Before hitting the beer halls of Berlin or embarking on a footslog round the sparkling new architecture of a city still laid out on Albert Speer’s grandiose scale, visitors to the German capital can wind down and cleanse their auras with a taxi ride to their inner selves. On the outside, it’s a London cab; inside, it’s a journey to another world, hung with oriental drapes, beaded in crystal, upholstered with velvet cushions and strewn with rose petals. The air is scented with incense and passengers choose the music - anything from Buddhist chants to world music or techno.

The cab’s driver-proprietor, Dagmar Schultz, a platinum blonde doctor of engineering and specialist in waste water treatment from the east, found, like many “osties”, that her job disappeared after unification. So she decided “to create this place for inspiration”.

Now qualified as a city guide, she is also an enthusiastic student of ayurveda and reiki. “I want to provide a rest for the whole person and something for all the senses,” says Dagmar, offering a choice of herbal tea, champagne or Red Bull and encouraging passengers to help themselves from the selection of sweets and chocolates as she tells them about her town in her urgent English.

Details: +49 (0)30 925 09 88; +49 (0)163 6 16 56 86 (mobile); www.paradise-cab.com. Berlin information: www.btm.de