Berlin Day 4

We had a much slower start today and we needed it. Berlin has Museuminsel, the museum island. This piece of land is surrounded by water, the Spree River and a series of canals. Once you cross a bridge, the buildings are unlike any others in Berlin. They look like Greek temples and ornate domed chateaux. These were the original state museums. Today they house antiquities, the Egyptian collection, treasures from archeological expeditions, coins and art deco ornamentation. The first museum was the Neues Museum that ironically displays artifacts from ancient civilizations. The building itself is the biggest display. It is made up of marble columns, statuaries, friezes and reclaimed walls. The floors throughout are a variety of mosaic patterns. The most famous piece is the Golden Hat, a tall gold headpiece engraved with a representation of the calendar of that culture that dates to 1000 B.C. The second claim to fame is the bust of Nefretiti. It holds court in a manner similar to the Mona Lisa in the Louvres.

On our way to our second museum of the day, we found an outdoor craft market. There were stained glass windows, blown glass, glass calligraphy pens, knit wear, leather hats, designer coats, sweaters and dresses and Soviet era artifacts just to name a few. We loved our stroll through the aisles and found a number of unusual items to give as gifts. When I was saturated, we moved on to the Bode Museum. At the front was a beautiful glass dome and galleries were laid out in a circle at either side of the dome. After being wowed by the dome, statues and majestic staircases, we sat down in the cafe to enjoy coffee and German cheesecake. It seems that the late afternoon 'tea' is becoming our routine as inevitably we run out of time to have dinner before the start of the performance we have chosen. That snack keeps us going until the end of the performance.

Today's performance was special specifically for its choreography. It was modern dance, but so exquisite! The chorus was outstanding especially when compared to the other ballet. The costuming was very simple but added greatly to the sensual nature of the dance. Not only were all the movements in unison, but so were the movements created when a movement was repeated from one group to the next. An extremely sophisticated version of the wave. This performance deserved a standing ovation. There was none, but it was a very long curtain call with many entrances, exits and bows.

Now my stomach was complaining in earnest. Checking in the area of the theatre for a suitable restaurant was daunting, but an usher told us that there were numerous nice places to eat a few U Bahn stations away. He was right in that every other shop was a bar, a cafe or a restaurant. Gila was interested in echte Deutsch cuisine. The usher must have thought that we were interested in exotic food because almost every venue was Turkish, Middle Eastern, Indian or Greek. We finally found a place with a German name that served wiener schnitzel and kalbleber rather than doners, falafels, curry or lesser fine dining like pizza, burgers and wursts. We were not disappointed and had to share a dessert of warm apple strudel sitting in a pool of vanilla sauce drizzled with chocolate sauce and ice cream.

We were done for the day and trudged home to recharge our electronics and our bodies for another round of galleries tomorrow.