farewell, berlin, farewell, WorldCup 2006!

Italy became the champion; Zidane got sent off in possibly the most controversial way; Klinsman led Germany to 2nd runner up, none could have predicted that before the tournament; England once again flopped...

a successful tournament all in all, looking forward to the 2010 South Africa World Cup!!!

here ends our trip to Germany, phew! time to move on.

mitte, Berlin

in what was the former East Germany, Mitte has come a long way since the unification of the 2 countries.
lined with designer shops, cafes, bars and interesting inner courtyards, this area worth at least a few days of exploration, and definitely not during a Worldcup when one's mind was still pondering on who entered the last 16!

managed to find some interesting links to this area:

http://uinic.de/berlin-mitte/en/index.html

as it was effectively the last full day of our trip in Germany, we only managed to spend a short few hours in the district which did not do the place justice, before rushing off to Postdamer Platz again for the live coverage of the final group game of France.

give us another reason for revisiting Berlin in the future...

neighbourhood playground

even in a cosmopolitan city like Berlin, there are parks and playgrounds almost everywhere. spoke with a German friend, and it appears that the German governement is doing a lot to help developing the kids. if you look at the innovativetoys still being produced today, products from Germany still top the list. (No, we are not talking about video game consoles! that is a totally different category!)

looking at a playground next to the hotel where we stayed, most of the structures were built and finished with the most natural form of materials, timber. there's no hi-tech swings, or mechanical fittings, but just the good old treehouse with planks and walks, fashioned in a high adventure setting. and there's no safety matting, but just sand, foilage, or cork.

your kids won't learn unless they have a few bumps and scratches, fall to the ground and learn to pick themselves up again.

deutsches historisches museum - I.M.Pei

The museum is housed in the Berlin "Zeughaus", or the arsenal, the oldest building on Unter den Linden. Not only has it an extensive assortments of artefacts detailing the German History, it also has a vast collection of weaponeries, from the early ages through to the 2nd Worldwar. Through the courtyard in centre leads to the new extension, completed in 2004, designed by chinese born, american architect I.M.Pei.

Nice use of materials and manipulation of space.

but, somehow found the public space inside this extension, largely for circulation and waiting, was more impressive than the actual exhibition space inside. which brought the question of which is serving and which is served...

the winding staircase, with its transparent enclosure, was a nice touch to the exterior elevation, but to me, its purpose remains a mystery...

United Buddy Bears in Berlin

on unter den Linden, not only were there the Deutsche Guggenheim Gallery, Staatsbibliothek, the Neue Wache, the Zeughaus, but also tons of Buddy Bears at the Bebelplatz.

there were altogether 142 of them, from different country, painted differently, and have travelled as far as Hong Kong and Tokyo back in 2004 and 2005.

more info on www.buddy-bear.com

quoting from the inside cover page of the special publication for this event:

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein

sunset in Berlin

at the time of writing, the trip to Berlin was already five months ago, but the images i saw, the taste of the food, and the smell of the air, still hangs vividly at the back of my head. seems so near, yet so far.

any experience is memorable because there comes a time when the trip ends, the break overs, and it's time to return to the more routine daily life. but it is exactly because of its limited duration that we would treasure it. when you can have everything you want, there is nothing more you want...

the dinner at the Tele-Cafe was at a surprisingly reasonable price, quite a contrary to what i would expect from a tourist destination. the view was stunning, as the cafe provides a panoramic view in a revolving movement.

only another full day left in Germany before bidding farewell!

Fernsehturm revisited.

very much the one and only landmark you can not miss in Berlin. after leaving the museum island, it was getting late, and although the sun was still not set, after a day's walk of some of the greatest museum, it's time to sit down and have a proper dinner. better still if we could catch the setting sun at Berlin.
the metal sphere was only like this during the WorldCup, at other times, it's simply a sphere with steel cladding.
took us about another half an hour or so on foot to reach here while passing the Alexanderplatz on the way.

Pergamonmuseum - Ishtar Gate

Its name owes to the housing of the famous Pergamon Altar in the main hall. This museum is separated into three independent collections including those of the Greeks & Romans, the museum of Near Eastern Antiquities and the Museum of Islamic Art, results of German extensive archaeological expeditions during the 19th and the early 20th century.

It was quite amazing how could works of such immense scale could travel so long a distance and rest finally here in Berlin. In particular, the Ishstar Gate from Babylon really was an exhibit that one must not miss.

Babylon, a city which once stood in the present day Iraq, was considered one of the most important civilization in ancient history. The hanging garden of Babylon is still being regarded as one of the Seven wonder of the world.

But another piece of history which is probably even more well known was the Tower of Babel - man's attempt in equalling the power of God. while not trying to get too religious here, the reaching of the heavens, or the playing the role of God are not something that is too unfamiliar to us in present days. With advancement in genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, cloning...aren't we, in a unified sort of way, trying to create the Tower of Babel in a way?

Just one side note: for an exhibit as important as this, the exhibition hall was surprisingly bare, and lack proper consideration in bringing out the essence of the Ishtar Gate. I was thinking, if only I could be the designer for the hall, can i do it with greater effect?

a break for lunch.

after leaving behind the Altes Museum, it was already after two in the afternoon, and knowing that we will only have time to visit one more museum for the day, as we walked along the am Kupfer-Graben, we stopped by an Italian restaurant just before reaching the Pergamon Museum and had our lunch.

as said earlier, it seemed that while you were in Berlin, it's way easier to find italian cuisine rather than authentic German food.

Altes Museum

right in front of the lustgarten, the Altes Musuem holds collection of Greek & Roman antiquities, and is a piece of beautiful neo-classical building, with an overwhelming portico held up by 18 Ionic columns.
the bronze figures of Castor and Pollux are featured at the corners of the central building.

Neues Museum

during our visit in the summer, the Neues Museum was under a large scale renovation. heard on the news a few days ago it was officially reopened in November. the renovated museum will have on display collection of Egyptian Art and of those from early history.
incidentally, stumbled onto a site on Museums+Collections which has some useful information on the museums in Berlin.

o, Nefertiti, will come and pay you a visit the next time we visit Berlin again!

Alte Nationalgalerie - the gods

there were many pieces of scultptures worth writing about, but to do so will take months to do it, and what's better than go and visit it yourself? so we shall keep the description of the place to a minimum, and hopefully, our pictures and writings are good enough to arouse your interest at the place.

this sculpture was located near the entrance to the galerie, and with so many to see but so little time (we later found out that apart from a full ticket which allows you to go inside all the museums located on the museum island, there's also another ticket which allows you to visit the place over 3 days, which if you have the time, is definietly worth buying), we skipped the description.

but who can he be?

the eagle, and the God-like character who's chained to a rock, looking up at heaven with a sign of defiant?

who else other than the great Prometheus?