The East Side Gallery

The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall, running for about 1.3 kilometres along Muehlenstrasse in Friedrichshain, between the Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaum Bridge, and it is the most joyful place to meet the Wall. This was the hinterland wall on the eastern side of the border, which here followed the River Spree; the death strip ran behind it down to the water. In the months after the Wall opened, artists from around the world were invited to paint its eastern face, and 118 artists from 21 countries created the murals that turned the grey concrete into what is often called the longest open-air gallery in the world. Some of the images became world-famous: Dmitri Vrubel's painting of the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and the East German leader Erich Honecker locked in a socialist fraternal kiss, with its caption asking God to help the artist survive this deadly love; Birgit Kinder's white Trabant smashing through the Wall; and dozens of images of faces, doves, borders and hope. The murals have been restored several times, most thoroughly in 2009, when many of the original artists repainted their work, and they are now looked after by the Berlin Wall Foundation, which also runs a small visitor centre at Muehlenstrasse 73 with information, tours and a programme of events. Visiting is free and the gallery is open around the clock, but it is at its best in the morning, before the crowds, when the light falls on the painted side. Behind the Wall, the riverside has been turned into a park with views across to Kreuzberg, while across the road, the modern towers of the Mercedes-Benz Platz entertainment district show how much this former industrial wasteland has changed.

How to walk it: the most popular route starts at Ostbahnhof station and walks east, so that you end at the Oberbaum Bridge, the red-brick double-decker bridge that was once a border crossing for pedestrians, with Warschauer Strasse station and the bars of Friedrichshain beyond. Walk along the painted side first, then come back along the riverside path behind the Wall, where you can see the unpainted western face, now covered with graffiti, and the Spree that was part of the border. The famous Fraternal Kiss mural draws the biggest crowd, so if you want a photo without people in it, go early.

Making sense of it: the gallery tells the story of 1989 and 1990, of celebration and of the artistic freedom that followed, rather than the daily reality of the border. For that, pair it with the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse. The visitor centre is open daily from 10am to 5pm, though it closes on Fridays from November and over the Christmas holidays, and the foundation offers guided tours focusing on the Wall and on the art. Please do not add your own graffiti or touch the murals: the paintings are protected monuments and have been damaged by visitors many times.

Around it: the gallery sits at the meeting point of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, two of the liveliest districts of the city. Across the Oberbaum Bridge, Kreuzberg has the cafes and Turkish bakeries of the Wrangelkiez, while the RAW grounds and the Simon-Dach-Strasse area of Friedrichshain fill with bars at night. In summer, the beach bars and riverside spots along the Spree are part of the scene. The gallery is a fifteen-minute ride from Alexanderplatz on the S-Bahn.