The weather was a little better today than yesterday – not quite so much rain, still kinda chilly though (the temp hung around 50 all day, with a pretty steady breeze). Mrs. Thiermeier and I went down to Potsdamer Platz again, but this time to check out the Unter den Linden area (near the Branderburger Gate – this time in East Berlin). We took the S-Bahn (an over-ground transportation system) up to Potsdamer Platz and then walked the rest of the way to the Brandenburger Tor. I had my camera today, so we took a slight detour so I could get a shot of the Reichstag.
After that we walked through the Brandenburger Tor, and checked out a mall that had a lot of car company showrooms inside (Volkswagen, Seat, Bentley, among a few others). I was surprised at how many models of VW they have here that they don’t have in the US…the prices were much higher though. One of the smaller VWs (about the size of the GTI), costs about 37,000 Euros, quite a bit more expensive than in the US.
After that we checked out Humboldt University and walked around the inside of the main building, (didn’t go to the rest of the campus). I was surprised at how stark everything was inside, just bare walls and fixtures, all painted white.
We didn’t stay to long at Humboldt. We went out the back and walked down a side street, which put us near the Hedwig Cathedral. That was quite pretty on the inside. There was a large organ, and two levels of seating (on the main level, and some on the level below). There were a few artifacts downstairs in the lower level as well (old bibles, Bishop’s regalia, communion cups made out of gold), which were quite cool.
After that we walked over to the Museuminsel (Museum Island), which is a small island located in the middle of a canal split in two in north east berlin. There are 4 or 5 museums located on it, included among which is the Pergamonmuseum, which has quite a famous collection of Middle Eastern and Islamic Art. We didn’t stay to check out the museum (it’s an all-day commitment), but got information about types of museum passes you can get. All museums in Berlin cost money to get in, and there are different types of tickets you can buy – the one that I will eventually buy will be a 3-day ticket that gets me into all of the museums on the Museuminsel.
We headed over to the Dom, which was truly breathtaking. The interior was very ornately decorated, with paintings, stained glass, gold leaf, ornate wood work. It had a really large organ on one side, and a very ornately decorated altar on the other.
We also walked all the way up to the cupola of the dom, which gave really good panorama views of Berlin.
We then walked over by the TV Tower on Alexander Platz and got some Döner for lunch. Döner is a very popular food in berlin, I think Turkish in origin. It’s basically a piece of naan with shaved meat (the place we went to used chicken and veal), a sauce (can be mild or spicy), roasted peppers, and other vegetables. It’s served hot, but the veggies on it are added cold, a nice contrast when you eat it.
Finally it was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to head back. It was about 4pm by that point, so I decided to go for a run before dinner. Dinner was also really tasty tonight – we had a chicken casserole with potatoes, cauliflower, cheese in a cream sauce, and a salad.
After dinner I just watched some tv and sorted through the over 400 pics I took today…to be fair most of the pics was me taking the same shot 3 or 4 times – it was dark in most of the places I took photos, and I wanted to make sure each shot came out (i.e. shutter speed was very slow, which tends to blurring, as I had no tripod).
