28th Sept - Sign of things to come
Hi again, well we knew it couldn't last. Yesterday it was day 45 of our trip - quite amazing really. Especially as we've only really had 2 rainy days.
Monday and for the rest of this week (under current weather pattern) must be a sign of things to come. It's been raining most of today and so the pictures will be a little different to those of previous weeks! Can't really complain as we knew this was inevitable.
Yesterday we had a fairly busy day, taking the elevator up the TV Tower at AlexanderPlatz to take in the views whilst listening to a fairly boring audio commentary - for anyone coming, save yourself the 3 €.
Old and new (communist) Berlin & view from tower
Then we went to an open museum called the Topography of Terror, virtually next door to Checkpoint Charlie. It's quite awful how the Germans were both part of their own undoing (by burning and crashing some buildings in the last days of Hitler) and how the city was almost completely obliterated by the Allied and Russian bombing raids. Many buildings still have artillery shell or bullet marks today, although the Govt is slowly repairing these in important areas like around Museum Island etc.
Berlin after WW2
Finally we ended up at the amazing Jewish Museum which chronicles the lives of Jews in Germany (and particularly Berlin) for the last 1000 years. The reason I say amazing is becuase of the architecture of the building in the first instance and the variety of types of information exchange, through personal stories recorded, original letters between family members, histories of the refugee children about them & their parents and also interactive pieces. Two parts of the museum are equally enthralling- the Garden of Exile and the Holocaust Tower. The architect has tried to convey the sense of danger, loss and lack of hope many Jews felt during the Holocaust and the build-up in the early 1930's.
Jewish Museum & garden of exile
Finally we capped the day off by finding some half price tickets to a State Ballet production of Cinderella at the State Opera Theatre. We got a bit dressed up and saw some beautiful costumes and ballet technique, although both Mark and I felt that we now prefer modern ballet/ modern dance as we've been experiencing in Melbourne & Sydney over the last 6 years or so.
Today we walked through the rain to the East Side Gallery, which is basically a kilometre of the original Berlin Wall which features grafitti about all Berliners experiences before, during and after the Berlin Wall collapsed and what is was like to be on the East Side. Some quite remarkable art grafitti pieces as well as the usual tagging that happens.
Mark at East Side Gallery(part of the wall)
From their we went to the Markisches Museum to discover more about the history of Berlin as a city. It has artefacts from 1250 onwards but we concentrated on the 1840's to current.
We're off now to get our car serviced for the first time and seeing Eliza's sister tonight which will be fun.
Monday and for the rest of this week (under current weather pattern) must be a sign of things to come. It's been raining most of today and so the pictures will be a little different to those of previous weeks! Can't really complain as we knew this was inevitable.
Yesterday we had a fairly busy day, taking the elevator up the TV Tower at AlexanderPlatz to take in the views whilst listening to a fairly boring audio commentary - for anyone coming, save yourself the 3 €.
Old and new (communist) Berlin & view from tower
Then we went to an open museum called the Topography of Terror, virtually next door to Checkpoint Charlie. It's quite awful how the Germans were both part of their own undoing (by burning and crashing some buildings in the last days of Hitler) and how the city was almost completely obliterated by the Allied and Russian bombing raids. Many buildings still have artillery shell or bullet marks today, although the Govt is slowly repairing these in important areas like around Museum Island etc.
Berlin after WW2
Finally we ended up at the amazing Jewish Museum which chronicles the lives of Jews in Germany (and particularly Berlin) for the last 1000 years. The reason I say amazing is becuase of the architecture of the building in the first instance and the variety of types of information exchange, through personal stories recorded, original letters between family members, histories of the refugee children about them & their parents and also interactive pieces. Two parts of the museum are equally enthralling- the Garden of Exile and the Holocaust Tower. The architect has tried to convey the sense of danger, loss and lack of hope many Jews felt during the Holocaust and the build-up in the early 1930's.
Jewish Museum & garden of exile
Finally we capped the day off by finding some half price tickets to a State Ballet production of Cinderella at the State Opera Theatre. We got a bit dressed up and saw some beautiful costumes and ballet technique, although both Mark and I felt that we now prefer modern ballet/ modern dance as we've been experiencing in Melbourne & Sydney over the last 6 years or so.
Today we walked through the rain to the East Side Gallery, which is basically a kilometre of the original Berlin Wall which features grafitti about all Berliners experiences before, during and after the Berlin Wall collapsed and what is was like to be on the East Side. Some quite remarkable art grafitti pieces as well as the usual tagging that happens.
Mark at East Side Gallery(part of the wall)
From their we went to the Markisches Museum to discover more about the history of Berlin as a city. It has artefacts from 1250 onwards but we concentrated on the 1840's to current.
We're off now to get our car serviced for the first time and seeing Eliza's sister tonight which will be fun.
posted by Most Liveable at 11:14 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds wunderbar! Have a bratwurst for me.
Brian
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