Last day in Berlin

Well, last day in Berlin is over!!!

Yesterday I didn’t write because there was much to write about. I did a little bit of small Christmas shopping but nothing exciting at all. I find it hard to find exciting things in this global world. Anyway, I wandered around, popped in and out of shops and sat down to a nice lunch, something I haven’t really done before. As I’ve commented before the lovely squares are now full of Christmas Markets under construction, including the lovely Gendarmenplatz. Good thing I’d seen it before. I came home after the day to do a load of washing and start to move my head into moving on gear.

There was all this hype about the Super Moon and I’m in the perfect position with a 360 deg. view from this apartment. So I waited and the moon rose as expected. I watched it for ages and it was bright but not a lot different from your normal full moon. A bit of a disappointment in my view…how was it from down under??

Today I set off for my last hurrah. I went for my last coffee at Einstein (Check Point Charlie…the best people watching venue on earth…and god people are stupid but sometimes I do find myself laughing out loud!!). Then I set off for…oops the Museum Island. I’d walked around there and the museums are all so utterly overwhelming that I couldn’t cope and I hadn’t been to any of the Museums. So, I had a day today and I decided to choose one and to go to it. I chose the Pergamon Museum with its splendours of the ancient world. But first I got waylaid when I went up to Freidrichstasse Station and decided I hadn’t taken the time to take in the Tranenpalast ( The Palace of Tears) the border crossing pavilion where the East Berliners had to say goodbye to their visitors from the west. So I went in there and spent ages looking at the displays, videos etc. For the first time the thing that really struck me was how naive and stupid I was and what a dangerous position I was in when I blithely found myself in East Berlin. I had a real ‘Oh My God’ moment. You stupid would be adventurer!!

Anyway I made my way from there to the Pergamonmuseum. And I’m so glad I didn’t miss it…it was amazing. The first thing you walk into is the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. Massive, impressive, beautiful and reconstructed within the museum from an archeological site. I knew they had all these wonderful treasures and like the British Museum there is a certain uneasiness about how these treasure were acquired and removed from what was Mesopotamia/ Syria/ Jordan/ Iraq / Iran. But as you look on these amazing structures from places like Aleppo you have to think thank God they were removed because otherwise they would now be lost to us all. So, the long and the short of it was that it was an afternoon well spent and I was very happy that I’d made the effort. N.B Half the Pergamonmuseum is closed and under renovation so I will have to return to see the Pergamon Alter in 2019!!

I emerged to a horrid day of rain and wind which was in fact nearly over as the light was fading. So I galloped home on the subway and now have to turn my energies to packing and cleaning up. Dresden tomorrow. I’ve really loved Berlin but am happy to be heading for new horizons tomorrow. This time in a week I’ll be back in Italy (god willing!!)

More from Dresden tomorrow….loads and loads of love, I’m missing everyone and starting to look forward to being home.