City West: the broken tower and the boulevard
The war-ruined church, the long shopping boulevard, and the food halls at the top of the KaDeWe. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Zoologischer Garten
The old heart of West Berlin and the start. Step out the south side onto *Hardenbergplatz* and walk towards the broken spire two minutes ahead — you'll see it before you've decided to.

2. Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche
The 1890s tower was left a jagged ruin after the bombing and kept that way on purpose. Go inside Egon Eiermann's 1960s hall beside it — the walls are thousands of blue glass blocks, and at dusk the whole room turns underwater.

3. Breitscheidplatz
The square at the church's foot, with the *Weltkugelbrunnen* — a globe fountain Berliners call the 'water dumpling'. Buskers, skateboarders, the new Bikini Berlin mall behind. The everyday counterweight to the ruin.

4. Kurfürstendamm
Turn west onto the *Ku'damm*, the boulevard built to rival the grand avenues of Paris. Three and a half kilometres of it, though you only need the first stretch — the flagship shops, the cafés under the limes. Window-shop and turn back.

5. Tauentzienstraße
Double back east past the church onto *Tauentzienstraße*, the Ku'damm's shorter, busier sibling. The Berlin sculpture in the central reservation marks the line where the city was once divided. Keep going towards the great store ahead.

6. KaDeWe
The *Kaufhaus des Westens*, continental Europe's biggest department store since 1907. Skip the shopping floors and ride straight to the sixth: the food hall is a city block of counters, oysters, sausage, cheese. Eat standing up.

7. Wittenbergplatz
The walk ends at the U-Bahn station next to the KaDeWe — a 1913 station that's a small museum of itself, with old enamel signs and wooden ticket halls. Three lines home from here.

City West: the broken tower and the boulevard