I have to get a new 3-day Berlin Welcome card as #2 runs out this evening. So out at 09:15 to walk down to Torstraße to catch a 142 bus to the Hauptbahnhof; it's only a short journey, and I had to wait 9 minutes, but it saves my feet from the slog along Inviladenstraße – even worse at the moment with long-running roadworks causing disruption.
Bought the Welcome Card at the Hbf Tourist Information and some stamps in a nearby card shop. Then up a couple of floors for the S-bahn to Hackescher Markt, arriving at 10:00. A short walk to Museumsinsel, where I queued briefly at the outside ticket office for my free (with Museumsinsel Welcome card #2) timed ticket for the Neues Museum. I was inside by 10:20.
I started in the Stone Age and Bronze Age on the top floor and worked down to the Romans. It's not a subject I know about and I found it all very interesting, especially the early times. There were many beautiful artefacts on display. Had some thoughts about the gradual development of communities for the benefit of all, and the subsequent emergence of rulers which has not always been to everyone's benefit. Took a tea break in the good and quiet café part way though, and emerged with a few photos after three hours at 13:15.
A 200 bus from Lustgarten – the green square outside the Berliner Dom and Altes Museum – to Leipziger Platz, for the Dalí Museum. I stayed for two hours. There are none of Dalí’s familiar paintings, nor anything about his life, which was disappointing. Instead it's a gallery of perhaps 200 or so illustrations (lithographs and some engravings) dating from the mid 1950s to the early 1970s, 20+ years later than the paintings. I really enjoyed them.
All are in series: Don Quichotte de la Mancha (1956/57), Le Tricorne (1959), Tristan and Isolde (1970), Faust (1968/69), Suite Mythologique Nouvelle (1971), Les Amours Jaunes (1974), Carmen (20 lithographs from 1970 that I liked a lot), Dix Recettes d'Imortalite (1973), Knights of the Round Table (1977), Pater Noster (1966), La Divine Comédie (1960).
Out of the Dalí Museum at 16:30 and home by 17:00 to rest my feet and write some postcards. Out again at 18:15 towards Savigny Platz in search of another restaurant from my list.
Comments