Hills made of rubble

It’s Christmas Eve.

We had a very thought-provoking walk in the rain today, up Insulaner, a hill made of the rubble of tens of thousands of homes and other buildings destroyed by bombs in the second world war. This is one of twelve such hills around Berlin. Any building material that could be re-used from the bombing was used in the massive post-war rebuilding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuttberg

There is an observatory on the top.

On that thought, I wish everyone, everywhere, a very peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Gemäldegalerie – Old Master Paintings

On Thursday evenings, some museums are open late, so U-bahn to Potsdamerplatz, a quick look at the people sliding down the snow slope in inflatable tyres, squealing with delight (them, not us), straight through the Christmas market (yes, another one!) and on to the Museum Forum and the Gemäldegalerie. 

http://www.smb.museum/smb/standorte/index.php?p=2&objID=35&n=5

Four large Cannalettos that used to hang in the entrance hall to a school in Berlin, Titians, Botticellis,  Rembrandts, Vermeers, works of art too numerous to mention and I haven’t got the language to describe them well enough to do them justice. This is a wonderful gallery. Here are just a few of the many pictures that took my interest.

As I blogged about a bagpiper recently, this sixteenth century painting of one of his number conveys an interesting image of the life and status then of a (probably wandering) musician.  Plus ça change?

This is one of the many painting showing people suffering hardship, these two being farmers eating a measly  bowl of peas for their meal in about 1622 during the famines of the thirty years war

On a seasonal note, we liked this picture of the holy family, with a kindly old Joseph playing with baby Jesus. 

I was fascinated by this self portrait of Anna Dorothea Therbusch, an eighteenth century painter, painted in the year she died aged only 61. 

Dahlem Museums

It is about 15 minutes ride on the U-bahn to the thatched station at Dahlem from where we are living . Dahlem boasts an excellent collection of museums: the Ethnological museum, the Museum of Asian Art and the Museum of European Cultures.

http://www.smb.museum/smb/standorte/index.php?lang=en&p=2&objID=6370&n=4&r=1

There is an enormous amount worth seeing. We had previously seen the African collection, so a couple of days ago we went to see the rest of the extensive exhibitions. Just when I felt ready to give up from exhaustion (or suffering from museumological overload, as my brother described it) we came across the collection from the South Seas. We were amazed to come across a load of sailing vessels – a boat which carries fifty people, a canoe the length of twenty of my paces, and numerous other vessels made with local plant materials, and usually two-hulled to deal with the waves and winds. The sails made of plant fibre were fascinating. There was a film which showed one of the boats in sail, and then the sailors neatly folding the V-shaped sail in half at the end of the voyage.

This part of the museum also contains three buildings. The one on the right was a men’s club. If you take your shoes off, you can go in it. I am small enough not to bang my head on the rafters.

The Worlds of Islam collection shows some wonderful clothes like this beautifully-embroidered woman’s shirt from East Turkestan (1905), and there were even some felt mats (felt being one of my current obsessions).

Hidden unobtrusively in the basement, is the museum’s  restaurant where we went for lunch and to rest our feet. In contrast to the quiet museums, the restaurant was thronging with people. The food was good and cheap and the restaurant had the convivial atmosphere of a university refectory, filled with people from the nearby institutes and the occasional lost-looking museum visitor like ourselves. I had what was modestly described as a small portion of a very tasty dhal, but was actually rather large.

Schloss Charlottenburg Christmas Market

You might find it hard to believe if you have read all of my blog up until now, but we have only been to a tiny proportion of Christmas markets in Berlin. There are about sixty of them.

The Charlottenburg Palace is a grand building, built in 1699 as the summer residence for Sophie Charlotte, the wife of Elector Frederick III. The Christmas market is held in the large cobbled courtyard in front of the palace.

On Wednesday evening, when it was very cold and started to snow slightly, we visited Schloss Charlottenburg. On our arrival, the bicycle wheel rims reflecting the lights around the outside fence looked very festive. It is a delightful market in a beautiful setting. There are two marquees full of crafts, including a large and fragrant beeswax candle and honey stall, jewellery and clothes. There are other craft stalls outside, as well as numerous food stands and bars selling hot alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

Pretty and ever-changing colours and patterns of lights were projected onto the Schloss.

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