baroque in an often minimalist Berlin.
