Last Day in Berlin

Hello Everyone!

We went to several places on our last full day in Berlin, ending it up with a visit to our favorite museum. We started the day off with what has become a ritual, the trip across Berlin to get some doughnut holes for Linda – the Alexander Platz Balls. It is amazing to contemplate that without a wonderfull mass transportation system that wisks us from one end of berlin to the other, and without the collapse of East Germany, Linda would not be able to get these doughnut holes. For us to ride from former West Berlin to former East Berlin would for Linda's Alexander Platz balls would not have been possible during the cold war.

After our pastry stop we made our way back slowly to the west. We walked past a pretty old building with a couple of Police Gaurds out front. Linda asked if we could go in to look around. The Policeman said 'yes' and waved us in. It was the Berliner Rathaus, the mayor's office. We have always thought that is is a little amusing and somewhat ironic that Germans have politians working in a building whose name sounds like Rat House. It does make it easy to remember though. It was a pretty building inside with some displays about projects with sister cities.

Berliner Rathaus

Berliner Rathaus

Our next destination, which is one that we actually planned was to visit St. Nicholas church which is said to be the oldest building in Berlin. The records of a St. Nicholas Church on this sight go back to the time when Berlin was forming as a trading town in the 1200's. We spent some time looking through the church and listening to the audio guide. Any thoughts of rushing through the tour were set aside by the wonderful staff, the thoughtful and interesting tour, and the unscheduled downpour outside. After a thorough examination of the Church we emerged to dry weather, but we were ready with our umbrellas. When you take the trouble to pack something and carry it around for a month, you do kind of want to use it, even an umbrella.

Waiting outside St. Nicholas Church

St. Nicholas Church

St. Nicholas Church

Our next stop was a short one, the Friedrich's church (Friedrichswerdersche Kirche-Schinkelmuseum). A church built by and now a museum dedicated to Friedrich Schinkel one of Berlin's greatest architects. It is a pretty amazing building.

Friedrichswerdersche Kirche-Schinkelmuseum

Our next stop was a square called Gendarmenmarkt Platz. It has two impressive domed buildings one either side of a concert hall. We noticed that the door to the southern domed building, the Deutscher Dom was open, so we went in. They had a free tour with an English audio guide. We decided to give it a try, but we decided after about 15 minutes that if we continued until the end of the tour, that we would be at the end of our day. We decided to leave and head to our favorite museum in Berlin as the last planned stop for our visit.

Gendarmenmarkt Platz

Deutscher Dom

We walked over to Potsdamer Platz, and through the Sony building complex. On the other side of the Platz we came to the Kulture Forum which contained our destination the Neue Nationalgalerie. We spent a few hours looking through the Gallery that contains art that is modern, in the sense that it is 20th century art. It is something that we can relate to, and is also thought provoking. We had a great afternoon there.

Potsdamer Platz

Neue Nationalgalerie

We finished up the day by walking down to the premier department store in the western part of the city. Even the Germans shorten the name on this store and they call it Ka-De-Wa. There was a special display centered around silk scarves, it was an audio visual display inside a building about the size of a house which was in the front lobby of the Store.

This just about wraps up our touring of Berlin. We will have a little time in the morning before we have to leave for the airport, I will be posting the blog then. We will be getting into Rome a little late in the evening, and I am hoping that our trip is uneventful with nothing worth talking about. I will probably post something again around Thursday or Friday evening.

We hope you are all doing well.

More Pictures from Tuesday on Picasa

Stephen and Linda