Berlin, the fourth post
Jan. 9th, 2013 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbOkay, Berlin. I will give you one thing: you may be the least friendly and welcoming place I've yet visited (and I include New York in that), your drinks may be overpriced, your weather fairly cat right now - but what you lack in charm, you make up in the wealth of your museums.
And when I say wealth, I mean Vive la Révolution! levels of 18th-century excess in the fabric of the Bodes Museum, the Pergamon Museum as seen from the front, the Altes Gallery, the Altes Museum, and just possibly also the Neues Museum - wood coffering in the ceilings, bloody hell.
I did not have a chance to go to the Altes National Gallery, since I went back to bed for a nap after breakfast, due to sleeping bloody terribly last night, but at one pm I set out, determined to see the Nikolaikirche and the Knoblauchhaus before going on to Museuminsel. And I did, discovering on the way that the oldest part of Berlin is on the north end of the island that has the museums on it and across the river. There was a giant placard up (in German) about archaeologiscal excavations on the site of Peterkirche and surrounds, which made me wish I read German better. (I can identify archaeological site pictures and specific words, no more.)
Nikolaikirche is pretty, and old, and houses an exhibition on the church and early bits of Berlin. I am not made happy by the ubiquity of audioguides, and the "helpfulness" of the ticket-desk ladies who insisted on giving me one (and the guard sent me back to the ticket desk for a two-euro photograph-permission extra ticket, no impressed) since I despise the guided tour experience in general and the audioguide gives it to you in a patronising accent right in your ear.
The Knoblauchhaus, opposite the Nikolaikirche, is a museum that showcase the style of living of the upper class in Enlightenment Berlin, being the townhouse of the Knoblauch family. Unfortunately most of the explanations are in German only, but it's free to enter, and has two helpful staff. (Also very very steep wood stairs.) I was very taken by a closed glass bookshelf (topped by a bust of Caesar Augustus) that contained 19th-century volumes, including the works of Dumas fils, Herodotus, the New Testament in French, and Voltaire.
From here, I walked on to the Bodes Museum, passing many roadworks and the renovations in front of the Pergamon Museum. The Bodes Museum is a domed extravaganza housing the medieval-late Renaissance collections of the German National Museums, an 18th-century pillared and marbled and gilted impressive monstrosity with two storeys above ground, and two domes, a "Greater" and a "Lesser." The architecture of the building is itself a work of art. The doorjambs are made of marble and granite, the staircases are double-staircases sweeping up to landings, and made of particoloured marble, it has more pillars than you could shake a stick at, and more gilt, and the guards did not like it when you touched the marble doorjambs. (What was I going to do, leave a smear?) I had lunch of Kurbischsouppe, whatever that is besides tasty, in the museum restaurant, and walked through the galleries for, I believe, upwards of an hour. It is laid out as an art museum, rather than possessing a focus on context, which is a noticeable lack to me... but bloody hell, so much stuff.
Including a mosaic of SS Cosmas and Damianus, Christ, Michael and Gabriel, from Ravenna that took my bloody breath away, I swear it.
The Neues Museum has three storeys, and by the time I reached it I was limping. But damned if I was going to give up before I'd seen it (and got good value out of my museum pass, it's the only thing I am going to succeed in getting value out of, this trip, and I feel bad enough about that already) and its Egyptian, Cypriot, Roman, and Russian-German exhibit. Apparently the Russian-German temporary exhibition has unhomed the Ice Age, Stone Age, and Prehistory exhibits, which were not on view for the public that I could find (most disappointing). A shitload of Egyptian material, impressively laid-out, including Roman and Byzantine Egyptian material. A lesser shitload of late Roman/early medieval Western Europe stuff. A small but fascinating gallery dedicated to Cypriot material, which hit my geeky buttons because I recognised a bunch of the material (in type if not specific) from my final year Ancient Cyprus class. A small and not majorly fascinating gallery on the ancient Sudan, which could have done with more context/pictures/something. A lot of material on early contributors to the collections who excavated in Egypt, which it would have been nice to have English translations for. A gallery on papyrus, with two of the display cases missing their displays and no note left behind.
(As an aside: postcards in Berlin are bloody expensive.)
Limping noticeably (and defeated by another Egyptian gallery), I left, and went to Jedermann's again for dinner (meatball, mashed potato, and buttered carrots again, followed by hot chocolate with cream for dessert) and decided to route myself back to the hostel via Checkpoint Charlie, so's I could say I went. In the dark and the wet, not really good for sight-seeing. Felt rather let down by the lack of visible barbed wire. (What can I say? I'm sure the museum is wonderful, but I was walking past at 1930.)
In conclusion: Berlin has some pretty impressive museums, even if she charges too much for them, good food, and... not really much else that I'd want to come back for? Also, January is cold and wet and despite my best efforts, my trousers are not really up to this weather's speed.
Now I will pack, and look forward to going home before it snows.
