The town and getting around

Directions in German are built almost entirely out of dative prepositions: mit dem Bus, zum Bahnhof, an der Ecke, gegenüber der Post. This is where aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu earn the effort of having been memorised as a line. One distinction worth fixing early: nach goes with countries and towns (nach Berlin, nach Italien), zu goes with people, shops and buildings (zum Arzt, zur Post), and in with the accusative goes into an enclosed place (in die Stadt). English uses "to" for all three, so the choice has to be made consciously until it is not.