16-20 deg C, cloudy for most of the day with light drizzle, and patches of sunshine
Walk G: 13km; total: 375km
Walk W: 11km; total: 340km
We started the day’s activities with a walk to the Jewish Museum, which includes the Holocaust Tower. Greg went in as part of his 3-day museum pass. The first museum of many for today and ended up being the highlight of the day. He could have easily stayed there all day and given all the others a miss. It’s all done very well, an absolutely impressive museum and an icon of very clever architecture. The content and the architecture continually play tricks on your mind. The use of voids, tunnels, sloping floors and ingenious use of natural and artificial light is typically German genius. Greg just can’t find the right words to describe it all. He didn’t anticipate how emotional the experience would be. For a dark and empty space, 24m high, with just a bit of natural light, the Holocaust Tower provides an interesting and moving experience. He did feel that the museum, despite the gloomy subject, tried to provide an optimistic view of an otherwise terrible situation. Another purpose of the museum was to explain to non-Jewish people what made up Jewish culture and beliefs.
The other museums Greg visited today appear below in the photos.
Wendy found another road that she had not walked before. There’s always something interesting to see on any walk in Berlin. After some morning coffee she did the all-important hotel bookings and route planning.
After lunch, Wendy went back to Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, then home via a few more sights. Greg was still trying to tick off a few more museums on his list.
About 4pm, Greg rang Wendy via WhatsApp (the beauty of having an eSIM with unlimited data) to say he was almost home and to meet him downstairs in the bar for a drink. They present the drinks so nicely, making us feel quite relaxed and happy. Wendy did the hunting and gathering for dinner and took it back to the room.
Greg did his post dinner walk while Wendy started the blog.
Holocaust Tower at the Jewish Museum
The front of the Jewish Museum, this building mainly houses the admin and cafe
The museum itself is located in this zigzagging structure and the tower is at the end of a tunnel
The Garden of Exile
The Void
The Garden
A painting by the Jewish prisoners who were liberated by the Yanks
A wishing tree people are encouraged to write a wish and hang it on the tree
Each one of the curves holds a sound both to listen to Jewish religious music
Sometimes we forget how widely spread the Nazi hatred of Jews went
The Museum itself is in the zigzag building
A section of the museum, which is near impossible to effectively photograph
Sometimes you can look backward and see how complex the structure is
A random mural in a kids playground
Trabant graveyard - it appears they were once used for Berlin “Safaris”
Museum of Musical Instruments
The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ, became a symbol of excellence as it could imitate a whole orchestra.
Often used for background music in silent movies.
There were examples of every type of musical instrument ever produced
Berlin State Museum
housed in the Ephraim Palace building
A painting of early Berlin
The tank graveyard in Berlin after the guns went silent
St Nicholas Church
now a museum
Lovely old, 16th century church which is now a museum
There are so many churches which have been closed and put to another use. Just like Australians,
Germans are not attending church in the numbers they used to.
Pretty solid foundations for the pillars
Spittelkolonnaden, an historic landmark
Brandenburg Gate from different side and angles
Reichstag
Carillon
Soviet War Memorial
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