14 Favorite Moments in Berlin

A visit to Berlin is always memorable. The city is constantly in flux, in contrast with more settled metropolises such as Paris, Rome, Vienna and Madrid. Here are a few favorite moments from my trip:

1 Swimming in the pool at Hotel de Rome. Set in a former bank vault, the pool is punctuated by solid granite columns and overlooked by a wall of glittering gold mosaic tile. Imitation gold bars serve as doorstops.

2 Entering La Soupe Populaire. I knew this hot spot by Michelin-starred chef Tim Raue had an unorthodox setting, but I wasn’t quite prepared to be confronted by a semi-abandoned brick brewery and a sculpture of a crashed bus.

3 Dining on flowers and caviar at Nobelhart & Schmutzig. At this year’s most anticipated restaurant in Berlin, we enjoyed each of the many courses. But I won’t soon forget the dish of saibling (char) roe and sour cream served atop yellow rapeseed flowers. The neutral-flavored blossoms made a beautiful and creative replacement for traditional blinis.

4 Returning to our Bebelplatz-view room at the Hotel de Rome to find a jelly-filled doughnut on a slab of black slate labeled “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

5 Ordering extravagant room service at the Regent. We had a short stay at this hotel on the Gendarmenmarkt, and only one opportunity to enjoy the $100 food-and-beverage credit included with our reservation. We decided to have a little fun, ordering a decadent lobster salad topped with gold leaf. Why not?

6 Standing beneath a Kanzelturm near Potsdamer Platz. On our Berlin Wall taxi tour, guide Thomas-Dietrich Lehmann took us down a deserted dead-end street. There, between the sidewalk and the street, rose a lone Kanzelturm, a former guard tower of the wall. It surely used to invoke fear in those who saw it, but now it stood crumbling and impotent.

7 Seeing the delightful sculptures by Berlin artist Michael Sailstorfer at the Sammlung Boros, a private contemporary art collection housed in a World War II-era bunker. My favorite was a tree suspended upside down from the ceiling and slowly dragged around in a circle. Our guide said that when the tree was fresh and green, it looked like it was dancing. But now, with bare branches scratching their way through rings of sawdust, it looked tired and pained. It was mesmerizing to watch.

8 Walking into our Executive Suite at the Schlosshotel im Grunewald to find the upper parts of the windows covered with black plastic sheeting. The previous guests, it seems, found the room too bright.

9 Accessing the bomb shelter beneath Tempelhof, the airport that became world-famous during the Berlin Airlift. Part of our behind-the-scenes tour included some time in the dimly lit air-raid bunker, where thousands of Berliners sheltered at the end of World War II. The bunker’s designers attempted to make the dank and claustrophobic space more cheerful by painting ribald cartoons on the walls. They failed.

10 Being lectured on arrival at Das Stue. It wouldn’t be a trip to Germany if we didn’t receive a little lecture about breaking the rules at some point. The front desk at Das Stue obliged when we attempted to check in at 2:45 p.m. The woman who greeted us raised her eyebrows, tapped her watch and informed us that check-in was not officially until 3 p.m. Our mistake!

11 Seeing the Stadtschloss rise up in place of the Palace of the Republic. To international dismay, the East German regime demolished the Stadtschloss, a Prussian royal winter residence on Museum Island, damaged — but by no means destroyed — in the bombing of Berlin. The boxy Palace of the Republic made a depressing replacement, and when large amounts of asbestos were discovered inside, the government of the reunited city of Berlin razed it, too. Now the reconstruction of the Stadtschloss proceeds apace. Only in Berlin would a replica Prussian royal palace be built on the ruins of a Communist government building built on the ruins of a Prussian royal palace!

12 Taking a private tour of the Neue Kammern (New Chambers) at Sanssouci. Frederick the Great’s rococo summer palace, Sanssouci, draws crowds every day. But so few people visit the Neue Kammern, a palace that rivals Sanssouci in grandeur, that the ticket-taker offered to arrange a private tour of the rooms for free. Our guide, Bianca, was a delight.

13 Buying sunglasses at Brillenschneiderei Yves. This eyewear store at the corner of Mulackstrasse and Gormannstrasse specializes in custom glasses, but I felt very happy with the dashing off-the-rack wood-framed sunglasses I found.

14 Stumbling on an orchestra rehearsal in the Marienkirche. St. Mary’s Church is one of Berlin’s oldest buildings, dating to the 13th century. We walked into its Gothic interior to discover an orchestra rehearsing in the choir loft beneath the organ.