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| From Winter in Berlin |
WINTER IN BERLIN - Part 1
I was in Berlin briefly in 2000 after a long and full trip through England, France, & Germany. I went back again last July, but only had time to stay for a few hours. I decided to go back again to spend a little more time seeing the sites and enjoying the city.
I left Sybille & Wolfgang's on Monday morning and took the train south to the great German capital. I made it to my hotel room in East Berlin without incident and found I had a proper East German view from my window...
I was only a few steps away from Karl-Marx Allee (Avenue), so after putting my stuff away in the room I headed in that direction.
On the way I found a nifty little car...
At the head of Kar-Marx Ave. are the Frankfurter Towers. This is a grand boulevard of post-war Soviet-inspired architecture, designed to show the class and aesthetic vision of a communist Berlin.
But of course, today we have constant reminders that capitalism is back in action....
Great apartment buildings stretch down the avenue...
And of course, the little traffic-light men are the same as they were 50 years ago adding to the nostalgia for some...
I walked by a real estate office and found this great image: The American Dream vs. the Soviet Reality...
This avenue was one named "Stalin Allee" so the change to Karl Marx was something a bit more benign; and Marx was at least a German.
The boulevard ended up at the Alexander Platz where the TV Tower is.
I was cold but never grumpy...
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| From Winter in Berlin |
Being so far north, the sun never rose very high in the sky, giving Berlin about 7 hours of daylight.
Next I visited the Gendarmenmarkt where the Christmas market was still in full swing...
The smell of cooking bratwursts, crèpes, waffles, sugared almonds, and other goodies wafted through the square...
There was a live show of some sorts as well. It was very festive....
I walked through the square across from the Humbolt university where Nazis once burned books; now children ice-skate.
The afternoon sun made for some nice lighting on the Spree Riverfront.
The Berlin Dom (the church in the above photo), sits on Museum Island where several world class museums can be found. I wanted to visit two of them that day.
The first was the Egyptian Museum (seen here last July). This museum is home to one of the world's most important collection of Egyptian artifacts.
Armed with my English audio guide, I enjoyed exploring this museum and gawking at the incredibly old artifacts...
Ancient ALIEN Egyptians!...
Sarcophogi heads....
And of course, mummies!
Egyptian artwork for the dead continued well into first few centuries after Christ. Here is the sarcophagus of a Greek man residing in Egypt. While he couldn't afford a fancy carved head, his face was instead surprisingly realistically painted on the visage of the sarcophagus.
Ancient Egyptian Star Wars Guys...
This one made me miss Whitney...
I thought these catmen statues were cool....
Ancient papyrii was an important exhibit in the museum...
But... the most famous artifact in this museum is the bust of Queen Nefertiti. This exceptional piece of Egyptian art was found by a German acheological team when they uncovered the remains of the workshop of the royal sculptor of the pharaoh. Thus it was believed that this bust was used as a model in his workshop. The bust was created in the mid 14th century BC. That makes it over 3300 years old!
I left the Egyptian Museum and headed next to the Pergamon Museum which houses ancient artifacts from the Near East.
The first thing you see when you walk in the museum is the great Pergamon Altar. This massive Greek artifact was built in the 2nd century BC in what today is Western Turkey, then brought to Berlin in pieces and reconstructed. It served as an altar to Zeus with a circus of Greek carvings in the frieze surrounding it. This great construction is even mentioned in the New Testament, Revelation 2:12-13: "In Pergamos where Satan's Throne is".
There were classic Greek vases...
Gladiator Helmets...
Drama Greeks...
The foot of a god...
Ancient Corinthian helmets from the 6th century BC...
This is a fascinating sculpture of an actor dressed as Papposilenus...
Another monstrous exhibit is the market gate of Melitus (also a Greek city in Western Turkey)...
My favorite exhibit is the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. This massive blue structure was built by order of King Nebuchadnezzar around 575BC. What is featured in the museum is only the smaller front gate, the main gate was too large to fit in the building and still sits in storage.
Featured on the gate are lions, aurochs (an extinct cow), and a host of ornate patterned tiles.
Leading to the gate in Babylon was a great promenade of lions on the walls...
I left the Pergamon museum to find it dark already. I snapped a few night shots near the river...
...and went off and had some Italian pizza for dinner. I headed back to the hotel passing the Alexander Platz with festive lights...
...and then made it back to the apartment to rest and relax before another exciting day on Tuesday!
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3 Deep thoughts:
The Queen Nefertiti bust graces the cover of the art history book I was given by the Kiwanis Club in sisxth grade, so she has been almost as familiar as my own mother. Do the Iraqis, Greeks, Turks, and Egyptians ever want their relics back?
Wow, Nate, I am so jealous. Those museums look fascinating. You will have some great stories to tell your kids someday.
Yes, Mike they very much want it all back as I kept hearing in Egypt how all the Europeans stole their artifacts and won't give them back. It was interesting to hear and I immediately thought of this museum in Berlin.
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