Museum island (Pergamon-museum), Fernsehturm, Treptow

And Teije is delaying time, for he ordered a breakfast in the room last night, but Elisabeth doesn't know. Finally he has to tell her, because nobody shows up and he phones the kitchen: they have forgotten us, of course. Twenty minutes later a breakfast arrives: for one...

This morning we want to visit Museuminsel, an island in the river Spree where several monumental buildings accommodate museums, like the New Museum to the right, which used to be a ruin. It is clear that Berlin is doing a lot of renovation and rebuilding. Next to it, there are four more museums on this island.

We like the Pergamon museum best. To be honest, it was the favourite museum of Teije in the early days when East and West were still separated. The collection has diminished since the fall of the Berlin Wall... Maybe also because half of the building is now closed to the public, because of a renovation.
Also, the museums of Berlin are now swapping pieces to give them the 'best' place, but we cannot imagine that the large altar of Pergamon (not on picture) or the Babylonian gate of Ishtar will ever be moved.

Hammoerabi, the first known legislator of mankind, let engrave his laws into a pillar, of which we can see a copy here. The first attempts to lead mankind as a whole to a better future (even though we don't like laws and rules, unfortunately they seem to be necessary).

More than 3000 years old and now Elisabeth walks in between these Babylonian guardians... How many people walked through this gate when they were still part of Babylon?
We enjoy walking through this impressive museum, even though it has less to offer now than in the old East-German time. There used to be an old-Egyptian division, but that part of the collection is being redistributed or maybe it gets a place in the part of the building which is now closed.

The section with Islamitic art is also very nice. One can see here the beautiful art this religion has produced. Especially the early Islamic art is very pretty.
After a few hours in the museum we want something else. We see another jumble sale and have a quick look but then we walk further, looking for a pub. We go toward Oranienburger Strasse.

From many places in town the Televison Tower and the Berlin cathedral keep dominating the townscape. Old and new tangle up with each other with old-fashioned electricity wires above the street.

In the Oranienburgerstrasse (district Mitte) we are surprised by the large amount of police officers that guard the new Jewish synagogue. It is a beautiful building and we sit down in an outdoor cafe in the neighnourhood to take a break. Near the synagogue stands the old post office (picture on the right), a nice building, not disturbed (yet) by adjoining new housing development, as is custom in the rest of Berlin.

Then it is time for our second visit to the Fernsehturm, this time at daylight. Within 40 seconds we arrive at a heigth of 203 metres for an overview on Berlin: old (like the cathedral) and new (the construction activities).

Das Rote Rathaus (the red town hall) to the left, and the district Nikolaiviertel (the cradle of Berlin) to the right. We have seen these places from the ground and walked around there, amazing... Even from this height Berlin is too big to see all the interesting places.

But we captured this on photo: 203.78 metres high, by elevator within 40 seconds, that is more than 5 metres per second. We asked the elevator operator if he had stomach problems after a day working, but he only growled something like: 'Noeeh'. Well, we did feel it in our stomachs!