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Leaving Berlin
Jul. 21st, 2018 05:20 amJust about to board the early morning train journey from Berlin to Frankfurt, then the big silver bird to Bangkok and finally Melbourne. The past few days have been a bit of a whirlwind, starting with a visit to the Alte Nationalgalerie and the Siegessäule on Tuesday. The former was housed on the appropriately named Museum Island, and presents itself in a grand neoclassical style. The interior included far too much German realism (Menzel is so boring), but was saved by a good collection of French impressionism, and an excellent temporary exhibition on "wanderlust", with a great 3D animation by Björk. The latter is impressive despite its military glorification, but the fact it features in Wings of Desire was the main reason ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caseopaya wanted to visit. It is also a fine place to find a cafe where you can be charged $7AUD for a glass of cold water.
The following day was a trip to the famous Berlin zoological gardens and aquarium (which also includes the reptile house, insects etc). It is really worth putting aside a day for this trip, and getting tickets to both venues. Without a doubt the highlight creature was the quasi-tropical Humboldt penguins, which displayed great levels of playfulness. I suspect it is from these birds that David Attenborough derived an inkling for his famous flying penguin video. After that we took a trip to the Eastside gallery, a long remaining stretch of the old Berlin wall which seen over a hundred street artists around the globe express their views on the matter. It was (along with the tagging) mostly disappointing.
Thursday started with a visit to the offices of Die Linke on Rosa Luxemburg Platz where I had a chat with some party officials, paid my membership, and appropriately purchased volume one of the collected works of Rosa Luxemburg. My midday we made it to Museums für Film und Fernsehen, which includes a great potted history of German film from its origins to contemporary productions. There was, of course, quite an emphasis on greats like Fritz Lang and Marlene Dietrich (especially the latter), and one cannot help but get the sense that the mass exodus of talent following the rise and fall of the Nazis and the splitting of the country did enormous damage to the early innovations. The day finished with going to see Blue Man Group with front row tickets. Part-band, part-performance art, BMG put on a family-friendly show with plenty of audience participation. My apparent enthusiasm resulted in being awarded one of the canvases, splattered with flurouscent pain from their drums.
Our final day was a visit out to the sprawling palace and grounds of Charlottenburg, traditional home of royalty of Prussia and Brandenburg. Much of it has had to be restored following WWII, but the restoration is superb. The interiors are an overwhelming assault of baroque and roccoco with almost every centimetre either gilt or convered in cherubs. The sprawling wings, additional buildings, and grounds (landscaped and otherwise) took pretty much four hours in their own to explore. The day ended with yet another visit to the Warschauer region of Friedrichshain which, in my considered opinion, is the finest and most human area of Berlin.
caseopaya wanted to visit. It is also a fine place to find a cafe where you can be charged $7AUD for a glass of cold water.The following day was a trip to the famous Berlin zoological gardens and aquarium (which also includes the reptile house, insects etc). It is really worth putting aside a day for this trip, and getting tickets to both venues. Without a doubt the highlight creature was the quasi-tropical Humboldt penguins, which displayed great levels of playfulness. I suspect it is from these birds that David Attenborough derived an inkling for his famous flying penguin video. After that we took a trip to the Eastside gallery, a long remaining stretch of the old Berlin wall which seen over a hundred street artists around the globe express their views on the matter. It was (along with the tagging) mostly disappointing.
Thursday started with a visit to the offices of Die Linke on Rosa Luxemburg Platz where I had a chat with some party officials, paid my membership, and appropriately purchased volume one of the collected works of Rosa Luxemburg. My midday we made it to Museums für Film und Fernsehen, which includes a great potted history of German film from its origins to contemporary productions. There was, of course, quite an emphasis on greats like Fritz Lang and Marlene Dietrich (especially the latter), and one cannot help but get the sense that the mass exodus of talent following the rise and fall of the Nazis and the splitting of the country did enormous damage to the early innovations. The day finished with going to see Blue Man Group with front row tickets. Part-band, part-performance art, BMG put on a family-friendly show with plenty of audience participation. My apparent enthusiasm resulted in being awarded one of the canvases, splattered with flurouscent pain from their drums.
Our final day was a visit out to the sprawling palace and grounds of Charlottenburg, traditional home of royalty of Prussia and Brandenburg. Much of it has had to be restored following WWII, but the restoration is superb. The interiors are an overwhelming assault of baroque and roccoco with almost every centimetre either gilt or convered in cherubs. The sprawling wings, additional buildings, and grounds (landscaped and otherwise) took pretty much four hours in their own to explore. The day ended with yet another visit to the Warschauer region of Friedrichshain which, in my considered opinion, is the finest and most human area of Berlin.