 |
| Tom at the Eastside Gallery (Berlin Wall) |
February in Berlin is cold, but the incredible variety of indoor activities make it a good winter destination. Even slow travelers like us saw a lot of what Berlin has to offer in a blustery, cold winter week.
Day One
We started with a visit to the Reichstag, Germany's parliament, where you can walk up a ramp to the top of the glass cupola, with panoramic views all the way up. The free audioguide gives detailed explanations of the sights and of the building itself. Free, but a reservation is necessary due to security concerns.
 |
In front of the Reichstag (19th century building). You can just
see the glass cupola peeking out from behind |
 |
A memorial for 96 legislators killed during WW II for
resisting Hitler. There is a stone with the name of each victim and
the date and location of his death (close up below) |
 |
| Looking up at the Reichstag dome |
 |
| View on the way up |
The Brandenburg Tower (visible from the Reichstag) is a short walk away past several memorials to victims of persecution in WW II and to those killed trying to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin/
 |
Parisen platz, by Brandenburg gate, home to the US and
French embassies and the Adlon Hotel where Michael Jackson
famously dangled baby Blanket out the window
|
There is an interesting Frank Ghery building (Deutsches Bank) on the square. The outside is plain, but the inside is like a silvery fish. When the bank is open you can take a peek, then walk through the adjacent Academy of Arts building if it is open, exiting near the Holocaust memorial, a block of rectangular concrete blocks, all the same size but differing heights. Peole seem to appear and disappear among the stones. There is a museum beneath the memorial.
Keep walking and you arrive at the Topographie des Terroirs, an indoor/outdoor museum with a portion of the Berlin Wall and a museum about WW II. It is built on the site of the former gestapo building where prisoners were interrogated and executed. This museum is also free and currently has a special exhibit of pictures taken inside the concentration camps which is very moving.
 |
| Berlin wall at the Topography of Terror museum |
Pottsdam platz, home to the Sony center and a good example of modern Berlin architecture, was next. 80 percent of Berlin was destroyed by bombing during the war. While some of the destroyed buildings were replaced by similar construction, there is an incredible amount of modern and avant garde architecture in Berlin, and construction going on all over the city.
Not much farther, past Trabi world (where you can rent one of the east german Trabi cars) to Checkpoint Charlie which is, of course, no longer a checkpoint, rather a major tourist trap with all kinds of fake WWII and cold war era kitsch for sale. The Checkpoint Charlie museum has interesting artifacts like a car used to smuggle people out of east Berlin, and a hollowed out surfboard used for the same purpose.
 |
A picture of a soldier looks out at the former Checkpoint Charlie where
you can now have your picture taken with faux soldiers. |
Day 2
Fortified by some good german beer and a good night's sleep at our hotel (Adina Apartment Hotel, Hauptbahnhof--very comfortable and convenient, I recommend it), we bundled up and headed for the East Side Gallery, a 1.3 km stretch of the wall painted by international artists invited to do so by Berlin officials. Due to graffitti, most of the artists came back and touched up their original work in 2009, the 20th anniversary of tearing down the wall.
 |
Tom in front of the Adina. You see the painte
bears all over Berlin in different positions. |
 |
| A view of the east side gallery from across the street |
 |
| My favorite, a Trabi breaks through to freedom! |
 |
This one, by an Italian artist, is
named La Berluernica, a play on
the famous Guernica. |
At the end of the wall there is access to the river and, from March through September, a chance to take a cruise. There is even a boat converted to a hostel for those looking for a different type of accommodation. It is a short walk across an attractive brick bridge, to the S bahn.
Lunch and exploring at Hackesher Markt finished up another great day. The sun came out and there was a street market going on with some really unusual jewelry and other items for sale, and all kinds of street food, even burritos. After lunch at Weihenstephaner Bavarian Restaurant, in the square right outside the station (incredible roast pork),
 |
| yummy roast pork |
we wandered through the street fair and the hofe, old style Berlin courtyards, one after another connected to each other. They are now apartments and shopping areas, but very interesting, especially #40 which goes through a beautifully restored 1907 Jugenstil (art nouveau) building. One of the courtyards has a souvenir shop called the ampelmannchen, after the jaunty little red and green men on the DDR pedestrian walk signs.
