Neues Museum Visit 18JUN14

BERLIN CATHEDRAL

Such a contrast inside and out - Beautiful sunny day outside and like a tomb inside!  The enormous building below is Berlin Cathedral, the short name for the Evangelical (i.e. Protestant/Lutheran) Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough, and is closely flanked by many historical Museums including the most crowded one, The Pergamon just to the left out of the frame.  I may have more photos to post later - !

Berlin Cathedral

Equally as impressive as the exhibits (to me since I do enjoy masonry work)
is the structure of this museum, beautiful sculptured brickwork ceilings
 - also the lighting of the exhibits made taking photographs easier with almost
no reflection from the glass exhibit enclosures to interfere with camera work.

Berliner Mauer East 19JUN15

Berliner Mauer

We have walked by the wall half a dozen times so far, mostly on our way downtown to museums and such.  There are several places where the wall has been left as exhibits and this location at the original Oberbaumbrucke crossing site is one of them.  This piece of wall is quite close to an important entry point from West to East Berlin.  There will b another post on the bridge itself.  Needless to say this 1300 meter section of the wall, which is explained below, is a huge attraction resulting in hundreds of visitors passing by, vehicles slowing down, tour boats on the canal, two huge hostel boat residences for visitors and of course the very wide canal at the west side of the wall.  

These signs are posted every hundred yards or so along the mayer.
Many are obscured by graffiti but this one was clean.

Comments for itself.  

This is the wall, a very long section of several an the entire construction is constantly
being worked on.  Each section has been painted over on both sides by artists and
many of the murals are also covered by meaningful - and meaningless -
graffiti splashes as well.

Here I am standing in front of one panel, painted shortly after the
wall was dismantled and unsullied by additional graffiti.  Our first
cool day in a week - jackets out of the closet and back on!

Photo taken with my back to the west side of the wall. 

This is not the real Checkpoint Charlie, just one of many shops set up for tourists -
this one offers actual original Passport stamps which is a bit different.
Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the name given by
the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.  The original
Checkpoint Charlie is in Mitte (downtown).

Workers doing repairs to a section of the wall - the graffiti will not be removed.
The murals like the one on the section where I am standing were painted shortly after the wall came down throughout the city - in 1990, 91 and 92. 

Kayaking and .......... Pickles??? Yes, in Lubbeneau near the Polish border!

Lübbenau, a day trip from Berlin on 15JUN14

We were thinking of heading toward Frankfurt in Ober on the Polish border and at the last minute had a taste for pickles and kayaking and went here instead.  

At least since the mid 19th century, Lübbenau (Sorbian "Lubnjow") is known as the “city of punts and pickles”. Everything centres around punting (kayaks, canoes and larger "punts") and the famous "Spreewaldgurken" (pickles) which were invented here.  Many different varieties of pickles can be sampled as well as purchased in various sizes from one pickle in a can to tubs.  We tried plain, onion, mustard and garlic!

Lübbenau with its historic town centre nestles directly up against the edge of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Spreewald. The town is considered to be the “secret capital" of the area, as Theodor Fontane described it while wandering through the Mark Brandenburg.

Starting in Lübbenau, nature lovers can adventurously paddle or traditionally glide by punt through the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Besides the standard punt tours Lübbenau's ferrymen also offer special punting tour experiences: the nostalgia punt tour as in 1910, the adventurous hay punt tour or fishing and nature observation tours in small groups. We opted for a peaceful flat water kayak trip under our own steam i.e. paddles.

Center of town - coffee shop in front of church (of course)

And here are various boats ("punts") for rent by groups or people who don't want to paddle 

their own.  To the right, there was a little pickle (mostly) market - pickles and 

condiments for sale and for sampling 

Main canal near the centre boating area where groups can charter a 

larger craft for a tour of the town by waterway

This stand is where we did our sampling - it advertised 

itself as the smallest pickle factory in Germany!

Starting in Lübbenau, nature lovers can adventurously paddle or traditionally glide by punt through the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Besides the standard punt tours Lübbenau's ferrymen also offer special punting tour experiences: the nostalgia punt tour as in 1910, the adventurous hay punt tour or fishing and nature observation tours in small groups. We opted for a peaceful flat water kayak trip under our own steam i.e. paddles, 
renting a double kayak and took off through a serene canal.  

