Museums Island

We sat outside in the crisp air drinking iced lattes. Karin had cherry cake and muesli, and I ate couscous.  We were ready to take the tram to the U Bahn to the museums island, Museumsinsel. Herbert had helped us purchase a one-day ticket - to vist any or all five museums. The most popular and heavily visited museum, the Pergamon requires one sign up for a specific time to visit. The other museums suggest signing up for a specific  time.

Here is where Karin's computer skills and persistence come in. Not only did she find the museum website and arranged a time for us to enter the Pergamon Museum but also she was able to find the appointment time in an email attachment to me when we arrived at the museum. After I got onto the museum's free wifi she said she located the attachment quite easily.  Additionally, her positive attitude played a critical role in her persistence with my Handy.

Karin and I knew we did not have specific entrance times for two other museums we hoped to visit. Nevertheless she maintained a positive attitude that we would be allowed to visit, and it worked!

We first visited the Old National Gallery, Alte National Galerie. The edifice is historic and grand, like a palace, and it displays German paintings and sculptures from the 1800s.  Romantic and impressionist art pieces as well a room of French impressionist works impressed us.

Second, we made it successfully into the Neues Museum, the New Museum. Here were displayed very old works including a hat made of gold, skulls and skeletons, mummies, sarcophagus, and a bust of Nefertiti. As important as the Mona Lisa is to the Louve so is Nefertiti to the Neues Museum in Berlin. As I looked at her I thought of my father's great love for her, too.

We had time until our timed entrance at the Pergamon, and we wanted only a sandwich. We knew where we could do that - back at the Hauptbahnhof. A short U Bahn ride away we knew how to make our way to the food court. We shared a sandwich and water. Back at the Museumsinsel we had time to sit in the shade in the Lustgarten and enjoy watching people strolling.

The Pergsmon Museum is under reconstruction and, if course we had difficulty locating the entrance. I have written on our entrance challenges. They were rapidly forgotten when we obtained audio tour devices for many of the sites. What filled us with awe were the massive and colorful and complex structures and statues of the early cultures in the Middle East. Artifacts from jewelry to floors of the wealthy, to entrance halls of the leaders and gods showed us how complex were the cultures of the peoples of Babylon, Assyria, Mesopotamia, and the area around Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.  Their early writings explained in detail the rules of public and private lives, how the leaders were to be revealed and women were to be treated, for example.  After two and a half hours our eyes and brains and souls had absorbed as much as possible for one visit. Our legs were tired, too. Lots of stairs were climbed today, too.

Two U Bahn rides brought us near to an Eastern European restaurant where we had already decided to eat.  I had warm borscht soup with beets tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes, perfect for a cool and breezy evening. Karin had pierogi filled with potato. We were both very happy with our choices. Near the hotel we bought another bottle of Berliner Weisse to share. 

At the hotel desk I received a message that Manfred had called last evening and that we should meet him today at 3 PM at Alexanderplatz. We had missed the appointment. He left no contact number. We discussed what to do next. I remembered the hotel, and Karin found the number. She called and learned his room has no phone and they can't leave a message.  I called and requested to leave a message under the door of his room, and I was informed that was not possible.  We considered other options.  Finally I spoke with our hotel receptionist and gave her a written message to tell him when he calls again. We discussed how we could alter our plans in order to meet him, and we are hopeful, positive even - that we will find a time and place to get together.

Hopefully tomorrow I will, have some good news about that to share. Now it is after 1100 PM.


Gute Nacht, Susan

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