Returning from the splendour of the Neues Palais I changed trains at Westkreutz to a clockwise ring S41 to Westend, and just caught an M45 bus for a couple of stops to the east end of Schloss Charlottenburg, to visit the modest Schinkel Pavillon. There were building works here when I came last year, but it now looks superb, even in the dull weather.
Friedrich Wilhelm III preferred to live in the compact Neue Pavillon – as it was then called – which was designed for him by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1824, rather than in the huge Schloss Charlottenburg next door. It has been beautifully restored, the ground floor rooms being decorated in Schinkel's restrained and elegant style, and containing a few items of original furniture.
Upstairs there are displays and comments on Schinkel's architecture, furniture design and painting – I'd seen him as an architect until now, although he actually started as a painter – as well as paintings by his contemporaries Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Blechen, and the architectural painter Eduard Gaertner. A super place – one of the highlights of the trip.
I thought about eating early in an Italian restaurant over the road from Schloss Charlottenburg, but decided to go home first. So an M42 bus back to Westend, S41 to Gesundbrunnen and S1 down to Nordbahnhof. Out later by M12 tram towards Schwedter Straße, where I ate last Wednesday. I'd seen several other restaurants in the main road, Kastanien Allee, and chose yet another Italian (apparently with no name). It turned out to be pretty good, and I lingered over my final Berlin meal before heading home to pack and organise for the homeward journey tomorrow.
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