The last of Berlin

So Miri left for adventures in China the day after we arrived back from Romania. I then decided to explore a bit of Berlin by myself for my last 2 days. On Saturday night there was an event called The Long Night of the Museums where more than 80 museums across Berlin open their doors from 6pm-2am for people to come through. It costs you 18 euros and you can enter as many as you want. I thought this was a pretty good deal so I went into the city around 4pm, found a world famous chocolate shop that makes sculptures out of chocolate and stocked up. I then found a starbucks where I ate my packed lunch and used their free wifi to talk to the family back home. And plotted which museums I would visit. I decided on Checkpoint Charlie, an exhibition of the Berlin wall called the The Wall, the DDR Museum, the Berliner Dome and the Anne Frank Museum. Unfortunately I realised at the Checkpoint Charlie museum that I had fogotten my memory card for my camera so my photos are not good, taken from my phone which was having issues.

Checkpoint Charlie was so interesting and inspiring to see what lengths people will go to for freedom...traveling in petrol tanks of cars, building their own hot air balloon, hiding in shopping carts and suitcases. Very well set out.

The Wall is a huge mural of photography that shows what life would have been like in the 1980s near the wall. It is remarkable how the changing lighting make it seem to real and 3D and they play audio pieces of speeches as well (although it's in German so I don't know exactly what was being said).

The DDR Museum was completely packed to the point where you could barely move around. It's very hands on with lots of displays to open and look inside and see what life in East Germany was like, the clothes they wore, the food they ate, what their houses looked like etc etc. I didn't get to see much as I got tired of fighting through the crowd.

The Berliner Dome is beautiful. They were having a live pipe organ concert when I entered and so I listened to that for a bit. I thought about climbing to the top of the dome but it was dark outside and raining so I didn't think there would be much point.

I then tried to find the Anne Frank museum. Unfortunately I didn't have much luck. By this time I was pretty tired and it was pouring with rain and I was getting drenched. So I gave up walking around the streets and found the nearest train station and figured out the way to get home.

Great night and I got to see a lot...although there is so much to see I barely scratched the surface.

The next day was Sunday. I stayed home and watched a Saddleback sermon and then joined Miri's family (Wilfred, Claudia and Simon) for lunch at a local Italian restaurant. Lovely meal of spinach and ricotta ravioli and salad. Then as soon as we got home I took off to go and explore the Pergamon museum. It was absolutely amazing! Inside they had reconstructed the gates of Babylon from King Nebuchadnezzar, and the market gates to the ancient city of Pergamon. Certainly made me feel very, very small. The museum was excellent with so much to see and a great audio commentary to go along with it.

Gates to the Pergamon market place (I think)

Beautiful gates of Babylon

 

These mosaic tiles lined the processional inside the city of Babylon

I then thought I would go over to the Berliner Dome again and see if I could climb the dome again. But they were about to start their church service so I went in anyway and sat and listened. They had an excellent choir visiting so I listened to them for a while before leaving while the minister was preaching, as I didn't understand it. A lovely last day in Berlin.

Inside the Berliner Dome

And then it was off to London to visit the Queen.