Berlin II

Day two in Germany was not unlike a Roman march in its pacing (brutal) and number of breaks (one).  Tourism under a time crunch is perhaps not the best way to soak up the atmosphere of a city or country, but it does get you through the major sites.  Since I am living in Germany for months, I feel like I have ample opportunity to soak up atmosphere while in the city of Darmstadt.  As an aside, I have just learned that Darmstadt translates as Colon City. The name derives from the Darm River that apparently resembles the human intestines.  Lovely!

Back to Berlin.  I woke bright an early and was out of my hotel at 8:30 and on a tram to East Berlin, specifically Hackescher Markt. I had a lovely little breakfast of chocolate croissant and tea while watching people setup fruit and vegetable stalls. Then it was off to hardcore sightseeing. 

First stop was the Nikolai District, the center of Medieval Berlin.  The picture on the right is the Marien Church from 1270 and in the background the TV Tower.  The juxtoposition of modern and medieval just screamed for a picture.

Nikolai District

 This is the Nikolai Church from the 13th century with its distinctive twin spires. However since I arrived so early in the morning, I did not have the opportunity to go inside.  Instead I hopped over the Spree River to Museuminsel, or Museum Island.  There are five museums on Museum Island, but I only had a chance to visit two of them. 

These two reliefs are from the 2nd century BC Pergamon Altar.  Originally these reliefs completely encircled a huge altar with a total perimeter of 113 meters.  It represented one enormous and stunnning display of Greek artistry.  The subject is the battle between the Olympian gods and the Titans. The top frieze shows Zeus battling Titans with his characteristic lightning blot in his right hand.  The bottom frieze represents Athena with her shield and Nike on the top right. Gaia can be seen rising from the ground.  I have several more photos of friezes, but I thought these two were the most impressive.  I read that this all came from the same workshop as The Laokoon Group sculpture, which is absolutely one of my favorite of Greco-Roman pieces.

Also noteworthy from this museum was Ishtar's Gate in Ancient Babylon as seen here in this amazingly vivid blue.

Close up of the lions on the gate

And knowing how much my mother likes mosaics, this one is for her:












After this museum I also had a chance to see the famous bust of Nefertiti.  We could not take any pictures in that room, but I can assure you it was as amazing and breathtaking in person as you might expect. 

At that point I left the museums and scarfed down a Currywurst, and then headed over to the Berliner Dome on left.  If you are of an athletic temperment you can have the distinct honor of climbing all 270 steps to the top of the dome where you have another amazing view of Berlin.  Yes, I hiked all the way up there, and that is where I saw this on the street below....

I knew that there was an anti-atomic energy protest planned in Berlin that day, but I had not realized that I was currently on the planned demonstration route.  These are just a few of the many, many police officers that were lining the surrounding streets of Berlin.  I decided that I should go somewhere else in the city now.

I wandered the streets of Berlin.  I saw Checkpoint Charlie and here on the left is the remnants of the Berlin wall.  Below it where all the people are standing is a history of Berlin from the beginning of the Nazi regime until the fall of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany.  Incidentally, the 20th anniversary of the reunification of Germany is on Saturday!  And I will be in Prague.  I'm really not very good at planning my vacations.

Anyway, after hiking through here and past the ultra-modern Sony Center, I decided that I needed to stop and get some caffeine into my system before I keeled over.  I was desperately searching for some cute little European cafe, but seemed to be unable to find anything other than a Dunkin Donuts.  Yes, they have DD in Berlin.  This was actually worth mentioning because the racks of donuts in Germany appear as if a day-glo rainbow had exploded on them.  I mean, there were colors there that would have been painful on clothing but were deeply disturbing on food.  Also at the DD were the remains of the atomic energy protestors. 

As you can see in the photo they came armed with banners and vuvuzelas. Oh, the humanity!!

There isn't too much more to share about Berlin.  I did some more sightseeing the next day, but mostly around some lovely parks in West Berlin.  The last thing I wanted to share was a picture of this bombed out church.  When I first came into Berlin by train, I saw this building and couldn't figure out if this was some really interesting modern architecture thing, or just the remains of a bombed out church. Funny how difficult that is to tell apart.  Anyway, I checked my book and sure enough it's bomb damage.  They wanted to keep it as a reminder rather than repair it. 

And one last photo to prove that I was actually in Berlin!