The best eighty euros I have ever spent

At the beginning of our stay here, we hummed and haahed (admittedly only for a few minutes) about whether to buy a year’s entrance card to the Berlin state museums (the permanent exhibitions and special exhibitions). They cost 80 euros each, and we have more than got our money’s worth.

http://www.smb.museum/smb/home/index.php

Berlin was a number of excellent state museums, which benefit from huge collections. We have now visited most of the smb museums, and are on our second visit to some of them. There is a lot still to pack in before we leave Berlin at the end of this month!

One of my favourite museums here is the Pergamon which houses the vast the second century Pergamon altar, an enormous Roman market entrance and the fabulous glazed and coloured entrance to the city of Babylon. This video gives some idea of the massive treasures housed there.

http://www.smb.museum/smb/standorte/index.php?p=2&objID=27&n=15

At the moment there is a special exhibition with a panorama showing the Pergamon altar in context of what it would have been like at the time. It too is breath-taking. It is contructed in a temporary circular building, rather like a gasometer, which is ungainfully plonked in the forecourt of museum. You mount a slightly wobbly staircase to a viewing platform, and can then be engrossed for an hour looking down at the view of Pergamon, the wonderful buildings, landscape and the people going about their life on the day of the Caesar’s visit. On a cold day, wrap up warm to see the panorama, but in most of the museums, put your coat in the cloakroom or a locker, or you’ll boil.

http://www.smb.museum/smb/kalender/details.php?objID=24873&lang=en&n=0&datum=30.09.2011