A trip to the Grey City

Berlin

It was 15 August when we had our trip to the capital city of Germany, Berlin. We left Leipzig early in the morning and drove for nearly three hours to get there. The program included a Stadtrundfahrt a.k.a a sightseeing tour, with two stops at Berlin Wall ( Berliner Mauer) and Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) . We only had 15-20 minutes so we just took a quick look around trying to see everything we could in that short time.

After this, we had 4 free hours to use them the way we wanted to. Since we were close to Museum Island (Museumsinsel) we decided to use this chance to visit a few of them. With a very convenient ticket, one could visit five museums in a day. Surely, we didn’t have that much time but we tried to make the best out of it.

The Museum Island is like an art pit. The museums themselves are a work of art and each one of them has different treasures from the human history, so everyone can find something to enjoy. Truly worth it as an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The first one we visited was Old National Gallery (Alte Galerie) . Its architectural style is a mix between late Classicism and early Neo-Renaissance and its building is designed specifically to express the ‘‘unity of art, nation and history’’ therefore it has aspects of a church, a theatre and a temple. It was a wonderful museum filled with collections of Neoclassical, Biedermeier, Romantic , Impressionist and early Modernist artwork. Since I’m a fan of Impressionism and Romanticism, I was truly satisfied that I could see in person, paintings of some of my favorite painters such as Claude Monet and Caspar David Friedrich. For those who are not so familiar with german artists, Caspar Friedrich is an amazing romantic painter whose work was focused on moody landscapes, loneliness and german folklore. For further information, I’m attaching a couple of links down below so you can take a glimpse at his work .

The next one was the Old Museum (Altes Museum), a building built in a Neoclassical style that houses an antiquities collection. This museum was actually meant to exhibit high brow and intellectual art but as the time passed by it started to house different pieces of Greek, Roman and Etruscan artwork. My favorite part of it was a circular room filled with sculptures of greek gods and goddesses.

Since we didn’t have time to visit another museum and we were basically starving , we agreed to just eat somewhere with a nice view. I finally decided to get out of my comfort zone and try traditional food for once. Everyone knows the famous Currywurst and we found the perfect place to eat one. Berliner Kindl was a small Imbiss (German snack bar) along Spree River that had a wonderful view of the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom). A simple but enjoyable meal to conclude that day’s excursion. After we finished, we decided to go for a last stroll around Alexanderplatz and TV Tower (Fernsehturm), then meet with the others to return to Leipzig.

What else can I say exept I wish I had more time to visit this wonderful city. It was interesting to see how traditional and modern were mixed in Berlin, how spacious yet full of life this place was. One day is definitely a very short time to visit a city that has 180 museums , 150 theatres and concert halls, 1,700 bridges and lots of castles and parks. I’ll surely return one day and give myself more time to delve into this city’s attractions.