Berlin
May 4, 2011
Big Bad Berlin!
Berlin sits on the Spree River, which winds through the city. At one point there’s a large island, and on this island is a collection of museums. Today I visited them.
The big ticket, for me anyway, is the Pergamon Museum. It contains two amazing items that are themselves worth a journey to Berlin to see.
The first is the Pergamon Altar. It was part of a huge Acropolis in Asia Minor from the Second Century BC. A crazy German archaeologist/engineer named Carl Humann began digging it up. He found enough fragments to reconstruct a portion of it. It’s so huge that the museum was built specifically to house it.
The other feature of the Pergamon Museum is the magnificent Ishtar Gate from Nebuchadnezzar II’s Babylon. It’s also monumental and simply unforgettable to see.
After the ancient stuff I went and looked at German art at the Alte Nationalgalerie. I discovered two painters that I really like. The first is Carl Spitzweg, who has a lovely little painting in there called Kite Flying. The second is a giant of German painting named Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The interesting thing about Schinkel is that he’s probably more famous as an architect and theatrical set designer than he is a painter. But he’s an amazing painter.
What I love about him is that he’s a bit of a fantasist. While many of his contemporaries were depicting famous cathedrals and other buildings, Schinkel liked to just make stuff up. His architectural and landscape paintings come from his knowledge of architecture and his imagination. It’s really dreamy stuff.
After I’d had all the beauty I could stand, I hopped on the train and headed back to Stargarder Strasse to theCafe Sol to have Mexican food. I had nachos, which were perfecty acceptable.
My plan tomorrow is to explore some of those fun neighborhoods Kevin referred me to.
I’m just so pleased that I’m finally having the opportunity to explore this city!
Cities I’m Most Eager to Visit For the First Time
- Sidney
- Stockholm
- Oslo
- Hong Kong
- Cape Town
- Buenos Aires
- Melbourne
- Toronto
