This involved a lot of walking and many trains. We stopped first at a nearby mall, to look for a football jersey for Ethan, and saw this really wild clock. It was about two stories tall and was a series of pipes and spheres that a green liquid wound through to keep the time.
We also had second breakfasts there and tried a variety of strange sandwiches on breads we couldn't identify and with fillings we couldn't identify. Sorry the the half eaten pic again.
The Vermeers were beautiful, and the museum was very modern and sleek in stark contrast to the museums on museum island. The contemporary settings were a beautiful contrast to the old paintings.
I specially liked this self portrait by Anna Dorothea Therbusch in 1782. Check out that reading lens she's using.
When we left there we began the long and winding road to the Eastside Gallery. It is a part of the Berlin Wall that has been preserved as a reminder. It is painted in sections by various artists. Unfortunately, it is terribly defaced by graffiti, as is most of the formerly East Berlin. While we did see some graffiti in the western side, it was on every door and window and building we saw in all areas of the East we drove through or rode the train through. More on that later.
We were hot, tired, and hungry when we made it to our destination. We stopped for some pastries and Diet Coke (DC) to give us energy to walk the couple of blocks to the gallery.
The top of the street the Eastside Gallery starts on is marked by the gorgeous Oberbaum Bridge which spans the River Spree which divided East from West Berlin. It has become an important symbol of Berlin's unity.
The Eastside Gallery is really long and the art work is very diverse. Recently the gallery has been the center of some controversy with the artists and the city concerning copyright, preservation, and restoration. If you google it, there are many photos to see that aren't covered in graffiti. Here are a few as they look now. Also, it is really difficult to take good pictures of them because they are right on a busy street lined with parked cars. You can't stand back far enough to get a shot straight on, and they are very big.
Afterwards, Bart and John rode the train out to meet us at the Brandenburg Gate. Built in the 1700s as a neoclassical triumphal arch for the kings of Prussia, it was used as a party symbol by the Nazis. It was one of the border crossings when the wall went up and was quickly closed. It became a symbol for the division of Germany, the isolation of the East, and the sadness of Berliners on both sides.
We stopped at a place right near the gate for dinner. Named Einstein's and came highly recommended. Let's just say the hype was soundly lived up to!
After this sumptuous feast, we walked through the gate to the park beyond. The long avenue that runs through and behind the gate was lined with food vendors, Hyundai cars with fancy paint jobs, souvenir tents, stages, and huge screens and speakers. All of those were closed by the time we got there. They were set up for hordes of fans to watch World Cup games. The Ferris wheel was, however, open, so we went for a spin and had some terrific views of the city.
Then Bart said something along the lines of, "Lets walk back home through the park. It's really pretty and I think it's faster than fighting the subway." We would come to think of those words often during the next 45 hours.
There is a huge and gorgeous park near the Brandenburg Gate called the Tiergarten. It used to be the hunting grounds for the Prussian nobility. Now it is 520 acres of trails, streams, huge trees and other plantings. Words like "sylvan" and "idyllic" come to mind. It honestly looks like some of the landscapes I've seen in classic paintings over the last couple of weeks. It was cool under the trees and nice to walk on something besides stone and cement. There were walkers, runners, and bikers.
How would you like to have this house, backing the park?
In the middle of the park was a gated rose garden with beautiful flower beds, statuary, and various arches, benches, and columns.
It really was divine.
And I think we walked all 520 acres of it. Our feet were killing us, we were hot and sweaty from the long hot day, and we were exhausted. It was full on dark by this time, and then we made it out of the park when Bart said, "I think it's just a few blocks down this street, and we'll be back home." He lives in NY! Of course he doesn't think it's far to walk! I'm not sure what his definition of "few" is.
We barely made it back alive! Only the fact that we had our rooms at the WA to greet us got us through.
No comments:
Post a Comment