And when I say wealth, I mean Vive la Révolution! levels of 18th-century excess in the fabric of the Bodes Museum, the Pergamon Museum as seen from the front, the Altes Gallery, the Altes Museum, and just possibly also the Neues Museum - wood coffering in the ceilings, bloody hell.
I did not have a chance to go to the Altes National Gallery, since I went back to bed for a nap after breakfast, due to sleeping bloody terribly last night, but at one pm I set out, determined to see the Nikolaikirche and the Knoblauchhaus before going on to Museuminsel. And I did, discovering on the way that the oldest part of Berlin is on the north end of the island that has the museums on it and across the river. There was a giant placard up (in German) about archaeologiscal excavations on the site of Peterkirche and surrounds, which made me wish I read German better. (I can identify archaeological site pictures and specific words, no more.)
Nikolaikirche is pretty, and old, and houses an exhibition on the church and early bits of Berlin. I am not made happy by the ubiquity of audioguides, and the "helpfulness" of the ticket-desk ladies who insisted on giving me one (and the guard sent me back to the ticket desk for a two-euro photograph-permission extra ticket, no impressed) since I despise the guided tour experience in general and the audioguide gives it to you in a patronising accent right in your ear.
The Knoblauchhaus, opposite the Nikolaikirche, is a museum that showcase the style of living of the upper class in Enlightenment Berlin, being the townhouse of the Knoblauch family. Unfortunately most of the explanations are in German only, but it's free to enter, and has two helpful staff. (Also very very steep wood stairs.) I was very taken by a closed glass bookshelf (topped by a bust of Caesar Augustus) that contained 19th-century volumes, including the works of Dumas fils, Herodotus, the New Testament in French, and Voltaire.
From here, I walked on to the Bodes Museum, passing many roadworks and the renovations in front of the Pergamon Museum. The Bodes Museum is a domed extravaganza housing the medieval-late Renaissance collections of the German National Museums, an 18th-century pillared and marbled and gilted impressive monstrosity with two storeys above ground, and two domes, a "Greater" and a "Lesser." The architecture of the building is itself a work of art. The doorjambs are made of marble and granite, the staircases are double-staircases sweeping up to landings, and made of particoloured marble, it has more pillars than you could shake a stick at, and more gilt, and the guards did not like it when you touched the marble doorjambs. (What was I going to do, leave a smear?) I had lunch of Kurbischsouppe, whatever that is besides tasty, in the museum restaurant, and walked through the galleries for, I believe, upwards of an hour. It is laid out as an art museum, rather than possessing a focus on context, which is a noticeable lack to me... but bloody hell, so much stuff.
Including a mosaic of SS Cosmas and Damianus, Christ, Michael and Gabriel, from Ravenna that took my bloody breath away, I swear it.
The Neues Museum has three storeys, and by the time I reached it I was limping. But damned if I was going to give up before I'd seen it (and got good value out of my museum pass, it's the only thing I am going to succeed in getting value out of, this trip, and I feel bad enough about that already) and its Egyptian, Cypriot, Roman, and Russian-German exhibit. Apparently the Russian-German temporary exhibition has unhomed the Ice Age, Stone Age, and Prehistory exhibits, which were not on view for the public that I could find (most disappointing). A shitload of Egyptian material, impressively laid-out, including Roman and Byzantine Egyptian material. A lesser shitload of late Roman/early medieval Western Europe stuff. A small but fascinating gallery dedicated to Cypriot material, which hit my geeky buttons because I recognised a bunch of the material (in type if not specific) from my final year Ancient Cyprus class. A small and not majorly fascinating gallery on the ancient Sudan, which could have done with more context/pictures/something. A lot of material on early contributors to the collections who excavated in Egypt, which it would have been nice to have English translations for. A gallery on papyrus, with two of the display cases missing their displays and no note left behind.
(As an aside: postcards in Berlin are bloody expensive.)
Limping noticeably (and defeated by another Egyptian gallery), I left, and went to Jedermann's again for dinner (meatball, mashed potato, and buttered carrots again, followed by hot chocolate with cream for dessert) and decided to route myself back to the hostel via Checkpoint Charlie, so's I could say I went. In the dark and the wet, not really good for sight-seeing. Felt rather let down by the lack of visible barbed wire. (What can I say? I'm sure the museum is wonderful, but I was walking past at 1930.)
In conclusion: Berlin has some pretty impressive museums, even if she charges too much for them, good food, and... not really much else that I'd want to come back for? Also, January is cold and wet and despite my best efforts, my trousers are not really up to this weather's speed.
Now I will pack, and look forward to going home before it snows.
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-09 07:54 pm (UTC)Pumpkin! (Or squash, in these modern times...)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-09 07:58 pm (UTC)This was tasty, and I was hungry, so I ate it. Did not really pay attention to flavours except to notice a cream and potato base.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-09 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-09 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-09 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-10 03:13 pm (UTC)