Berlin: Spandauer Zitadelle

Today the rain decided to ruin our last day in town, but we wouldn't let it. Meg found an old citadel at the end of a subway line, and we went to investigate. We both are huge fans of old castles, so who could resist this charming Spandauer Zitadelle, first built 800 years ago?

The old turret was a special draw, with it's round and creaky wooden stairway...

...and its ghost!

Berlin Surprise Concert

As our last days in Berlin wind down, we find it more difficult to walk around, and we stay closer to the center. One of the squares we missed in previous canvassing of the town was charming Gendarmenmarkt.

On one side of the square is Franzoesischer Dom, where French Hugenots were allowed to worship during the time when they were being prosecuted in France. Opposite to it is almost identical building of Deutscher Dom, from which this picture was taken. Between the two mirrored buildings is Berlin Konzerthaus - in this photo, the building to the left. It was built in 1821, and its acoustic is fantastic.

As we peeked inside, an orchestra was in full practice, but we weren't allowed to listen, because they were preparing a "surprise concert" to introduce the new conductor of the orchestra, Ivan Fischer. Not to be deterred by being turned away, we bought the tickets for the concert.

It was an indescribable experience - the building itself, the concert hall was a feast for the eyes, but even better was the surprise maestro Fischer cooked for us: Liszt, Mahler, Brucker and a piece of contemporary cellist Giovanni Sollima, who solo-ed himself.

Earlier, we came across a graffitti artist at work on a patch of a white wall.

Baltic picturesque towns

Since we had a car, and have been down south yesterday, we wanted to take a break from all the history and monuments, and drove up to Baltic Sea. Our destination was a town of Stralsund, which we found on an overcast day showing off its cute houses like newly done dentures. At first it was all very nice, but it looked--too new!

Half of the town is under construction, being dedicated a UNESCO site, and is being restored, like this City Hall, which is undergoing massive construction works inside.

The other half had this colorful facades, almost without a sign of wear and tear, or being lived in.

Tourists moved around, locals were constantly rushing, bumping into the tourists. All the hectic atmosphere we found so unusual for a small seacoast town, where usually life slows down.

Hungry, and frustrated with this, real-time Legoland town, we drove down the coast in search for a less-active environment to eat, and rolled into Greifswald. I know the picture looks the same as the ones up here from Stralsund, but the atmosphere was completely different. Greifswald is a town of around 50,000, with a university, which is obvious from the number of young people strolling, or biking about. There were almost no tourists, and the town seemed less made up than Stralsund.

Dresden: A hidden pearl

Getting tired with sightseeing in Berlin, we rented a car and drove 2.5 hours south to Dresden. I read about it being restored to its pre-war beauty, after being badly destroyed in the bombing of 1945. I'm not sure what were we expecting, but Dresden amazed us and surprised us with its quiet beauty. It's being called the "Florence on the Elbe," and rightfully so. Wherever we turned in downtown, there was a picture. So we just oohed and aahed around, enjoying it.

Dresden was the seat of the kings of Saxony, one of the many kingdoms which will be united under Prussian rule in 19th century. Saxon kings ruled since 12th century, when their palaces and churches were built, then added to and expanded throughout history, until 19th century. The town's heavily decorated baroque facades are fascinating.

We took this picture at Theaterplatz, looking at the Residenzschloss Palace to the right, and Hofkirche church to the left.

From the square, Theaterplatz, we walked into Zwinger, once a venue for court festivities, today a museum and a gallery of paintings.

Of course, the most famous site is the Frauenkirche, the Church of Our Lady, which was completely destroyed in the allied bombing, left in rubble by the Soviets and Communist East-German authorities, to be completely rebuilt after the reunion of 1990. It's equally impressive during the day...

...or at night.

Equally stunning is a night shot of Hofkirche, a royal chapel and a burial ground for the generations of Saxon royals.

The nighttime view of Old Town Dresden from across the Elbe river needs no description.

A painted porcelain mural, on the outside wall of Residenzschloss royal palace, is the largest porcelain mural in the world, 102 meters long and 7 meters high. It depicts all the Saxon rulers from 12th century onward, in a procession on horses.

