Visit to the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island, Berlin Germany June 12, 2014 or thereabouts

Detail of very old carpet which has been restored.

With my late entries, the days and weeks are slipping by and merging together it would seem.  We have one more day and we are off on more adventures.  Here in Berlin, we spend much of our time visiting different neighbourhoods or Districts as they are called here in Berlin .  We live in Neukolln and are surrounded by other districts, quite large, reachable by walking through neighbourhoods for about 90 minutes in one direction or another - a great way to become familiar with a new city.  

However we also got museum passes - not big museum goers, I didn't want to get back home and have to say "No" if/when asked did I see this or that exhibit, go to this or that museum.  The best deal on a pass was one for 25 museums for Euro25 - and it's good for a year.  Another one was a lower price for the museums located on "Museum Island" only but had to be used in 3 days which would make me totally crazy.  With this one, we can go late in the day and any time on a weekend and as many times as we want, since half the visit is walking to the museum (wandering through these fascinating east and west German   Districts) - and walking or taking a bus or the Ubahn back to Neukolln.  

Here are some of the highlights from the Pergamon Museum.  

The streets here are in a whirlwind state of construction with cranes everywhere and
buildings going up and up as fast as human beings can build them.  There is still much open
space and I'm sure if I return in a year or two, the streets will look very different again.

Lovely sculpture in the garden (more like a lawn of low bushes) outside
the entrances to several of the museums.

This scene can be "seen" as what is basically the "front lawn" of the
museums on "Museum Island" in central Berlin.

Amazing tile work bordering the entrance area to the Ishtar Gate.  Multiple
lions and other animals surround the viewer.

The one and only Ishtar Gate!

Sitting on the marble steps
overlooking the sculptured
frieze just below the Pergamon Altar

Small frieze of a cherub, beautifully sculpted 

A small portion of the frieze (top) which can be seen in the two photos above - it is
huge (as in circles the room) and is damaged in many locations -
with figures inset and spaces left where they have been broken over the ages.
The bottom piece is actually a photograph, not carvings.

Brass bird.

Selfie with very old, partially
restored carpets.

Examples of very old carpets on
exhibit at the Pergamon - they
do not photograph well.

The museum has a program with staff and interns performing antique carpet restoration.  If you look closely at the exhibits, they are all missing pieces and patched carefully on to backing.