I did go to a couple of museums and took some pictures, but really, there are only so many pictures of fine art that you can take before they all start to look identical. So there won’t be as many pictures here today.
Let’s start off with a very good subway ad for a Lasik clinic that will have you “independent of glasses and contact lenses.”
Off to the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Musem of Decorative Arts) which is in the Kulturforum (Culture Forum) near the Potsdamer Platz subway station. The first picture is a tower that is actually a good distance from the area, but I liked the green stuff at the top of the building. The yellow building is the Berlin Philharmonic hall, and the church is near the museum.
Here are the only two pictures I felt were worth posting from the museum: a view upwards from the entrance, and an interesting grandfather clock.
On the way back to the subway station, I passed the Lego store and the Sony center. In the passageway to the station, I saw some green and blue lamps (sorry, that one didn’t come out with the colors very well). I went back to have lunch, and when I was done, I saw that the lamps had changed color.
Here’s one musuem you won’t see every day: The Buchstabenmusem (Letter Museum). This is a collection of letters taken from building signs. Some of them are from the old East Germany (DDR); for example, East Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof (main train station) became the Ostbahnhof (east train station); the letters HAUP were taken down, and they now reside at this musueum. The first picture shows an interesting set of letters: there are two layers of neon. The lower layer follows the main letter form; the upper layer spells out a different word. The lights were set up to alternate between the words at night. An unusual museum, to be sure, but well worth the visit.
Three pictures taken on the walk around Rosa-Luxemburg Straße and on the way back to Alexanderplatz. The first one with the stuffed animal smoking a cigarette is in the window of the CCCP Bar. In the third picture, the building is the “Volksbühe,” which translates roughly to “People’s Theater.”
These paintings are on the ceiling at the Alexa Centre in Alexanderplatz.
The word means “jewelry” in German, but it’s still sort of a surprise to see it in red neon.
I finally went to a real restaurant instead of a subway station döner joint, and had their spinach and cheese wrap with onion, mushroom, and garlic. It was very good. The slice of truffle torte, which I had bought at a bakery shop, was dessert.
There are a lot of places here (including museums) where you have to pull the door to exit; pushing won’t work. Doesn’t anyone realize what a really horrible idea that is?
Two things I forgot to mention about the hotel. The first night when I checked in, I turned on the bathroom light, heard a popping noise, and the lights went out completely. I went down to the main desk and within five minutes they had someone up to fix the light.
Another interesting, and for me, welcome, note: there’s no Gideon Bible in the room.