Prague to Berlin: A Cultural Odyssey

From the viewpoint of the towering, 15th-century Powder Gate, Prague’s spire- and dome-studded skyline unravels like the detailed plot of a gothic novel: there are the twin pinnacles of Tyn Church, rising like medieval spaceships, the sugar-almond shades and higgledy-piggledy streets of the Old Town Square, and the grand, statue-topped bridges that knit together the two banks of the Vltava. Then there’s the monumental Prague Castle, the former seat of Bohemian kings, keeping a watchful eye from his hilltop throne.

The Saxon capital is a grand duchess of a city, with a gleaming showcase of baroque buildings to rival any postcard-perfect European city. To gaze upon Dresden’s skyline is to study a supersized timeline of German artistry: the Frauenkirche’s egg-shaped dome, the grand spires of the Residenzschloss, the fountains and pavilions of the Zwinger palace – even more remarkable, considering much of it was reconstructed after devastating bombing in the 1940s, restoring the city to its glorious heyday.

Creativity storms through Leipzig’s veins. Edgy and artistic in equal measure, it is a city that owes much of its clout to the likes of Wagner, Bach and Mendelssohn, who lived and composed here, their legacies alive in the city’s museums and gilded concert halls. Once firmly behind the Iron Curtain, Leipzig is once more a bold hub of culture, where artists hone their crafts in the revamped studios of Europe’s largest cotton mill, and would-be virtuosos dream up symphonies from the shaded lawns of Clara-Zetkin-Park. 

It can be hard to pin down the grand, gritty German capital. Stacked over the banks of the Spree, it is like nowhere else in Europe, a cosmopolitan duel between imperial palaces and edgy food markets, its soundtrack one of both pulsing techno music and the filigreed melodies of Bach and Brahms. History is, quite literally, beneath your feet: trace the graffiti-daubed remnants of the Cold War, ponder ancient history in the Pergamon Museum and stroll beneath the lime trees to the Brandenburg Gate, a powerful emblem of reunification.