The corners of the building have been cleverly used to create suites but they and the business rooms, which have both desk and dressing table in them, both look outward to the city rather than inward to the fish tank. The entrance to the function rooms above however can, by arrangement, be by using the lift up the centre of the tank and the walkway that comes across the top of the atrium. Spectacular arrival for a bride or a company chairman perhaps?

Not all of the upper floors belong to the hotel as a part of the building is offices. This is a well thought through development by a client who had imagination – and there are very few of those!

The new glazed rooftop area makes for a panoramic view over the city and floods the floor with light. Down the centre run rooms without windows that allow for presentations to be made with controlled lighting. All this is additional to the conference facilities adjoining the hotel. With the ability to make a spectacular entrance the venue is very popular for weddings and other celebrations.

"a well thought through development by a client who had imagination"

There is more to the hotel than the fish tank of course, and it also benefits from the tourist attractions around it including a Stasi Museum, and a small museum nearby dedicated to the East German car industry, who’s most famous product was the Trabant. Trabants (see for more on Trabants )are collected all around Europe, and it is possible to tour the old part of Berlin that was behind the ‘wall’ by a Trabant caravan. Having been on one of those trips I have to say I have never been in a car so uncomfortable or unsafe.

The hotel has its own busy spa, well designed and laid out, and two restaurants as well as the food service in the atrium bar. Food is of high quality and it serves perhaps the best breakfast of any hotel I have stayed in, although the restaurant spaces struggle to cope when the hotel is fully booked, as it was through my stay. The lower restaurant (both open onto the riverside terrace by the Spree, which at this point is on two levels) has its own bar cum night club space, where lighting is used dramatically, a drama that is also present on the staircase linking them to the atrium