Which meant everything was open as usual. I continued with my bus tour (I’d purchased a 2-day pass) and it wasn’t so bad today–not because the stops were predictable or announced, but because by now these irritants were familiar. I love familiar things.
As promised I went to Museum Island. Now, erase the image of a round island with beaches sloping up towards a ring of five museums. “Island” is a technicality; these city blocks are bordered by a river and a few canals. And, after having seen the Mississippi River, the Spree is really just a large canal.
Once on this island, I decided to visit the Deutsche Museum.
I think this is a picture of the outside of the museum. I took a lot of pictures of a lot of old style buildings today and they start to look similar. Sometimes I wish the tour guide would say, and look, a totally modern and unremarkable building! I’d take a picture of that.
Germany’s history is really just European history, so I saw many elements similar to pieces in Dutch and Belgian museums; however, there were deffo more weapons here.
I got to touch a chain mail tunic and it was certainly not mithril. It was heavy AF and all the inter looping chain pieces pinched my arm hairs. Being a knight was no joke.
Probably my favorite exhibit was the old books section. This is one of the bibles that Martin Luther translated into the common tongue. That guy was super cool.
I can’t read it but it was open to a page with a picture so it was like Jesus was speaking right to me.
My favorite of my favorites was this religious liturgy book.
Isn’t it so so pretty? What aren’t books like this anymore? It’s got to be cheaper to manufacture them now than it was THEN. Come on people. No wonder reading is on the decline.
A painting that caught my attention was this portrait of Marie Antoinette’s mom.
She was on fire her whole life, too, it seems, being in charge of all sorts of stuff and things and then trying to give advice to Marie A and her NINE other children. Can you imagine? All while dressed like this? What a multi tasker. What an inspiration.
A German museum wouldn’t be complete without a huge statue of Victory.
I did a slight google and learned that the large, golden Victory statue I posted yesterday was in reference to a war with Prussia. It’s easy for me to forget that there were loads of wars and country reorganizations before that fateful day in 1776 exactly 240 years ago TODAY.
There were more modern pieces of pop art in this museum, too, but things get a little dicy when recording 20th century Germany and I opted to skip it and head for the Brandenburg Gate, which is the gate to Berlin.
It is closed.
I am trapped.
Well they’ve walled off this gate. I stood there in its shadow but all I could think is that the statues of the four horsemen reminded me of Angel season 5. The structure is impressive though the effect was diminished by the restricted area. I am not sure but this might be due to SOCCER. That sounds right. I’m going with that.
I tracked down the bus, but unfortunately it was the last bus of the day, so I didn’t stop at the wall. I did take a picture from the bus.
That’s the wall in the middle of the frame. It is fenced off so you can’t walk along it, but you can drive just along it outside that fence. On the right side of the fence is a memorial. Down on the other side of what remains of the wall is Checkpoint Charlie. I did not get to investigate this area yet, but I did see an American flag and that made me feel better about being abroad on the 4th.
Here is a statue called “Berlin.” The locals call it the Dancing Noodles, but it is (I think) supposed to be broken chains/liberty/freedom/etc.
Never mind, it’s spaghetti.
The tour guide went on and on about this new(ish) government building. I am not sure if it is the parliament or just another parliament-ish place, but the glass dome on top allows anyone to peer down into the offices of the government officials. The symbolism here being that the common folks are above the government, not the other way around, and that government work is transparent. The guide did end by saying this is purely symbolic because he’s never been able to tell if people down there are working or just playing on their computers.
This is a pretty cool building what with all that symbolism (I’m a sucker for that) but my favorite building so far has been this one.
To the right is the TV tower. This gorgeous grey and green giant is the Berlin Cathedral.
I am still reading Catherine the Great. I caught a painting of her in the museum and I recognized her by her eyeballs and jewels. Both are stunning.
paralyzedbynotcaring 