Brucato's Go Museum Hopping!: The Museum Adventure Continues!

Wednesday, 27 February, 2013

Guten Tag!

We have had yet another museum filled day, and we still have at least one more museum to go! (Although not today, I have to admit!) Down for breakfast about 8 a.m. and had it here in the hotel. Okay buffet spread of bread, cheese and cold cuts – only one of which was recognizable to me (I do NOT do mystery meat!); some wonderful salami! Think we may find someplace else tomorrow; we’ll have to see.

Spree River

Back up to the room, and out the door about 9:15. We stopped at the front desk and obtained the Berlin Welcome card, which will take care of museums and all transit for the next 72 hours; figured it was a good deal, if only for the museum admissions! Day was very overcast (will we ever see the sun before we head back to Tucson, we ask ourselves?! But hey, this was our idea – weather vs. tourists, right?!)

Building detail

Draw bridge

And, once again, the underground system that is Berlin’s got us good! (When we were here in 2006, we took two different underground trains with a huge change in the middle to get to Museum Island … and then had a ways to walk…only to find out on our last day in Berlin that if we had ignored the underground and walked three blocks – there was Museum Island! Oh well!) First, to explain Museum Island. This is a small island in the middle of the Spree River, which runs through Berlin. Over the years, most of the traditional museums were located here, and when the city was split, Museum Island was entirely in the eastern zone. Since East and West Berlin have become one again, there has been a massive undertaking to renovate all the museums. When we were here before, for instance, the Egyptian collection had been moved from the Charlottenburg Palace out in the suburbs to a temporary space in the Altes Museum. What they now have (which is a bit confusing to the likes of us…) is the Pergamonmuseum, which is really three museums in one. The Pergamon altar and the Ishtar Gate are some of the show pieces of the Pergamonmuseum. However, on the top floor of the Pergamonmuseum is the Museum for Islamic Art. Then, physically around the corner, is the entrance to the Neues Museum.

Heron

Tourist

So, back to getting taken for a ride again by the subway…we decided that if we went back two stops, to Alexanderplatz, we could transfer there to the U2 line, and take it to Markisches Museums…which is what we thought would be the Museum Island museums…silly us, of course not! That is, literally, a museum called Markisches! So…that meant that by the time we had resurfaced above ground, we were at the very far end of Museum Island, and had to walk the entire length to get to where we wanted to be! Pretty misty; light rain, but not enough for umbrellas (which we actually have with us!); not too bitterly cold, either, which is nice. So…to walk…

Got closer to the museum complex, and WOW, what a construction mess it is! There is building going on everywhere – with all sorts of barricades and barriers across entire streets. Finally made our way past what looked to be a large cathedral, and arrived at the Neues Museum … only to find that our Museum Island pass wasn’t enough – we needed a timed 4-Euro supplement ticket! Ugh!! So – R got in the long line, and I poked around – and found that if I went into the Pergamonmuseum, that there was NO line to upgrade the tickets and get a time – for right then! Back out the door and outside to find Robert, and in we whisked into the Neues Museum.

Berlin Cathedral

Very, very nicely renovated space. The courtyard has been covered in glass, reminiscent of the British Museum, and it was quite lovely. There is an excellent exhibition on von Schlieman’s excavation of Troy, as well as some of the finds from Priam’s Treasure – mostly copies, though, as the Pushkin Museum in Moscow has the originals, which were looted during WWII and never returned; obviously a fair amount of bitterness remains – I just wish they’d get them back, as we’d love to see the originals! (But not enough to go to Moscow…)

Nefertiti (not our photo)

Then, there was the Egyptian collection, and Nefertiti’s sculpture. (Hopefully R can find a photo to paste in, as NO pictures were allowed in that part of the collection.) I had forgotten how lovely she was – the sculpture is truly superb. Akhenaten, Nefertiti’s husband/king, has always been Robert’s favorite pharaoh, and the entire special exhibit concerned the family and the building of the city of Amara to Akhenaten’s new God, the Sun. Very, very well done; we enjoyed it very much!

Altes Museum

Berlin Manhole Cover

After thoroughly covering the Neues Museum, we decided to push on to the Pergamon. Checked out coats, and headed in – first to the Pergamon Altar, which was lovely. There was a model reconstruction of the entire Pergamon site, which we visited last spring – and it really helped us put the altar into context vis a vis the other sights we had visited there. Too many school kids all over the steps – Spanish Steps, anyone? – so we’ve decided to return early either tomorrow or Friday to see if we can have it a bit more to ourselves. However, from the Ishtar Gate (and I LOVE those blue tiles!!) through the entire rest of the museum, there were a few people here or there, but really, we had as much time as we wanted to poke around and read. We were able to find just about everything that we had marked down to see in our Mesopotamian dictionary; a few things not there, but we’ll see what we can do later in the week. There are, of course, two rooms closed for an upcoming show they’re having…grrr…

Treasures from Troy

Margie at the museum

Finally admitted that we were “museumed-out” for the day after five hours, so decided to walk back to the hotel. Took about 20 minutes, but it was very interesting. We stopped at a local market to buy sparkling water, and then across the street from the hotel, we got some pizza-slices to go – R had mushrooms on his, and I had ham on mine. They were NOT up to the Bibury standard of a couple of nights ago, but good enough to hold off hunger pangs, as it was 3:30 p.m. by the time we got back to the hotel. Ate in our room, and R resting while I blog! Have decided to go out early looking for dinner. (We would love to go back to Transit tonight, but figure that would make for a really boring blog – so someplace new tonight!)

More later!

xxxx