Potsdam

Visit Sanssouci Castle - the baroque decoration is wonderful.

Take a cycling tour of the city

Walk around Sanssouci Park, with its many castles, follies, cascading terraces, mini-gardens, and romantic ruins.

Climb the Babelsberg

Stroll around New Garden part of the UNESCO world heritage ensemble, on the banks of the river Havel. It was here that Churchill, Stalin and Truman met for the Potsdam Conference, at the end of World War II.

Visit the Dutch quarter, the Russian Colony, and the Weberviertel in Babelsberg the 'weaver's quarter', built to accommodate artisans from Bohemia - three architectural oddities commissioned by the Prussian kings to attract foreign craftsmen to Potsdam.

Just north of the city, in the woods overlooking the river, is a historic Russian church and lodge by the name of Nikolskoe. Now a popular cafe, it makes for a good pit stop on the way to nearby Peacock Island.

Walk around the picturesque south bank of lake Griebnitz, and into the streets of Neubabelsberg - a typical German 'Villenkolonie' of the Belle Epoque. Many of the grand homes' Jewish occupants were evicted by the Nazis, who then moved in themselves.

Visit the 'Studio Babelsberg' (http://www.studiobabelsbe...) for a 'Studio Tour' , in the Babelsberg film studios - Germany's Cinecitta. The centre of German celluloid expressionism, Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Lang and so many others worked here in the 1920s; more recently, Quentin Tarantino shot Inglourious Basterds on the premises.