A Berlin day from Museum Island to a Neukölln wine bar

Museum Island opens at nine. Book the Pergamon online and queue at eight-forty-five; the Ishtar Gate and Market Gate of Miletus are the two unmatched objects. Ninety minutes. Skip the other four museums unless you have a full day.

Peter Eisenman's field of 2,711 concrete stelae. Walk into the centre where the slabs rise to four metres and the ground drops — the disorientation is the point. The underground information centre beneath is free and essential.

Past the Gate, cross the Tiergarten edge to the Reichstag. The glass dome (free, book online two days ahead) is Norman Foster's democratic metaphor — a spiral ramp the public can walk above the debating chamber.

A 1930 currywurst stand under the Prenzlauer Berg U-Bahn tracks. The classic: pork sausage grilled and sliced, ladled with spiced ketchup, curry powder on top. Pommes on the side. Stand up, eat standing.

The longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, 1.3 kilometres on the Spree. A hundred and five murals by artists from 21 countries, painted in 1990. The Brezhnev-Honecker kiss and Test the Rest are the two everyone photographs.

A hands-on museum of everyday East German life. Open the cupboards of a reconstructed 1980s Plattenbau flat, sit in a Trabant, watch the censored television programming. Ninety minutes, fully engaging.

A tiny natural-wine bar on Weichselstraße in Neukölln — stripped walls, chalkboard list, a plate of bread and butter, a plate of anchovies. One glass, then move south to the next bar along the same street.