OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
1.Bearpit Karaoke
Topsstraße 28 • May–Oct: 3pm–5pm Sun • www.bearpitkaraoke.com 
Sunday afternoon karaoke sessions in the Mauerpark’s “bearpit” amphitheatre are extremely popular. The show host, Joe Hatchiban, arrives on a fancy bicycle equipped with loudspeaker and laptop. Crowds of up to 2,000 gather to watch hopefuls take turns belting out oldies.
2.Unterwelten Museum
Brunnenstraße 105 • 030 49 91 05 • English tours 11am & 1pm daily • Admission charge • www.berliner-unterwelten.de Did you know the Nazis made aircraft underground? Or that Cold War nuclear bunkers were largely futile? Find out on guided tours of bomb shelters, tunnels and vaults going back to the 19th century. Exhibits include an Enigma encryption machine, armaments and atmospheric living quarters.
3.Boros Art Collection
Reinhardtstraße 20 • English tours at 11am and 1pm daily • Admission charge • www.sammlung-boros.de This World War II air-raid shelter is now a contemporary art gallery owned by the advertising mogul Christian Boros. Built for the staff of nearby Friedrichstrasse railway station, this concrete behemoth has also served as a prison, a larder for produce, and a disco. Visits can be made only on 90-minute private tours, which can be booked online.
Boros Art Collection
4.Badeschiff
Eichenstraße 4 • 030 533 20 30 • May–Sep: 8am–midnight daily • Admission charge • www.arena-berlin.de A shimmering island of blue, this old cargo container in the Spree is the city’s coolest place for a dip. The pool is reached via a pier from a sandy beach. After sunset DJs spin vinyl and guests migrate to a nightclub boat, Hoppetosse, moored alongside.
The Badeschiff in the Spree
5.Schwerbelastungs-körper
General-Pape-Straße • 030 533 20 30 • Apr–Oct: 2–4pm Tue–Wed, 10am– 6pm Thu, 1–3pm Sun • www.schwerbelastungskoerper.de Hitler and Albert Speer, the Führer’s chief architect, planned to transform Berlin into a “world capital” called Welthauptstadt Germania. To test the feasibility of building a huge triumphal arch on the area’s soft ground, they commissioned the Schwerbelastungskörper, a concrete cylinder weighing 12,650 metric tons. The Welthauptstadt was never built but the cylinder houses a historical exhibition.
6.Monsterkabinett
Rosenthaler Straße 39 • 0178 80 60 202 • 6–10pm Thu, 4–10pm Fri & Sat • Admission charge • www.monsterkabinett.de Run by the Dead Chickens art collective, this installation features robots that interact with visitors. The 20-minute tour with heavy metal soundtrack and lightshow ends with a blast of anti-monster spray that blows the head off one creature.
7.Mount Mitte
Caroline-Michaelis-Straße 8 • 2pm–sunset Mon–Fri, 10am–sunset Sat–Sun • Admission charge • www.beachmitte.de Don a helmet, strap on a security line and wiggle your way through Berlin’s oddest high-rope climbing course, tackling wooden barrels, surfboards and old East German Trabant cars suspended in midair.
8.Admiralbrücke
Fraenkelufer 25 This lacy, wrought-iron bridge was built in 1882 in Jugendstil style, spanning one of the prettiest stretches on the Landwehrkanal. On balmy summer nights it fills up with beer-drinking revellers listening to street musicians playing their hearts out.
9.Currywurst Museum
Schützenstraße 70 • 030 88 71 86 30 • 10am–6pm daily • Admission charge • www.currywurstmuseum.de Curried pork sausage is as much as part of Berlin as the Reichstag. This interactive museum’s displays delve into the 1940s origins of currywurst and the history of fast food. Look out for a wienerwurst-shaped couch, a spice chamber with sniffing stations, a sausage game and a documentary called Rest of the Wurst.
Currywurst mascot
10.Tieranatomisches Theater
Philippstraße 12 • 030 209 30 • 2–6pm Tue–Sat • www.kulturtechnik.hu-berlin.de Nestled in a remote university courtyard, the Veterinary Anatomical Theatre is Berlin’s oldest surviving academic building, erected in 1789-90. Wander through the historical exhibition to the circular lecture hall with dissection table and ascending spectator galleries.
Tieranatomisches Theater
