Down to the wire

Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Rush to more museums

Today is the third and last day my Welcome Card is valid, and only until 4:25 – 48 hours after I first validated it. And it's raining again.

I wanted to go to Schloß Charlottenburg (Palace) and two museums right across the street. I got to the palace at 10:00 when it opened. My Card was good only for one of the wings; so how do I decide what admission to buy? Admission for the entire Palace and grounds is 14 Euros. Admission (reduced for the Card) to the “New Wing” is 4.50 Euro. Admission to the Old part of the palace is 10 Euros. So, it's obvious that I should buy the comprehensive admission. I'm already here, so I'll visit the palace without using the card.

Freidrich der Große (Frederick the Great), king of Prussia doesn't live in such a great neighborhood, especially compared to where I live. It's today sort of a middle class area, but nothing special. Of course, back then, it was out in the country. The palace was built as a summer house – so that the family could escape the summer heat in the city.

The kings of Prussia and emperors of Germany were, actually, not so great when held up against some of the other royal families of the time, like those of England, France, Austria, and even Russia. The royal family of Prussia barely spoke German; they were so enamored of French civilization that they spoke French in the court, and even at home.

But those rich guys really knew how to build a palace. They made use of gold leaf, sculpture, fresco, and the like, and my jaw dropped at the spectacle. The palace was nearly completely destroyed by bombs during the War, but it has been meticulously restored, using existing drawings, paintings, and other sources. It has been only a few years that the restoration is complete enough to allow visits to the entire palace.

The palace, like others I have seen has gorgeous inlay floors, carved wood window frames, marble accents, exotic wallpaper, as well as tapestry hangings, and – for want of another phrase – so forth. I counted no fewer than 5 “correspondence rooms” in the palace and its major wing. The Kaiser would come to this room to compose his letters; or to that room; or.... And then there were the rooms that were ante-rooms for other rooms. I wish they showed the servants' quarters and the rooms they stayed in when waiting for the lord or lady to call on them.

I was upset that no photography was permitted. I sneaked a few pictures of one unbelievable room lined with porcelains. It was not easy, as there are guards everywhere to make sure that things are done in an orderly fashion. I haven't yet seen if the pictures are any good. The room is remarkable not only for the number of pieces of porcelain, but also because of the ceiling painting and decoration. The ceiling is painted with a scene that spills over in such a way that, for example, the legs of one of the figures at the edge of the ceiling actually stick out of the ceiling at the wall. A deer, lying shot at the edge of the ceiling, sticks out in part over the edge of the room. Really strange.

Out at the edge of the French-style formal gardens, overlooking the river is the Belvedere. The kings used this as a tea house. It's a long walk from the back door; I wonder if they called a taxi. In the Belvedere is an exhibition of china. Among the china was a seder plate from the 18th century.

When I finished with the palace, I popped into a cafe for a cheese sandwich for lunch, and shortly was on my way the next museum.

The museum directly across the street, Museum Berggruen, covers early 20th century art. The collection is called “Picasso and His Time.” The reduced admission was to be 5 Euros. It was there that I was reminded of the 3-day pass to 50 Berlin museums for 19.50 Euros. I calculated that this would be more cost effective. In addition, tomorrow, Thursday, the museums are all free in the afternoon.

It was then that I determined that the welcome card was not worth it.

I quickly looked in the book that came with the card to find a place that a) I wanted to see and B) is not one of the museums free on Thursdays and is not on the 3-day pass. I found the Loxx (no idea what it stands for) – world in miniature, boasting one of the largest functioning model train exhibits in the world.

I went there and got in just a few minutes before my card expired. This place was more fun than any of the museums. The train layout is, indeed, unbelievably large – and they are making it larger. They have an entire team of people, some volunteer kids, and some employees doing nothing but making model things: people, buildings, vehicles, etc. There is a bank of monitors and computers running all the moving stock with one or two people controlling things. I have never seen anything like it, and I would never have imagined the complexity.

The place cycles through day and night. Lights go on at night; traffic changes. They have clouds hanging above the layout (cotton clumps), and there are occasionally lightning and thunder. Scores of trains, S-Bahns, and streetcars are running. Off to the side, airplains land on a runway (but that's not officially part of the train layout). Vehicles are moving about the streets. Amazing is too inadequate a word to describe it. In the details you see clever placement of the people and things: a man is painting a wall; a Halloween party is going on in a cemetery; there's an accident with police cars – lights flashing – holding up traffic; people dance in a conga line at a party; people try to push a stalled car out of the road; an accident spills the contents of a dump truck into a convertible. All this is set among famous Berlin landmarks.

I soon filled up my camera's memory card with videos, so I asked the person in charge if I could come back (free of charge of course) because my camera was no longer working. He gave me an admissions pass. I'm going back with a completely empty memory card.

The Loxx is located in a beautiful shopping center right on the Alexanderplatz S-Bahnhof. The food court of the place was teeming with people. I stopped to get dinner: a very tasty falafel.

Afterwards, I decided to go to minyan for mincha and maariv. By the time that was over, I was used up. As I have previously said, it's hard work visiting museums.