Walk with us in Berlin — An Elegant Sufficiency

It’s Sunday morning and Berlin’s quiet as we set out. No shops open – not now, nor later, for these sensible people maintain Sunday closing and so we’ve planned our day carefully.

We’ve walked along this street a few times now but always on the market side, so have missed this small section of the wall which stands here, near to the line where it stood originally.

Across the street, several sections still stand on the line. It’s not a pretty sight for not only is it shocking to think that this city was divided for so many years within our lifetime, but these pieces are an attraction for anyone with a felt tip pen, or a piece of chewing gum.

So, they’re covered with the stuff. Yuk.

The streets are pretty empty at this time the day, but it’s an easy walk up to the Brandenburgertor, up there in the distance.

In the grounds of a museum, there stands a green “Ampelmann”.

When we want to cross though, we have to wait forever. Patience needed!

We were crossing the street to take a closer look at this, the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe.

Walking amongst the stones provokes our curiosity and we want to learn more about the concept behind the design but it’s cold and we are ready to move on.

We don’t intend to linger here either, because we’ll be back here tomorrow.

I’m glad I didn’t choose to wear shoes like this today, though. On cobbles, too!

We stand and watch a bunch of people squeeze an inflatable world into a frame, whilst my hero worries they won’t get it at the right angle.

Not bad, eh?

Come on then…on through the Brandenburg Gate where both sides have “stuff” in front of it. A shame, that.

We’re now in Unter den Linden which is also a bit of a mess thanks to the major works involved in building a new U bahn line.

Outside the Russian Embassy there’s a line of neatly arranged roses, we assume to commemorate those killed in the Egyptian air crash. The line goes on for quite some way and there’s maybe some significance with the colours? More sobering thoughts.

On the next corner however, is a jolly trailer outside the Komische Oper. We’re coming here tonight to see La Belle Helene and watching this makes us think we’re in for a giggle. Roller skating men wearing skirts? (Bottomless lederhosen? errrmmm…)

The building site which is Unter den Linden right now goes on as far as Alexanderplatz, where the TV tower still stands. We intend to peel off to the left some point along here though and perhaps won’t make it as far as there.

The building site stretches to both sides of the street now, with the Staatsoper under renovation too.

Mind you, when there are decorative touches to the hording, it’s not too bad, is it?

Last time I came to Berlin, the whole of Potsdamerplatz was a sea of cranes like this – the city is still a work in progress it seems.

A good place to cross the road here, then, in front of the German History museum. Quite tempting to go in there actually, but for today, we have a different destination in mind so we’ll keep going a bit further.

The Berlin cathedral stands on the other side of the river and looks a bit forbidding in this wintry light. Rather than cross the River Spree here, we turn left and head up through a small artists market and over the next bridge.

At this point I’m going to growl. You know why, don’t you?

Here we are on Museen Insel – Museum Island – and there, sitting high above the park beneath it is the art museum. For once, we’re going to give that a miss in favour of the next museum along. We’re heading for somewhere I visited on my last jaunt to Berlin and which left a deep and lasting impression on me. I knew my hero would feel similarly and we decided to make it the focus of our morning here.

Keep going then. There’s good news ahead.