Day trip to Schwerin

Picturesque, tourist-free former ducal capital

Word to the wise: To make a day of it, consider breaking your train journey at Ludwigslust, home to the former dukes of Schwerin's baroque summer palace.
A part of Germany foreign visitors hardly ever see, Schwerin is a bustling, extremely picturesque city less than 90 minutes by train from Berlin. Situated on an isthmus between forest-fringed lakes, Schwerin's was actually the capital of an independent dukedom until German unification in 1870, and its focal point remains the dukes' almost ludicrously romantic-looking castle.

This is surrounded both by beautiful gardens and cobbled streets whose charming old buildings and cafe-filled pavements blow away any stereotypes of Eastern Germany as a grim place. Given a modest elegance by the ponds surrounding it on all sides, Schwerin's old town also boasts a remarkable brick gothic cathedral.
Schwerin is far enough from Berlin to deter tourists, but that doesn't mean it's hard to get to, with trains leaving Berlin's Hauptbahnhof roughly every hour.