Retracing our steps after our Museum Island visit I took this artistic shot of the cross on the cathedral lined up with the television tower.
And took another picture of the Opera House, complete with Ukranian flag.
And another. It is a beautiful building. Holds about 900 people, so very small in terms of theatres.
And across the road the Neue Wache, Germany’s Central Memorial dedicated to the Victims of War and Tyranny.
I don’t think I’ve taken a picture of Humboldt University even though we have passed it frequently. It’s a beautiful building.
Here is Joe out the front with the statue of Alexander Humboldt after whom the place is named. The great explorer and friend of the German philosophers we’ve read so much about. A great man.
And outside these Stolpersteine – Stumbling Stones. We’ve been seeing these everywhere we go.
According to Kirsty Bell in The Undercurrents which was published in 2022, some 8,786 have been laid in Germany. She calls says of them they represent a vast but anti-monumental memorial … a reminder that the atrocities began right here, amongst neighbours in the city’s streets and buildings’. These are only half of those laid outside the university.
The grassroots programme to instal them was begun by an artist, Gunter Demnig who invited descendants of Holocaust victims or local historical groups to nominate recipients. They are placed at the last voluntarily chosen address of the person they honour. Serendipitously a picture of the man himself was tweeted as I was writing this blog. It was his 75th birthday around the 27th of October and he was congratulated by the German President Steinmeier who noted that nearly 100,000 Stolpersteine have been laid in 1,800 cities in 28 countries; a unique and globally exemplary memorial for the victims of National Socialist terror.
We continued walking down Unter den Linden past Friedrich – one last photograph of the statue.
And a photograph of Ampelmann. This is now a famous motif for Berlin. It was originally the figure used in East Berlin traffic lights but has been embraced by the re-united city. Our guide Janna said it was the only thing she liked about East Berlin which is an indication it has been embraced whole heartedly because she had no regard for the former GDR.
So Ampellman now graces Berlin’s tourist shops and memorabilia.
In the evening we were out for another fine dining experience. This took us to Checkpoint Charlie for the second time as the restaurant Tim Raue is nearby. We were early so I took some pics.
I don’t know whether these warnings are the originals – but in any event this is what the sign said.
The pictures look eerie at night. One Russian soldier as depicted here. And on the other side and American.
We were on our way to Nobelhart & Schmutzig. Where we were greeted with this welcome which asked us to switch off our mobile phones and take memories not photos. What bores!
And here is the menu which is written on the other side. It was good to take these away with us.
It was a very nice night. We were sitting next to an American couple from San Diego and it was fun talking to them. I liked how the individual chefs were acknowledged on the menu. My favourite dishes were: surprisingly the bread and house-made butter, the Shallot / Rose, and the Liver “Spätzle” / Chives. You will note on the menu the Parting Provisions: Babka – they made this from scratch while we watched. Unfortunately for me I couldn’t eat it – too full! Pretty amazing. We had matching wines which were very exotic, one from Romania a grape variety we’d never heard of, finishing with a beer for dessert which didn’t work at all! The wine list was enormous. Anyway by the end of the night we were in no condition to remember much! Of our three fine dining experiences in Berlin this comes in at number three.
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