By Aoife Finneran

The first time I stood at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, I was a lowly student. It was 2001 and Michael Jackson had yet to dangle his child out that now-famous hotel window.

Nonetheless, being a woman of vision, I had already earmarked the Adlon Kempinski Hotel as a fitting abode for my future rich and famous self.Fast forward eight years and, while fame and fortune haven’t come a-knocking, the chance to stay in one of the world’s most magnificent hotels did.

It’s not just the location of the Adlon — directly in front of the Brandenburg Gate — that sets it apart. Factor in 400 staff used to catering for everyone from various royals and heads of state to barmy celebrities with child-dangling propensities, and it makes for an uber-slick machine that leaves every guest feeling as if they’ve just entered heaven.

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By Cathrin Schaer in Berlin

There are no tickets and barely any advertising. But the karaoke sessions that take place in what was once the Berlin Wall’s death strip every weekend are rapidly becoming an entertainment phenomenon. And it’s all thanks to an enterprising Irish cycle courier with a big bike and some speakers.

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