A long weekend in Berlin

Fri 8th Sept

Getting about Berlin is fairly simple and inexpensive - once you have sussed out the system. That took us a little while. Spandau is quite a way out from the centre, and the journey takes an hour or more, with some changes involved.

We caught the M45 bus from just round the corner from the aire to the aptly named Spandau Rathaus (town hall). We paid €7 each for a day ticket that took us on all forms of transport in most of Berlin. From the rathaus we  caught the overground train, S5 to the Zoological gardens. The overground proved to be  useful, as it was always easy to find as it's usually on stilts above the city streets. We then took the number 100 bus, which gives a simple run  past most of the major city sites and gives you a feel for the place! 

The 100 took us past the Tiergarten, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Staatsoper and Museum Island, ending up the far side of the town. After a coffee  we went to see the East Side Gallery, the remaining 3/4 mile section on the Berlin Wall, probably Berlin's most famous monument now, and brightly decorated with murals, that reminded me very much of the murals on the Sparta road in Greece, and Checkpoint Charlie.

and my favourite picture of them all:

there are still quite a few Trabants about

There is a bright new shopping centre in Friedrichstrasse, built in the former East Berlin. Maybe we expected too much from the guidebook description, but we were rather underwhelmed by this area, the exception being the new French department store, Galeries Lafayette. Good coffee, and toilets! Now rather knackered, we made our way back to the S5 overground, which took us right back to Spandau Rathaus, here to get on the M45 bus. Buses, trains and tubes are frequent.

A "just in time bride"

Checkpoint Charlie

Tonight our very own Nigel Farage is in Spandau, is giving a talk to the far right, anti immigrant, AFD party, led by the granddaughter of one of Hitler's ministers. The AFD is as close to being Nazi as the German law allows - so now we see Farage in his true colours - a neo Nazi.

There is a reasonable supermarket 10 minutes walk from the aire - and we have nearly exhausted the milk bought in Shaftesbury.

Sat 9th Sept

Getting in to the centre today was a lot easier, now we know the ropes. At Spandau Rathaus train station we bought 3 day museum passes, €44 each. This covers all the major museums, and 72 hours travel around the city. Hopefully it will be better value than the advance tickets we bought for the Uffizi gallery in Florence. The plan is to visit the museums tomorrow and Monday, and just use the travel element today.

Ka De We department store - Harrods meets John Lewis

We spent some time in a very large, old, and plush department store, Kaufhaus des Westens, know affectionately as the Ka de We (Kay day vay). Imagine a combination of John Lewis and Harrods!. It claims to have the largest food department in the world - and it is difficult to believe they are wrong - it is HUGE, with fine selections of just about everything. Even their loose tea department is extensive. Mostly quite  select and expensive, but there are numerous areas providing very reasonably priced lunches of a variety of styles.

Reichstag

After lunch, we walked North (in rain) to see the Reichstag/Bundestag, and the Brandenburg Gate. You can pay to go into the Reichstag, but we just admired the exterior. There was a demo today, in the parliament area, and there were large numbers of police around, and barriers. I asked a policeman what the demo was about. He said it was an anti Mrs Merkel demo. I said we would happily swap Mrs May for Mrs Merkel, but he laughed and declined the offer. (I have just googled the demo. It was apparently in support of "save the basic rights", against surveillance cameras,snooping on Internet usage, and similar. I noticed an Amnesty International banner. ).

Brandenburg Gate

a stretch Trabant!

Also not to be missed in Berlin - the Brandenburg Gate, and the Holocaust Memorial' It seems the memorial proved controversial for some people because it commemorated the gypsies, gays and the physically and mentally unfit, as well as Jews who were exterminated. There is a museum beneath the memorial - we didn't think we could face that.

Holocaust Memorial

a very touching memorial outside of a station that was used both by refugees and the Gestapo

lost in Berlin - a sad and wet bear:(

Sun 10th Sept

Into Berlin again - this time to visit some of the museums on Museum Island. Firstly the Old National Gallery - paintings and sculptures, not so much to my taste. 

Secondly, the Neue Museum, mainly Egyptian and bronze age stuff. There is a fine bust of Nefertiti, looking very graceful. We had a very good and reasonably priced lunch in the museum cafe. 

Nefertiti

When I went t collect my bag from the cloakroom locker, I found I no longer had the key - and the keys to the van were in the bag. To make matters worse, I couldn't remember which locker it was, either. I returned to the cafe, but there was no sign of it where we had been sitting, and the waiter hadn't seen it either. Luckily, the waiter spotted it on the floor some yards away - phew!

Mon 11th Sept

Back to Berlin, primarily to see the Pergammon Museum, built to house the altar from the Pergammon temple, in Turkey. We have seen the temple when we went to Turkey a few years ago, and were keen to see the ornate alter that was taken to Berlin. Typically, that part of the museum is closed until 2020. What remains is rather thin. Prior to going in, we had a coffee in an old Jewish quarter.

Poignant, or what...? ...and Fascism is on the rise again in the US, UK, Germany, Poland, Hungary....

Ishtar Gate, from Babylon

Market Gate, from Miletus (Roman)

All transport in Berlin is barrier free, meaning there is no check on tickets, except for random inspections. We have had no inspections since we've been here, but today my ticket was inspected twice by inspectors who boarded the trains.

Tomorrow - just a few miles to Potsdam