Saturday morning we stopped by the Brandenburg gate one more time so we could see it with less people/ fences and equipment around it. Sadly the huge stage was still set up behind it, but at least we could get closer this time and there were fewer people. Next we headed over to the Museuminsel (Museum Island) to visit the Neues Museum and the Pergamon Museum. The Neues Museum’s has Egyption, Prehistory and Early History collections. One of the most impressive pieces is the Bust of Nefertiti, a 3,300 year old painted limestone bust. The room it is displayed in is itself really beautiful too (as are most of the rooms in the museum!)..sadly we couldn’t take pictures in that room, but we did get a couple post cards. Next was the Pergamon Museum which is divided into three collections: the antiquity collection, the Middle East museum, and the museum of Islamic art. The most impressive pieces are some reconstructed monumental buildings – the Pergamon Alter, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate. By the time we finished up here we were ready for a snack, so we left the museum island and had some coffee and apple strudel sitting outside with a great view of the Dom.
After our snack we took the UBahn to Wittenbergplatz. Tauentzienstrasse is a huge shopping street (this is where KeDeWe is) and this is also where Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is. Kaiser Wilhelm Church was badly damaged during WWII and only the spire remains from the original church. It has become the symbol of Berlin so we made a point to go see it, but sadly the entire thing was surrounded by scaffolding because there is some restoration work going on. Next we checked out KeDeWe which is a HUGE high end department store (think Harrods). We looked around the first floor a little which was all designer boutiques and makeup before heading to the gourmet food floor. They had a huge selection – I think you find just about anything there. They even had an “American food” section and we were tempted to buy a few things (Hershey’s syrup, cake mix, peanut butter, popcorn, etc) but everything was sooo expensive and we weren’t hurting for anything too badly so we resisted. We headed back to the Gendarmenmarkt area to have some fun (but pricy) drinks at a fun bar Antje had recommended before dinner at Die Zwolf Apostel (The Twelve Apostles) – a really good Italian restaurant that is underneath the railroad tracks (literally). While heading back to our place we stopped at the Oktoberfest festival going on at Alexanderplatz to look around the stalls and have some Glühwein.