Lovely reflections in the still waters of the canal 

When we started, we passed through a canal and
could see residential yards of summer homes - they
were all neat as a pin!  I hoped to see turtles
but the best I could manage was some fish.  We
heard the music of songbirds as well.

Caught up with this group in our travels and enjoyed
watching the punter's little dog in the back of the boat

Could not find anyone to take a photo of us in the kayak 

(Old Town made in Maine, same as the one we own) so this is the closest I 

could manage to capture the event!  How Old Town Kayak and Canoe

Company cornered the market in Lubbeneau, Deutschland is anybody's guess!

Little known fact - I Always Loved a Van

Who needs museums with all the cars on the streets.  I love looking at vehicles and most enjoy the multiple varieties of trucks an vans parked and passing me by on the streets of Germany (and London and the Netherlands for that matter).  There are huge ones, tiny ones, pickups built for the fronts and backs of bicycles.  And then there was this cool green baby parked on the street around the corner from us in Berlin.  She seems to be a real classic possibly from the late 60s, early 70s - and a Mercedes Benz!  I looked it up and possibly it's an old and delightfully rounded L319 but I'm not sure.  Either way, it's in very good condition and obviously in use - it was parked here for a couple of days then moved on.  

 

This little beauty is about the size of an old Ford Econoline or a VW Vanagan.  

I'm sure who ever owns it has enjoyed many adventures driving it - it's 

clearly being used as a camper (or maybe even someone's home) right now.  

Mail Delivery in Berlin

Mr. Postman, where are you now?  We have had reason to need to receive mail here - that long story will be better explained at some point on Danny's blog.  

Anyway, it appears that first class mail (the Berlin Poste) is delivered via postman/woman via yellow bike and containers and third class mail by PIN or green bike.  Mail can appear two or three times a day, or in our case, expecting 3 pieces, only one time on one day!   

After taking great pains to meet and befriend the mail delivery person so he would know who Danny is, he learned that the guy was going on vacation for three weeks - starting a day later!  

Visit to Hamburger Bahnhof Museum

Hamburger Bahnhof Museum

Main Bahnhof with huge exhibits

Seems like a long time ago that we were at this museum - an yes it was about two weeks ago - we went twice - too big to see in one session.  The most amazing exhibit were the Warhols - larger than life especially the Mao - see Danny off to the side to get an idea of the scope!  The most amazing part of this exhibit was the building itself which was enormous.  Underneath, there was a basement as long as a train with additional exhibits.

Dizzying glass staircase

Danny at the top of the staircase

Documented the knives for our friend the chef!

Knives by Warhol - 1981/82

Larger than life Mao - the cut out heads are also huge and part of the backdrop only

Double Elvis by Warhol with Overlook by Marilyn

And the Double Elvis for my friends who are Elvis fans!

Warhol Large Electric Chair/documented for no particular reason

And captured the photograph truisms for people - you know who you are!

Photography Exhibit with some thumbnails below of
photographer truisms (!?)

Add caption

Finally my own keys

Imagine our frustration at having a great apartment, five flights of stairs and one set of keys for two people.  The manager of the space did not offer two sets and I was too breathless to even think of asking the day we arrived!  As you can imagine, the coordination eventually got a bit tricky since the downstairs door is locked (wait for another resident to open the door).  And both inner doors are locked with a separate key and there was no seemingly secure place to stash that key and breaking in these heavy secure doors was not an option.  This led to our having to combine our comings and goings - running down then up again those flights of stairs to let someone was to be avoided!  We had a bell but no buzzer we could find.

The manager was not all that responsive about the problem and finally answered us days later when we accidentally locked ourselves out of the space.  She directed us where to pick up a second set of keys - which came in handy for both us and our neighbours since this set is labelled "left and right" and opens both apartments - the circuit breakers are in their side and for some reason, we keep tripping them on our side - and we have the router for the wireless internet for both units!  Talk about cooperation!

Amazing how a set of keys can let me feel empowered!
But I do miss my push button lock in Oakland.