It stopped raining at 12:30 today, thus by 1:00 pm we were out ready
to visit some new "must see" city attractions (also know here as
Sehenswürdigkeiten. My choice was the Pergamon Museum, which is only partially
open (the main attraction, which is the Pergamon Altar, is closed for
restoration until 2020...such a luck!) whereas Josh wanted to visit the TV
Tower. None of us gave up so we ended up visiting both in the same day.
The Pergamon Museum, despite being clearly displayed in each city map
or touristic book, is actually pretty difficult to find nowadays, due to the
restoration: to find the entrance, you need to cross bridges, pass construction
sites and fences, turn around several corners and then finally you see it, in
the alley between two other main buildings.
Once we were in, we were very glad to learn that individuals < 18
yo have free access to the museum. In addition, both audio guides and lockers
are free. Nice!
As soon as one arrives on the first floor, he finds himself right in
front of the reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and the Processional Way.It's impossible not
to be astonished by its shiny blue splendor! The bas-reliefs of lions, aurochs
and dragons are exquisite!
Josh studied it last year with his history teacher and recognized it from the pictures.
In the adjacent area, we were equally impressed by the stunning Market
Gate of Miletus: this spectacular structure survived an earthquake, was almost
entirely destroyed by it, then it was excavated and transported in
"boxes" to Berlin at the beginning of the 1900 and rebuilt (almost
entirely, since 60% is original stonework), then went through heavy allied
bombing...quite an impressive story for the entrance to a market place!!!
On the floor of the same room there is an additional masterpieces: the Orpheus
Mosaic, still from Miletus, in which animals of different species surround
Orpheus playing a lyre. Supposedly, this mosaic was the decorative floor of a
dining room...
In the next areas of the Museum, we admired more artworks, such as this Assyrian Water Basin, originally cut from a single basalt rock, from the Temple of Ashur. Despite its appearance, it's not, as Josh initially thought, "an ancient spa", rather a water basin used for purification practices.
Stunning are also the Palace Reliefs, in alabaster, from the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh (yes, the same city whose ruins ISIS is planning to destroy...): royal lion hunt, gigantic statues...
Surprisingly, since at this point I imagined that he would be ready to give up with the exhibition, Josh loved the Islamic Art section, with the Mshatta Facade, all made of beautifully carved stone...
...the Aleppo Room, which features painted wood panels from a Syrian dwelling house, with themes based on contemporary Islamic book illustrations (floral and geometric composition). What a great way to furnish the entrance room!!!
This concluded our visit to the Pergamon Museum. We will be back in 2020 to admire the Pergamon Altar, of course...but a promise is a promise! So, it was time for me to return to Josh the favor.
We went to the TV Tower (Fernsehturm): it was already 5:30 pm and we were right in time to gaze at the city lights from high above.
I'm never at ease in high buildings, let alone one that could easily collapse (in my imagination, of course) at the first blow of the wind. Learning that it's 368 meters tall didn't make me feel better, since the last time I climbed the stairs of the 67 mt Victory Column, I had a panic attack....
It actually went much better than expected: the panoramic floor is only at 203 mt above the ground!!! Lucky me! Aside from the speedy elevator ride (9 mt per second), we had a great time! We watched all the main monuments slowly lighten up...we tried to catch a glimpse of Los Angeles (324*) but our eyes weren't able to cover the 9,304 km that separate us from our "home".
At this point, we were exhausted. Rather than waiting for the rotation of the platform (which occurs every 30 minutes), we decided that it was time to go home. Next time we'll make a 360* rotation and see even Paris...and perhaps Turin!