 |
| East German pedistrian stop and go signals |
 |
| restored 1907 art nouveau building and courtyard |
Day 3
We spent most of the day at the Jewish Museum which covers a 1000 years of Jewish history in Europe, housed in an unusual building designed by Daniel Libeskind which has been nicknamed "the blitz" (lightning)because of the zigzag windows/ It isn't possible to tell how tall the building is from the outside, which was intentional. There are intersecting corridors leading to spaces called voids, which represent the loss to society caused by the murder of the Jews and other victims of the Nazis. Included on the 24 euro museum pass which you can buy at the museum if it is your first, saving ticket buying time at other venues which may be more crowded.
 |
garden of remembrance (above)
Museum exterior (left) |
 |
Art installation in one of the voids, 10,000
metal faces representing victims of the holocaust |
After the intensity of the Jewish museum we elected to spend the rest of the day exploring neighborhoods and sampling german cuisine while photographing some of the street art which is everyone.
Day 4
Museum passes in hand (24 euros for access to 50 museums for 3 days , and the museums are 0-14 euros each) we were ready to tackle Museum Island, home to 5 of Berlin's oldest museums, as well as the Berlin Cathedral and the nearby German museum. The subway stop is Hackesher Markt, so it would be easy to combine a visit to the museums with the Markt if you have the energy. The Pergamon (reservation for a time slot recommended) was our first stop, unfortunately its most famous piece, the Pergamon altar, will not be back on display until 2019 due to construction, but the Ishtar gate and Babylonian exhibits were well worth the visit.
 |
| Ishtar Gate |
 |
| Detail from hall leading to Ishtar gate |
Next was the Neues Museum whose most famous exhibit is the bust of Nefertiti which is housed in solitary splendor in Room 205 (no photos allowed)/ I usually skip Egyptian museums, preferring local history and art, but this museum, has a great collection of statuary and is worth a peek if you have time.
A scribe and his wife (left) and a scribe with a small child right.
After the two museums we headed to the nearby Berlin cathedral for a look at Frederick's over the top roccoco, baroque, art nuveau style. Hard to believe it is a protestant church, it certainly givens the catholic cathedrals a run for their money.
Day 5
On to Charlottenberg Palace, another easy metro ride away (the 7 euro day ticket is a great bargain, you can travel all day on the U bahn, S bahn, busses and trams, just remember to validate it first). If you will not have time to go to Pottsdam, and especially if you have not seen any other European palaces, this is worth a visit, otherwise, I suggest just going to Pottsdam which is far more impressive. This palace, another of Frederick's many homes, has many empty rooms with gilded ceilings but lacks the wow factor of Sans Soucci. There are, however, several good museums in the area, so if you are interested in any of them, it makes the trip more worthwhile. We toured the palace then had lunch at Lemke Brewhouse, a place that is very in to craft beer and has brewing facilities at the pub. The menu suggests beer and food pairings and there is even a beer sommelier. I tried their wheat beer with veal sausage as recommended, tasty, but Tom's spicy sausage, potatoes and kraut looked a lot better. I could not detect the vanialla/citrus/earthy flavors of the beer, but then I never detect those things in wine either.
 |
|
After a refreshing lunch we headed to the nearby Berggruen museum, a collection of modern art donated by Mr. Berggruen, a friend of Picasso's, who left Germany in 1938, made his fortune in the U.S., but ultimately returned to his homeland. It is possible to follow Picasso's artistic evolution as well as looking at works by some of his contemporaries, including Matisse and Klee.
 |
Picasso's doodles!
|
 |
Inside the Berggruen (above)
train station (below)
|
Day 6: Last Day in Berlin
And time for a trip to Pottsdam to visit Sans Soucci, Frederick's summer palace.
 |
| Sculpture at the Hauptbahnhof |
Friends had highly recommended this day trip and I am glad that they did. The Palace grounds are huge, and there are numerous buildings. Like many tourists, we visited only the two main palaces, Sans Soucci and Neues Palace, taking a bus between the two (your berlin 3 zone day ticket covers buses here also). On a warmer day, it would be great to stroll through the grounds between the two, perhaps picnicking along the way.
 |
Details from the grotto room at Neues Palace,
over 250,000 shells were used in the decorations |
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| Andy Warhol painting in exit hall |
No comments:
Post a Comment