Exploring Berlin's Sights

After our comprehensive walking tour the day before we decided to head out to the western side of Berlin to checkout Daniel Libeskind's world famous Jewish Museum. The Jewish Museum is renowned for its bold and evocative architectural design that successfully blends the narrative of Jewish persecution by the Nazis and a functioning museum for general displays. Recently the architect has also won the competition for the World Trade Centre redevelopment thanks in large part to his work on the Jewish Museum.

Outside the Jewish Museum

I found the building itself to be excellent with some extremely evocative spaces inside. In the past I had seen a lot of photographs of the building and the biggest difference which detracted significantly from the overall experience was the number of people inside the museum. This was something never shown in photographs or considered in the narrative and it kind of worked against many of the ideas at play. After the primary exhibition there was a large secondary exhibition in the multi-use display rooms that I found very disappointing. The exhibition was about everything Jewish but it lacked the class or thought of the first exhibition pieces. It was almost as if a small piece of Disneyland had been extracted and injected into the Louve.

What little remains of the Berlin Wall

Afterwards we were feeling extremely museumed out so we spent the afternoon walking the streets and parks of Berlin. Emma and Jess went inside the Reichstag for a walk up the spiral stair. I did not join them as the entrance que was very long and I felt like doing a bit of aimless wandering around the streets and through a few shops. Afterwards we met up for a wine in the hostels bar/cafe where we met up with an Australian who was on his way to Poland for a spell of traveling by himself. After going through the Czech Republic we thought he was pretty brave heading deep into Poland by himself with only a Lonely Planet (and not a word of Polish) to help him on his way.

Easter in Berlin's central square complete with lots of beer and cheesy organ music

The next morning we boarded a very full train to Frankfurt-Main where we would spend the night before flying back to London. We all really enjoyed Berlin, its weather and the Circus Hostel.

More photographs of Berlin...
The day before: Little Traffic Light Man