Today is a day for museums. Need I say more?
Another morning, another room service breakfast.
Walking towards Berlin's Museum Island, we pass this sculpture on a bridge and I just had to take its picture. By the way, I may have not mentioned that term before, Museum Island. Between bends in the river is a small sliver of an island, and it is home to several museums and the Berlin Cathedral. In the old days, the Berlin Palace, home of the Kaisers, stood there as well.
Berlin soon after the siege. Look closely and you see the Altes Museum to the left, the Alte National Gallery in the rear center, and the Berliner Dom to the right.
The Berliner Dom today.
The Altes Museum, which we have never entered before, but will enter today. The truth is that we bought two Berlin Museum Passes which allow us into most of the museums in the city. For the cost of two museum visits, we plan to visit five or more. Oh yeah,
I have failed to include a Lustgarten fountain picture this year, until now. If you are a hardcore Waster, the coolest thing to do would be to compare the pics from last year and this year. Last year had better weather, this year a better camera. Also, I think last year, since I had no idea what to expect from Berlin, the Waste in Berlin was filled with an energy of amazement.
These pillars between the Alte National Gallery and the Alte Museum still show extensive bullet and shrapnel damage. The Battle of Berlin, fought mainly between the USSR and Germany, lasted from April 20 to May 2, 1945, yet it was one of the bloodiest battles in history. The Soviet Union poured 2.5 million soldiers into the city (some from Poland, as well) and the Germans had nearly 800,000 soldiers entrenched in their capital. Out of these 3.3 million soldiers, there were 1.3 million casualties.
One thing I will add is that the Battle of Berlin is something to keep in mind when thinking about Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons to end World War II just three months after the Battle of Berlin.
The Alte (Old) National Gallery, clearly patterned after the Parthenon. Those sheet things in front are not for refurbishing, they are part of a fairly unattractive art piece.
This statue at the Alte National Gallery's entrance of Prometheus caught my eye. It is beautiful.
The artwork in this gallery is good, but the architecture and design is great. The museum itself is more impressive than the collection. Sadly, no two-dimensional photograph can capture a brilliant three dimensional space. So... just take my word for it.
One of the Alte National Gallery's great rooms.
Another great room.
A great space at the top of a stair.
A truly great room.
On occasion, I will give in and share a piece with you.
Resting Girl, Johann Gottfried Schadow, Berlin, 1826.
Another great space.
The Granite Bowl at the Lustgarten in Berlin, Johann Erdmann Hummel, Berlin, 1831. (This one is included so that I can show you this bowl where it sits today.)
We walk outside and head over to the Altes Museum, where Greek and Roman antiquities are found. But right in front, you have...
The Granite Bowl, today. I should have moved to the right and gotten the Berlin Cathedral in background, just like the painting.
Inside the Altes Museum, you are treated to this domed space which is truly out of this world. All the panoramas turned out twisted and deformed. Looking back, maybe I should have panned across it with video. Either way, there are fewer rooms on this planet better than this one.
Fine, I changed my mind and here is a deformed panorama.
Portrait Head of a Man. Limestone, Italy, 100-50 BC.
Medea Sarcophagus, Rome, 140-190 AD.
Colossal Statue with Cornucopia, Marble, Italy 130-140 AD. Mrs. Barbara Howard, Shown for Scale, 2010.
After looking at it dozens of times, after picturing Adolf Hitler giving speeches from its steps, after picturing 200,000 Berliners demonstrating here against Adolf Hitler soon after he took power and began violating the constitution, I have finally been inside.
Just outside the Altes Museum, literally steps from the Berlin Cathedral, I am reminded that advertising is advertising, everywhere you go.
This one is taken for my boy Mez, who I recall once bitched to someone I know about my long blogs. He may never see this pic, but I figure if mister Upper East Side Himself moved to Berlin, this is where he would end up.
Barbie and I hopped into a cab and headed West for lunch. This took us through the Tiergarten, with the under refurbishment Victory Column in the garden's central roundabout. Originally designed in 1864 for the victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was completed in 1873 there has also been victory in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and the Franco-Prussian War (1871), known as the Unification Wars because they brought together all of the German-speaking territories that had been lost since the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. Atop the column is a bronze statue of Victoria. This column originally stood in the plaza in front of the Reichstag, but the Nazi's moved it in 1939 to its current location. Five pictures down you will see the original location.
Time Travel Picture:
July, 2009. My picture of the Victory Column without scaffolding.
Why else would we head to the West of Berlin?
Barbie's Pulled Pork Nachos -- my potato skins.
We went straight to the Reichstag after lunch. As you learned yesterday, it is basically my goal for this visit to get into that glass dome at its top.
That is the line for the dome. Perhaps I shall get in there tomorrow. And see that green space? That is Republic Square, where at its end the Victory Column first stood.
Walking back to the hotel from the Reichstag, I cannot help but take another path of the Wall picture. Note the North side of the Brandenburg gate in the distance.
A bit closer to the North side of the Gate.
One block South of the Gate, we again visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This time, we went underneath to visit the museum. It was an excellent and moving tribute to the Holocaust, with a very comprehensive perspective. Not only does it cover all the facts, but there are moving rooms featuring letters and postcards sent from inside the extermination camps, as well as family histories from every territory in Europe that the Holocaust reached.
Back at the hotel and not hungry, we let my parents go eat dinner without us. Barbie worked and I read and blogged, until around 11 PM when Barbie was hungry enough to order room service.
Until tomorrow...
that is nice
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