Let's say you had a six-hour layover in San Antonio, TX. You had never been there before and thought you might never be there again. Would you dash off to see the Alamo or stay in the airport at the Cinnabon? I would definitely go to the Alamo. I am not particularly proud of this. It has led to some uncomfortable compulsive behavior, such as taking a late-night taxi from Minneapolis to Saint Paul so I could experience both of the Twin Cities. On the other hand, I know others (
you know who you are SMWH) who despite living in San Antonio, never thought of going to the aforementioned Historic Landmark.
Berlin is generally not considered a seaport, yet it is on many a Baltic cruise itinerary. The actual port is at the former East German city of
Warnemünde, which is 150 miles and a three-hour train ride away. The option is to get up early, spend six hours total in transit, and get back late in order to spend 5 1/2 hours in Berlin. My decision was never in doubt.
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| "We're # 1"- Tom and Melinda with our train chaperone Britta |
We boarded the train a very short distance from the dock, and off we went. Britta is a German law student making a little money while studying for exams. She was efficient in her duties to distribute the snacks and give us a briefing on our options in Berlin. I think she was also in charge of getting us back on the return train. As we were given the instructions for where and when to reconoiter, she added somewhat harshly "You are all adults". I took that to mean if we didn't make it back it was our own damn fault and we would be left behind, an admonition my spouse has given me in Tierra Del Fuego and other ends of the earth.
After Britta pointed out (in the same paragraph) the parking lot where Hitler's bunker used to be and the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby Blanket, we were dropped off at the downtown Hilton and challenged to make good use of our time before it expired. The Blums headed off to persue their heritage at the Jewish Museum and I went off to explore mine at the Pergamonmuseum.
Across the street from the Hilton is the German Cathedral, next to the concert hall and bookends with the French Cathedral, built for Heugenots fleeing France.
Another pretty church is now dedicated to the
Berlin National Gallery's collection of nineteenth-century German sculpture .
Our goal was
Museum Island, home to an impressive collection of Berlin's finest museums, as well as the Berlin Cathedral.
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| "Löwenkämpfer" ("Lion-fighter"), in front of the Altes Museum |
The
Pergamonmuseum is the grandest of all these museums. Its name comes from the ancient Greek city of Pergamon (now Bergama, Turkey), and particularly the massive altar and friezes "imported" in the 1880's to Berlin. The sculptures rival the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon, now in the British Museum.
These marvels alone are worth seeing, but that is not nearly all. The
Market Gate of Miletus from 200 AD was reassembled here, including ancient "billboards" in Greek.
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| Ad for a hairdresser carved in the gate |
What's that you say? What about the
Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way of ancient Babylonia built for King Nebuchadnezar in the 6th century B.C. The original glazed bricks that covered cedar wood are displayed here in vibrant colors with sacred lions.
These were the most monumental items, but the building is full of Assyrian, Islamic, and other treasures.
We also had to drop by next door to the Nues Museum ("New Museum"), the current home of the famous bust of the Egyptian
Queen Nerertiti from 1345 BC. I have wanted to see it since our trip to Egypt in 1995, and was not disappointed. Its legendary beauty is real. The bust is 19 inches high, weighs 44 lbs, and has a limestone core covered by painted and sculpted stucco layers. The face is perfectly symmetrical, and if you look closely you will see slight wrinkles on her neck and bags under her eyes. The features are so fine and look so modern, if at some point it was declared a fraud and not 3300 years old I would not be shocked.
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| Nefertiti bust- Image from markandrewholmes.com |
Continuing our exploration of the city center, we had to see Berlin's most famous landmark, the
Brandenburg Gate, modeled after the gate to the Acropolis in Athens.This former city gate was built in the late 1700's to represent peace and is topped by the Quadriga, a four-horse chariot.
We went there to meet Tom and Melinda at a nearby Information Center. We never found that, but did find our traveling companions resting near the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, commonly called the Holocaust Memorial. This was fitting, as their day had been significantly more down-beat after visits to the Jewish Museum and walking through a part of the indoor-outdoor exhibit where the SS and Gestapo headquarters used to be called the
Topography of Terror. The memorial site is covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. They are of different heights, so as you wander through, other people and objects go in and out of view creating a subtly disorienting and disquieting effect.
Time was getting short, so I took a power-walk by other thing I wanted to see like the backside of the Brandenburg Gate
and the nearby
Reichstag, the current seat of the German parliament.
The plaza near the Gate and the Reichstag is called Platz der Republik, no-man's land during the wall years, but now a center of civic activity.
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| Pedicycle for hire where the riders contribute to the pedal-power |
Speaking of
the Wall, I never really grasped the devastation it created in Berlin. Imagine overnight a block-wide path is bull-dozed through the heart of your favorite major city with walls on both sides, armed guard towers, and mines in between.
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| Some of the area of the former boundary and part of the Topography of Terror |
Nearly all of my explorations of Berlin's treasures were in the former East Berlin, and would have been very difficult from 1961-1989. The major link from West Berlin was through Checkpoint Charlie, now recreated as a tourist photo-op. You can even have your passport fake stamped for a small fee if you dare.
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| Local artwork sprouting up |
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| A cafe featuring a German favorite, curry wurst (sausage with spicy curry-ketchup sauce) |
A brief aside: Berliners like Bears. They are all over the place.
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| Statue of Liberty Bear through the window of the US Embassy |
I scurried back to the rendezvous point at the Hilton, but had time to drop in to the world-famous cholatier next door, Fassbender & Rauch.
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| Chocolate Bear with friends |
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| Chocolate bear Atlas |
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| Chocolate Titanic- as the cruise director said, "Goes down easy" |
So we spent a brief and exhausting day in Berlin. I hope I get back sometime, but if not, it was well worth it.
(Remember the Alamo!!)
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