KaDeWe

KaDeWe is short for Kaufhaus des Westens, department store of the West. It opened in 1907, and during the division of the city it became the showcase store of the western half, the place East Berliners headed for first when the Wall opened in November 1989. It is still the largest department store in continental Europe.

The sixth floor is the reason to come even if you buy nothing at all. The gourmet floor is built around counters rather than aisles: oysters, charcuterie, cheese, a sushi bar, a champagne bar, and stands where you eat standing up next to whoever else stopped in. It is a food hall on a scale most American visitors will not have seen at home.

Above it, a glass-roofed top floor looks out over City West and works as a break in a shopping afternoon. The building has been renovating floor by floor for several years, so the exact layout shifts, but the food hall stays put.

The store sits directly at Wittenbergplatz station on the U1, U2 and U3 subway lines, a few minutes' walk from the Kurfürstendamm and the Memorial Church. One thing to plan around: German stores, KaDeWe included, are closed on Sundays. That is a national rule, not a decision by the shop, and it catches a lot of visitors out on a weekend trip.