We left Saturday March 7 after fighting with leaking water pipes in our bedroom from the shower in the attached master bath. Although Troy spent all day working on the repairs, our flight was an evening one, so we got the pipes capped off and made it to the airport in plenty of time. Everything with SAS went smoothly and the flight was enjoyable. I should mention that SAS has added personal entertainment viewers on the back of each seat since our last trip, so we had a big choice of movies, TV, music & even video games. I watched Happy Feet on the flight to Copenhagen. Although we made it to Berlin just fine, my suitcase got left behind in Copenhagen and had to be delivered the next day. Luckily, having learned from past trips, I had a set of underclothes in my carry-on and another in Troy's suitcase. My mom lent me a pair of jeans and some tennis shoes, so I managed but felt like a dork in them. No offense Mom. Fortunately, my stuff arrived by 9 AM the next day so I was able to change into my own clothes for our excursion the see a Dali exhibit was visiting Berlin. It turned out to be a collection of several themed sets of lithographed line drawings and they were very interesting. The collections included Tristan & Isolde, Don Quixote, Alice in Wonderland, Dante's Divine Comedy, Arthur's Knights of the Round Table and some religious-political images. I was most impressed by the way Dali used line so effectively and my favorites were the Tristan & Isolde ones. Most of the items were created in the late 60's and early 70's, and although Dali said he didn't do drugs, everything had a warped quality to it that captured the psychedelic imagery of the times. There were no paintings of limp clocks in this exhibit, and I think it was better for that, to see something different from this highly unusual artist.. 

On Sunday, we went with my brother to the Pergamon Museum. Berlin has many museums, but the Pergamon is unique. Named for the massive marble Pergamon Altar, I wasn't prepared for how huge it really is. Where I was expecting something like a large church altar, this was actually the scale of a town square! It was 2 stories tall, pieced together out of many fragmented friezes that adorned it all over. Click here for pics of the altar. There was a model that showed how it was laid out when it was new and complete. The carving was detailed and beautiful and quite impressive. The altar sets the scene for what to expect of the whole museum. Its specialty is architecture, primarily carved stonework and it spans ancient Babylonian, Greek and Roman times.

     

  

It also houses the Islamic Museum which includes ancient Persian rugs and collections of some of the most detailed and colorful stone, tile and woodwork I've ever seen, including the amazingly intricate Mshatta Facade, part of the outer walls of an ancient Moorish palace! It was breathtaking. Click here for pics of this section of the museum.

Mshatta Facade

Ishtar Gate

The Ishtar Gate is near the Pergamon Altar and is also stunning and impressive. Two full rooms are needed to house it because it includes the lane leading up to it and both lane and gate are 12-40 feet tall wall coverings of enameled brick in vivid blue and yellow. The blue field of the walls is then detailed with repeating lions in yellow along the lane and covered with lions and other creatures on the gate. Ishtar was a goddess whose symbol is the lion, so the gate and lane were built by Nebuchadnezzar II in her honor. It stands out as my favorite part of the Pergamon, but the Babylonian basalt walls and statues were also amazing. There I especially liked the huge pair of Shedu. These items were from the 8th century before Christ, 3000 years old, and they were actually in better condition & less fragmented than most of the younger Greek and Roman pieces.

As usual, Troy and my brother finished long before I turned in my headset and recorded info (available in many languages, including English). We rested over a beer at the Kilkenny Pub after having spent 4 hours in the museum.
 

The next day we went to a flea market we'd passed the previous morning, and then Mom took us to the Russian War Memorial in the old East sector. The memorial was impressive, but what was more important was mom's stories about how she used to walk there with her father as a child, and in nearby Treptower Park after church on Sundays. It was a nice sunny day and mom's memories made her happy. We walked all over the memorial which features pairs of friezes with text in German on one side & Russian on the other lining a plaza which is capped at the top by a huge statue of a soldier holding a baby in one hand and a sword in the other. In its pedestal is a room with a fantastic mosaic of a small group of Russian people, meant, perhaps, to be a family. It was amazingly well done, full of details like shading in the faces and traditional Russian patterns in the clothing. We walked from there to Treptower Park and had drinks outside in the sun by the water. Stern & Kreis Boat Company is headquartered there, but the boat season doesn't start till around April. To get home, we took a long scenic bus route that took us past Tempelhof Air Force Base where my father was stationed when he met my mom. The Berlin Airlift Memorial stands there, in a square in front of the base.

Day 5-7

On Monday we went to Alexander Platz and had our Paddenwirt dinner with Mom. It was just as good as the last time we were there and we were all stuffed by the time we left.

