Timing is Everything
We've set a nasty precedent this trip for showing up everywhere just after or before cool events or festivals, and somehow rocking up to a town/city during the brief window when things are closed for maintenance.
Take for example Berlin's Bundestag building (the former Reichstag) with it's famous glass cupola dome. The landmark fitout by Lord Norman Foster is still visible from the rooftop terrace, but the iconic glass dome? Well that happens to be closed the entire week we're there.
I even had to interrupt our walking tour guide mid lyrical-wax about how great the view was from up there, to point out that it was in fact closed for cleaning.
There were sighs all round.
The upshot of all this is we've got a big list of things to see when we're next in all these places. Which, in Berlin's case at least, probably won't be too long.