Berlin for The Slow Weekenders: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

An hour's wander from the Siegessäule to the Rousseauinsel on the gravel paths, benches every hundred metres and no need to see anything.

A Balinese-style spa village of saunas and warm pools behind the Hauptbahnhof, an evening ticket for three hours; towels and quiet provided.

A lakeside restaurant inside the park, Flammkuchen or a Schnitzel on the terrace with the rowing boats tied up for the night.

Baumkuchen made on a spit since 1852, breakfast on the Spree bank where the family has sold it for five generations.

Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Cranachs in daylight rooms with sofas; pick one wing, sit in front of three pictures, leave before you tire.

A late lunch of Wiener Schnitzel and a Riesling in the wine house where Sekt was named, the afternoon allowed to run on into evening.

The palace garden without the palace ticket: the baroque parterre, the carp pond and a bench on the Spree side, free and mostly empty.

A Sunday lunch of confit and a Bordeaux in a Charlottenburg brasserie that keeps French hours; coffee comes when you ask for it.

A 1914 municipal bath built like a Roman villa, mosaic columns around the pool and a sauna upstairs; an hour's swim, then the steam.

A domed saltwater pool with music played underwater, open from nine; two hours of floating in the dark before the day has to start.

Forty-three hectares and a 1907 iron glasshouse of palms and tree ferns, warm whatever the weather; the Italian garden has the benches.

Grandmother's cooking in the rebuilt old quarter, Sauerbraten and a beer at a wooden table, the portions sized for a long train journey.