Of course, all that sightseeing is a tiring business, so there are cafes and restaurants on every corner, lining almost every street, to rest in the shadow of magnificent buildings.

Berlin: From Classical Greece to Oktoberfest

Berliners are especially proud of Pergamonmuseum, house of the collection of classical antiquities, ancient Near East and museum of Islamic art. We took a plunge this morning and didn't regret it. As soon as we entered, a narrow stairway took us up to an observation point where near-life-size painting of the classical Greek city of Pergamon was wrapped inside the huge cylindrical space. The lights changed to resemble the day and night in Pergamon, while we observed different scenes from the life of the period. Unfortunately, this experience is impossible to photograph, but if you stay tuned, we have a little video which we'll upload when we're back home.

The most famous exhibit is the one that gave the name to the museum - the real entrance to the Pergamon Altar, from aroun 170 BC. By the rules of the time (turn of the 19-20 century) the finder of the archeological objects is entitled to one third of the find. So, when the Germans found the whole Altar building on the ground belonging to modern day Turkey, they took a third of it, and it's proudly exhibited here.

Another famous and equally fascinating exhibit is the Ishtar Gate

from the palace of the king Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, dating from 6th century BC. Considering the sorry state in which the rest of Babylon is being kept in Iraq, one has to be glad at least a part of it is safe in Germany, escaping the annihilation during Saddam Hussein's era and following chaos brought by US occupation. But, let's not wade into those waters.

Lunch time brought us to Corroboree, an Australian restaurant with such menu items as kangaroo and alligator meat. Naturally, I had to try kangaroo steak burrito. What can I say - it tastes gamey, but if you like game meat, it's nice.

There's no better month to be in Germany than October. I know we're nowhere near Munich, but imagine the surprise when we emerged from the subway station on Alexanderplatz and saw - Oktoberfest stands, beer, sausages, sauerkraut and loud polka music. Who could resist?

Berlin: Eye candies

Since the previous post was heavy on the art and weak on the attractions, here are three random eye-candies:

Houses along the Spreeufer in Nikolaiviertel. The gorgeous facades look at the Museum Island, and lead to the maze of sites and shops, a tourist trap in the historical Nicolai Quarter.

Checkpoint Charlie looking toward Ivan (therefore a picture of the Russian soldier) in what used to be a border crossing from West to East Berlin, and vice versa.

Curry at the Wall - "admire" the remnants of the wall, then hop across the street for a currywurst. While you're there, you can hop on a balloon for an aerial view of the downtown. That last part for a hefty price.

Berlin: Arts and "crafts"

Sightseeing can be exhausting. Seriously! So, instead of circling around monuments, buildings and entire blocks, we decided to take a break from walking inside a gallery.

Gemaldegalerie near Potsdamer Platz seemed inviting with its treasure trove of 13-18 century European painters. Right at the start it greeted us with this Botticelli's classic, "Venus."

Alas, what was supposed to be an easy stroll, turned into an endurance event - the gallery has over 2 kms of halls and paths, loaded with paintings of breath stopping beauty and quality. Luckily, it had a bench in almost every room, for necessary short breaks.

Amazingly for a Saturday, the gallery wasn't crawling with visitors. Probably because the tourists all flock to the museum island. So we had it almost to ourselves, and Meg could enjoy her favorite Dutch master Vermeer--here's his "The wine glass"...

...while I myself found a new favorite - Giovanni Antonio Canal, called "Canaletto" with his amazingly detailed paintings of Venice in 17th century.

Since this Saturday was turned into an art day, still arts had to be complemented by some moving arts. I booked us cabaret tickets at a real old-style German cabaret called Kleine Nachtrevue. The performance was a spoof on the talent reality shows like American Idol, or X Factor. It's called "Be A Stripper, Be A Star" and it was, well you guessed it--about the stripping talent show. It was Meg's first time seeing a nude performance. The cabaret itself is a tiny venue, which can sit about fifty people, counting the bar seats too, which are the ones we got. The performance was sold out, but I hate to say that the most attractive ladies in the cabaret were the waitresses, in cute red corsets. Performers were seasoned queens of burlesque, aged to perfection. And, since the photography wasn't allowed during the performance (duh!), here's us at the bar in the tiny cabaret.