Deep Hours is a small company of overnight city-walking guides. We walk Berlin, Lisbon, Madrid and Athens from sunset to sunrise, in a single twelve-hour stride, in groups of eight, with one guide and a notebook. We have done this 412 times.
We meet at the gate, on the east side, at the column closest to the Adlon. Eight walkers, one guide; a single round of introductions; a small black notebook; the names of the first six streets we shall take. The walk begins.
South of the gate, through the trees, to the Soviet memorial. We pause here for fifteen minutes; the linden trees, in May, are at their loudest, and the lamps in the park give the only light the photographers want.
We walk south-east through the Tiergarten and the Landwehr canal until we reach the first Späti — the corner shop that does not close. Each of us is given five euros and twelve minutes; we are to come back with one drink, one snack, one observation.
Across the river through the Schlesisches Tor and along the towpath until we hit the bend at Treptower Park. This is the quietest stretch of the night. We sit on the bank for half an hour; no-one says anything; the river says enough.
The fairy-tale fountain runs all night. We come up by the long path, sit on the dry stones around it, and the lead reads aloud a passage from the Grimm of the night's choice — to whoever has been the quietest since 23.00.
The driver-canteen above the platforms is open from two to six; we order broth and bread, sit at the long table with the shift-workers, and most of us write three lines in our notebooks. The walk continues at half-past three.
The first light begins behind the Strausberger Platz. We walk down the avenue — once Stalin-Allee, briefly Friedrichshain-Strasse, now Karl-Marx — and listen to the buildings wake up; the bakeries open at four, the trams at four-eighteen.
We end on the long disused runway of the old Tempelhof airfield. By the time we get there the sun is exactly above the eastern fence. We stand on the dotted yellow line and watch it for as long as it takes anyone to say it is time to go home. Then we go home.
Applications are read by hand. We answer within ten days. We reserve the right to refuse; we do not, however, charge for a place we have not held you for.
We are slow. The Berlin walks are full through July; Lisbon is full through August; Athens and Madrid have places into late summer.
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