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Berlin, Germany 2021
Erica and I took U bahn (underground train) to the Leonardo Hotel on
Wilhemsdofer, where we would stay for our visit to Berlin. Our room was
small but comfortable and close to the places we planned on visiting.
Erica suggested we find a German restaurant for our first meal, but all
were full even on a Wednesday night. Instead, we ate at the excellent
Italian restaurant, named Bertolini.
The next day Erica arranged to meet her friend from Paris, Beatrice, for
coffee, so I enjoyed an well-stocked, German style buffet breakfast at
our hotel. We ate there every day from then on.
That day we visited the Berlinische Gallery for Modern Art, just a few
blocks away. We visited three exhibits, one with an installation by
Alicja Kwade then an exhibit of the work of Ferdinand Hodler, a Swiss
artist who was part of the modernist movement in Berlin at the turn of
the 20th century until the end of WWI. and enjoyed them both.
The third was the work of the Berlin sculptor Louise Stomps of her work
created between the late 1920s and the late 1980s. All three were very
interesting.
We took advantage of the very good restaurant in the building to have
our lunch. Our unplanned visit turned out very well.
Beatrice, who has a German mother, has bought and refurbished an
apartment for herself in Berlin. Beatrice had invited the owners or
tenants of the other apartments in her building, to get to know them and
she invited Erica and me to join them. It was an interesting eclectic
group the eclectic group, including Beatrice’s mother and her
15-year-old daughter, Heloise, whom I had met years ago on our first
Christmas ski trip to the French alps in 2010.
Another day we visited the Pergamon Museum to see their extensive
collection of good Roman, Ancient Near East and Islamic Art.
That afternoon we were invited for tea at the apartment of another
friend of Erica’s. Julie is Canadian who made Berlin her home after she
married a German man. Her apartment was a new rebuild in the former East
Zone. Julie earns her living doing German to English translation.
We left and walked through some of the remains of the famous wall, just
a block from Julie’s place. There were small tour groups stopping the
view the displays and info along the way. It was very interesting. We
walked along part of it, in the increasing dark, and found the
underground station to get to the Brandenburg Gate.
When the wall was erected, the Russians made sure they included the
Brandenburg Gate on the eastern side. We took photos and walked through
to see the back side of the gate. We could see the dome of the Reichstag
lit up in the dark. The US, British and Russian embassies, are very
close to the gate.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was just a block away. 2,711
coffin-shaped slabs cover an entire city block. We first came upon slabs
laid on the ground, then a sea of pillars set in straight orderly rows
to the other side of the block. Walking through the rows we noticed that
the ground was not flat. The different heights of the pillars over the
undulating ground seem to simulate rows of people walking to their
death. We walked past the site of Hitler’s bunker but did not stop.
We ended our evening with a treat. We had tickets for a concert at the
Berlin Philharmonic. The stage for the orchestra is in the center of the
auditorium, surrounded by seats on all sides. We had reserved seats on
one side at the top of the 2nd of 3 tiers of seats. We had a
good view of everyone in the orchestra and the acoustics were perfect.
The conductor this evening was Marie Jacquot, a young French woman, who
is also a conductor at the Oper am Rhein
Orchestras. The first number, a suite that Francis Poulenc composed for Les Animaux modèles, a ballet dating from
1940 to 1942. Next was a 1959 concert for cello and orchestra by Dmitri
Shostakovitch, with the 40-year old French cellist, Gautier Capuçon. It
included long solos for Capuçon, allowing him to flawlessly display his
talent. After the intermission Sergei Prokofiev’s music for the
Cinderella ballet. It also was excellent.
The next day we toured the Jewish Museum. There was more in the museum
than I expected. The building is a modern, black concrete block with
windows and openings slashed across the sides. The self-guided tour
starts at the lower level and proceeds up through several levels. The
lowest level has three corridors, representing historical developments
of Jewish life in Germany: exile, Holocaust and continuity. There is a
lot to see. We were both glad we went.
We returned to the hotel in time for Erica to back up and leave to fly
back to Paris, leaving me to stay for another few days on my own.
I learned that museums and buildings, such as the
Reichstag Dome, are very popular and require prior booking. I didn’t
have a reservation. Instead, I
walked through the Brandenburg Gate and followed part of a walking tour
from my guidebook. the Inter den Linden Walk, intending to visit the
German History Museum. The museum is under renovation and was not open
but the new, glass enclosed addition was hosting Politics and Art
exhibit. It had started to rain so an indoor visit was in order. The
building was highlighting an art exhibit first held in 1955, featuring
artists who were against the official policies for art that existed
during the Cold War Era.
My plan for Monday was to do two of Rick Steeves walking tours. I
managed to do both. After breakfast I took the trains to Hackescher
Market to start the Old Jewish Quarter Walk. I did the walk a bit
differently when I missed the first turn, but it didn’t matter.
The second walk was to be the Prenzlauer Berg Walk to see a
neighbourhood relatively unscathed by WWII bombings, as it was outside
of the central target area. A lot of the apartments have kept their
exteriors, but most have been extensively renovated inside and have
become the “place to live”.
There was a lot to see and the walks were well documented in my Rick
Steeves book.
Tuesday, 9 November 2021, was my day to get to the airport via the U
Bahn for my flight back to Paris. I made it without any problems
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