The winner of Berlin's battle of the books is ...
29th Oct 2005, 01:16 GMT
The Wall. The Brandenburg Gate. Checkpoint Charlie. The new Holocaust Memorial. If pushed I could probably have dredged up Norman Foster's dome on the Reichstag from the swirling trivia in my travel-clogged brain. But as far as the most important locations of a weekend city break - the stylish hotels, the funkiest restaurants and bars, hell, the shops - I had less hope of sniffing them out than squeezing my thighs into a pair of Joseph trousers. Berlin was uncharted territory: scarily trendy, I suspected, bleak, and punctured with dimly lit beer cellars spewing out belching budget airline fodder with sausage breath. So I needed a guide, but which? If left to my own devices I'd have packed the Time Out (TO) and had done with it. But I had a job to do. So I headed for the airport with three of the other main contenders - Lonely Planet (LP), Rough Guide (RG) and Dorling Kindersley's (DK) Eyewitness guide.