Saturday at the Museums

Yesterday, we came back from errands in the afternoon around 3:00 pm and I was able to update the blog before dinner. Afterwards, Kathy and I got on the tram around the corner (the only form of public transportation we hadn't yet tried), and headed out to a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant in the Prenzlauer Berg section of Berlin.

Before reunification, this neighborhood was a gritty, working-class suburb. After the Wall came down, this was the hip, artist's quarter. Today, it's one of Berlin's most desirable residential neighborhoods. We certainly found it interesting, filled with indie boutiques, galleries, and more restaurants and cafes than I've ever seen anywhere else.

At 11:00 pm, the streets are still filled with people, something I associate with Madrid, and not the staid and orderly Germans. We finally found the restaurant, Oderquelle, around 8:00 pm. Half of the tables were empty, but reserved for late diners. Only one other couple had arrived by the time we finished eating at 10:00 pm.  The food was delicious, wonderfully prepared and inexpensive (around $12 per plate).

On the way home, I lead us to the wrong tram, as I'm apt to do, and we ended up in the middle of Hackescher Markt, at the S-Bahn station. The entire plaza was filled with people dining and we found just what we were looking for: a gelato shop. We sat and listened to a performer singing Hallelujah (which always makes me think of Shrek), and then headed to bed before midnight.

The Neue and Pergamon Museums

Our timed museum tickets were for a 12:00 noon entry at the Pergamon, so we decided to see the Egyptian exhibits at the Neue Museum first. (The one-day ticket gives you entrance to all five museums on Museum Island, but, I can really only handle about 4 hours in a day. So, we decided to visit the two we were most interested in.)

The Neue Museum has the Egyptian and pre-history exhibits, but the Egyptians are what everyone shows up for, including the original bust of Queen Nefertiti. (You aren't allowed to photograph her at all, so the picture here is from the cover of a book in the museum bookstore.)

There is also a complete tomb that was moved from Egypt and reassembled in Berlin.

In addition to the Egyptian artifacts, there was also an exhibit on the "treasures of Troy" which we were interested in because of the jewelry that was recovered. (Our daughter, Hosanna Rubio, is a metalsmith, studying at East Carolina University.)

The archaeologist who discovered what he felt was the city of Troy, mentioned in Homer's stories of the Trojan wars, (later changed to the city of Priam), took the jewelry and had his wife model it before giving it to the museum. After the second World War, the Russians moved it to a museum in Moscow.

When we arrived at the Pergamon Museum we were awe-struck by the sight of Nebuchadnezzar's Ishtar gate from Babylon. It was huge, and, because it was built of fired-ceramic-glazed bricks, has survived the ages as almost no other material could have.

When I look at archaeological treasures like this, my sympathies usually lie with those who have had their antiquities taken (like the Elgin marbles in the British museum). In this case, though, I can't help but think how lucky we are that those turn-of-the-century Germans packed everything up and brought it to Berlin. I'd certainly hate to see a news-reel of these being dynamited.

In addition to the gates, several panels from the processional way leading to the gates, covered with ceramic lions, is also just jaw-dropping.

In addition to the Babylonian artifacts, there were two other exhibits that we found fascinating. Across from the Ishtar gate, is a completely reassembled first-century market gate from the town of Miletus in Turkey. This is the largest reassembled exhibit in any museum.

Miletus was one of St. Paul's stops on his Third Missionary Journey. According to Acts 20:16-38, Paul was on his way back to Jerusalem, and in a hurry because he wanted to reach the holy city by the day of Pentecost. Coming from Troas, he bypassed Ephesus but paused at Miletus and called for the elders of Ephesus to come meet him there.

We also saw some glazed bas-relief figures from the palace of Darius the First. These three guys could be the guards that threw Daniel into the Lion's Den. Very cool.

After the museums, we still had two things to see on our last day in Berlin. I'd seen the Maurpark (the Wall park) while watching the Rick Steves special on Berlin. The park got rave reviews in Lonely Planet as well. I wasn't that impressed. While the earlier graffiti was quite artistic, it seems that anyone can just paint over what is there; most of it is starting to look more like portions of the LA River than the edgy and artistic endeavor it once was. We were also a little uneasy. We've felt safe everywhere in Berlin, but the atmosphere here was not that inviting.

After the Maurpark, we headed all the way across town once again (stopping in Hackensche Hofe for a Turkish takeaway lunch) to the Apple Store where Kathy wanted to get her Apple ID updated with her new Calvary Chapel email. The Apple Store is on Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin. On our way back to our hotel, Kathy remarked on how West Berlin seems much more affluent, but lacks the charm of the areas we visited in the East.

A few more tram-rides and we made it back to our neighborhood. Coffee and falafel for dinner, and an early wake up for the train to Warsaw.