Germany- Luther Tour, Day 3: Berlin-August 3, 2017

9:21! I was absolutely shocked, when I awoke and saw that time on the clock. I'd woken up a couple of times during the night, as usual, but got back to sleep easily each time. I could not believe that we'd slept that late. I woke my husband, as breakfast would end at 10:30.
We were in the breakfast room by 10:05. I got the same meal as yesterday, but added Bircher Muesli, which I would eat for the rest of the trip. Seemed healthy. I also tried a pancake and put strawberry syrup on it from Georgia, USA. The pancake itself was not sweet like we are used to. I also tried the mushrooms, tomatoes and potatoes. Since it was so late, we knew that we would not bother with lunch.
We left the hotel at 11:30 and headed for the Anhalter Bahnhof S-bahn station under a grey sky. We found an entrance in five minutes that was closer than the one we passed on our excursion yesterday. We were standing at the ticket machine trying to figure out what we needed, when a helpful young woman who spoke English decided to help. The two tickets cost us 5,60 Euros. At 11:45, we boarded the S1 to Friedrichstraße.
The trip was only 5 minutes. It was a busy station and we went up one floor to find our way out. We'd already studied the map to determine our route. We were now across the river from the restaurant we'd dined in last night. We walked along the river, looking at the tour boats, on our way to Museum Insel. At one traffic light, I recognized the Ampelmann, that the East Germans had so liked, that the town left them up after reunification.

I took a picture of one street sign showing a street name of Geschwister Scholl. I posted it later on Facebook, saying that my German III students might recognize it. I was very happy when the majority of responses indicated they recognized the names of the famous siblings from Die Weiße Rose. The one guy who really didn't remember had the class over 20 years ago, but he did remember the opening dialogs from German I!
Walking down the street and later riding around town, we saw these pipes a lot. We learned that when you build a building, you have to pump up the ground water and deposit it someplace safe. You can't just waste it. Blue pipes mean water; other colors are used for gas and other things. They rest on concrete blocks and the ones along here have quotes from famous people on them.

Soon, we passed the Bode Museum and the Pergamon, the latter of which was undergoing extensive renovation and the famous altar was not on exhibit. We did not plan to visit and later saw that the line was an almost 2 hour wait. We had to go to the far end of the museum complex to cross a bridge to the island. We planned to visit two museums,the Neues Museum and the  Alte Nationalgalerie, each of which would cost 10 Euros. However, there was a ticket to visit everything on Museum Insel for 18 Euros, which was a better deal for us. The line for tickets across from the Neues Museum was long and I got in it at 12:20. My husband went off in search of a shorter line. As I stood there looking at the two museums-the line was in an area between them- I realized that I had done a jigsaw puzzle of the Alte Nationalgalerie. After about 15 minutes I got a text from my husband that he had the tickets, which he'd bought at the Altes Museum. The text cost us 50 cents, because we don't having roaming for Europe, but it was worth it.

As we went up the steps to the Neues Museum at 12:37, there were a few drops of rain. There was a free audio guide, which we took advantage of. My husband took his backpack to the check room and we set out to explore. The museum is huge and we knew that we couldn't really look at everything in the time we had. We used the map to make sure we hit the highlights.
One thing I wanted to see was Der Goldene Hut, because I knew it from a postage stamp. It really is quite amazing and old and its decorations are associated with an astronomical calendar.

Nefertiti was a must see, as well. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures of her unless you stand behind a line in another room. She was wonderful to see, nonetheless.
This next picture is of the Xanten Youth, which dates from 100 BC to 100 AD. I was particularly impressed with his hair.

I liked a diorama that had an audio with it that told of how the life of the people in the scene changed over the years. You could sit there way too long. There was a special exhibition called China & Aegypten- Wiegen der Welt (China & Egypt- Cradles of the World), which compared artifacts and life styles of these two ancient civilizations. It was really interesting, but no photos were allowed.
We hit both shops before we left and made purchases in both. I bought a Goldener Hut key chain just to have a small model of it. I was so hot by then- Germans really don't air condition the way we do-that I was grateful to go outside. When we did, we got to see this cool effect on the TV tower:

The tower was erected in East Germany during the godless Communist times. The unintended cross occurs, when the sun hits it just right and is called "the Pope's Revenge".
We walked across the courtyard to the Alte Nationalgalerie and went in at 3:30. This museum is mostly paintings, with some sculptures. Lots of famous artists are represented, such as those below- Renoir, Caspar David Friedrich, and Josef Danhauser.

 This painting, In the Conservatory by Manet, was considered scandalous in its day. Even after listening to the reasons why, I just don't get it. They are a married couple.

The building itself was quite lovely in areas. This section really was a good setting for sculpture.

We had started on the uppermost floor and worked our way down. At one point, we came down some very elegant stairs and found ourselves behind an unused glass door with a very nice view, that showed us the sun was still out. It also gave me a better view of the church that I'd also done as a jigsaw puzzle.

As we went down another fancy staircase, we discovered a freeze all the way around depicting famous artists, authors, musicians and scientists of the German-speaking world. Part had been damaged in the war and was replaced with a drawing of what had been there. Here's just one section, which happens to have my favorite German author, Goethe.

We worked our way down to the basement, where the shop and an espresso bar were located. We found postcards of art we'd liked as well as a selection of books. I was really surprised to see this one:

Pride and Prejudice is a favorite book of my daughters and mine. Just as I'd noted in the German version of Harry Potter, Mr. does not get translated.
We left at 5:10 and it was clearer. We did not have time to waste and walked quickly back to the Friedrichstraße Bahnhof, arriving in 18 minutes. Once again, we bought 2 tickets for 2,80 Euros each. It was hot in the station and hot on the train. When we got off at Anhalter Bahnhof at 5:44, we discovered a thunderstorm with heavy rain. Luckily, we had our umbrellas with us. Unluckily, we did not exit at the same entrance we'd entered in earlier and had farther to walk in the rain.
We got to the hotel at 5:54 and hurried up to the room to put the umbrellas in the shower and change out of sneakers, because the tour papers said no sneakers for dinner and we were about to join the tour. The meeting was to be at 6, and when we found them in the dining room at 6:05, they'd already started. We had to sit at a table that was not set up, because the tables with open seats were in the middle of everyone.
The tour guide, Brane, talked about the way the bus seating would run, how to find the schedule for the daily departures, etc. He gave out headsets to be used sometimes for the tour, as well as plastic luggage tags to attach so that our luggage could get to the correct bus. There were 37 people on our tour and we were strongly encouraged to be on time for the bus.
After the meeting, we had a toast with the drinks that had been served. I had white wine and my husband had red. We were asked to move to one of the tables with empty seats that were set. We joined a couple from Wyoming, who were part of a group of 15 members of a "very conservative", as the wife said, Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, that included the pastor and the organist/cantor. We lined up for the buffet, which featured Schweinefleisch (pork) and Zander (pike), the latter of which I skipped, of course. There were three desserts and we tried all three: Griesflammerie (semolina flammery), Pflaumenkuchen (plum cake) and Apfelcrumble (apple crumble).

It was a good dinner and the conversation was pleasant, although the husband was rather reserved.
The wake up call was scheduled for 6:45, with bags out at 7:15. We realized that that was not enough time for us, so we set our alarm for 6:30.
We'd had a good day and were really glad that we'd added an extra day here at the beginning of the trip.