The next day was our big trip to Hamburg to see the Steinway Factory. We got up at 6 AM and got to the Hauptbahnhof just in time to catch the train to Hamburg as it was just leaving. We had to sit in a smoking section due to the last minute hop-on, but the scenery along the way was enough to distract me from the smoke. It was all small farm fields broken by stands of trees as windbreaks between each field, a lot like Kansas or North Dakota except the fields sizes were smaller. We saw a LOT of storks and some deer. There were tree stands or raised shacks for hunting in almost every field.

When we arrived in Hamburg, we didn't know what part of the city the Steinway factory was in, so we went to a tourist help station and asked for guidance. They printed us up a map with the route we needed and directed us to the right trains and buses. We took the S-Bahn to the right part of the city but the bus schedule out there sucked and we took a taxi to the factory from there. What can I say about the Steinway Factory...It was extremely interesting and we were there from 11 AM until 3. They gave us lunch and Frank, our guide, treated us very well. The tour was due to the fact that Troy's lumber mill sells Steinway of New York and Hamburg all their lumber, but the mill keeps sending them stuff that is not quite what they want. Our visit was to help educate the mill on what the piano maker needs and why. We saw each step of the process in making these handcrafted pianos, from how the lumber is cured to the laying out of the soundboard, the making of the grand pianos' curved cases, to the etching of the metal parts that hold the strings, their polishing, all the way to the final product in its 3 stages of tuning and finally the showroom floor. Click here for pictures of the making of a Steinway piano.

When we were done, our guide presented us with a pair of Steinway hats & a packet of info then escorted us back to the gate and called us a cab for the next part of our Hamburg adventure, The Dungeons, down at the heart of Hamburg, its harbor. The ride was fun and scenic. Hamburg is a very pretty city with rows of grand old houses overlooking the harbor from tiered hills, St Michael's Cathedral and the Rathaus spires rising above them like sentinels.
 

The Dungeons is right by the harbor walls, in a building it shares with another tourist activity, Miniature World. Our goal was the Dungeons though. This somewhat kitschy item was a blast! A combination horror house, history museum and thrill ride, it is mostly a walk-through themed attraction (except for the short boat ride) that brings the history of the city alive through the horrors of its past using live actors, including scenes and rooms dedicated to a torture chamber used to punish lawbreakers caught with British goods during a French occupation and ban on all things British, a fire, a flood, the plague, the Inquisition, Stortebecker the pirate's reign of Robin Hood-type antics, cholera epidemic and poor houses. For a couple who met working at a haunted house, it was a lot of fun for us and here's a picture to prove it! Although a little spendy at 16.50 Euros, we would do it again, and hope for the opportunity to see the history of London and Amsterdam from their Dungeon franchises. For the record, the group of tourists who shared the experience with us included people from Denmark, Poland, Japan and Bavaria, forcing the Dungeon's players to dust off their English skills as it was the only language we all had in common. There were small plaques in the rooms that translated the happenings of each section into English, but they were hard to read in the dim light and with the live action going on in each room. Translations really weren't necessary for the bursting spew of a plague-boil anyway. Sadly, no photos were allowed inside, but we got some outside and the one above which their photographer took as we first entered. Click here to see them all. By the time we were done with the Dungeons, we were exhausted and it was getting dark and cold. Although it had been a sunny day, it was quite cold when the sun went down and I was cold and getting sick, nose running like a faucet, so we headed directly back to the train station already planning a return visit to this lovely city next time.

 

I was pretty miserable by the time we got back about 10 PM and fell into bed. The next day, despite the annoying runny nose, we still took advantage of another partly sunny day for a walk from Mom's to the Victory Angel, a direct but not uncomfortably long walk from her house through the Tiergarten park. We climbed the 500+ steps up the Victory Angel to take in the 360 degree view and the beautiful mosaic that adorns its pedestal. The Angel is made of and adorned by captured enemy cannons from Germany's fight with the French during the 1800's. The walk was lovely, through the greening trees and shrubs of the park. We even saw a pair of woodpeckers, all bright in their red, black and white plumage. There seems to be something of beauty or interest around every turn, whether it's a finely crafted bit of iron work or a grand statue from a vanished time. Troy took a lot of pictures on both the digital and the regular camera. You can see them here.

Troy and I took some time for ourselves the next day, having learned from our trip to Hamburg that our train passes were also good for free passage on any S-bahn. We wandered around various parts of the city, hopping off the train anyplace that looked interesting and letting our feet lead us around. We took pics of the Berliner Dom, random statues and sights and stumbled upon a car dealership that had a new and old Bentley and a 400 kph Bugatti on display near the Ku'damm. We were amused that across the street and a half block down was also a Ferrari dealer. I picked up a nice .5 liter pilsner glass from a local brew house for my friend's birthday present and a small bottle of my favorite scotch that day. At the same place, Troy also got some Cuban cigars to smuggle back for himself. Click here for pics of the cars and sights of this day.