Sunday, October 08, 2023
Berlin Stories, Part 1
We were in Berlin! It was pretty heavy at times, but also great.
The Altes Museum is, true to its name, full of a bunch of old stuff. If you like Greek and Roman statues, well, bless your heart.
The Neues Museum didn't really have new stuff in it, though. Except probably in the gift shop. Coffee mug technology wasn't super great in the early 1900s.
The Neues Museum had a special exhibition on the Secessionists. I just thought this lady looked cool, like she'd be fun to hang out with, if she'd take off her golden helmet for a minute.
This is Berlin Cathedral. Yes, like pretty much everything in Berlin, it suffered bomb damage during the war. See how this is already pretty light and fun?
They've reconstructed part of the Gates of Babylon in Berlin's Pergamon Museum. Which is good, because I don't think there was room in my basement.
We climbed 250+ steps to the top of the cathedral, and were rewarded with this view of the Soviet-era TV tower. Now I think it mainly helps them air Friends reruns.
This is the Reichstag. It kind of burned down at one point, got bombed a lot, was caught up in the whole Berlin Wall thing, and then they decided to basically build a whole new building with a big glass dome inside of it. So there's that.
Here's the inside of the dome. There's an audio tour that plays automatically as you walk up the ramp. It gets real mad at you if you walk too fast or too slow, and you kind of end up in a fight.
This is the Brandenburg Gate. Lots of history happened here, good and bad. But nothing more important than us taking this picture, I don't think.
This is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. As you walk further into it, the ground slopes downward and you're basically in a labyrinth. No sign of David Bowie, though.
