Berlin has been familiar to movie-goers as the grey backdrop to numerous Cold War thrillers – the grim bridge between East and West. But after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the city set about transforming itself into a modern metropolis fit to be called the capital of re-unified Germany. The Berlin of today is a city that never sleeps. Bustling pubs and raucous nightclubs teem with restless energy. The wealth and quality of Berlin’s cultural life is peerless, with world-class museums, opera, theatre and music and a lively art and gallery scene. Despite the ravages of war, palaces and monuments survive to tell of past history; little bits of The Wall are there, too, to offer reminders of how its people were forcibly and ideologically separated for forty years. Alongside these, the numerous building sites once dotted across the city have produced stunning modern architecture. This is a city still working on its image – a city of fascinating extremes..






