Wednesday April 6 Berlin
My plan today was to go to the Potsdamer Place area and I decided to get the metro to the Tiergarten and walk through the gardens to the Bauhauz Museum.
The garden were all being prepared for spring and workmen were planting large bulb plants along the bordher of the gardens. The walk took me along the river Spree and I passed a lock for river shipping to pass. Spring forts were starting to appear and daffodils and a variety of small flowered plants were showing some colour. The track was heavily used by cyclists and I had to be very careful. It was a very pleasant interlude.
The Bauhaus Museum was extremely interesting. I was here to push my understanding of modernism. I found their description of the Bauhaus teaching methods very good. Students had first to learn how to use their respective media. To understand colour and how to mix oil paints. How to blow glass. How to work with metals. Form follows function and Jean Miro's idea of shape & colour. So many of the simplest household items and furniture were first conceived in the Bauhaus. Chairs and light fittings. Things that we today regard as ordinary. It was a great movement and other art centres should follow the example. Ku-ring-gai art centre has all the courses correct they could easily present them under a philosophical Bauhaus cover sheet. I'll have to talk to them. There are some great wordings they could use.
I walked towards Potsdamm to the Gemaldegalerie of old masters. This was a wonderful gallery and I stayed until it closed at 18:00. This ment that I could not go the the New National Gallery.
I check my guide and found that the Jewish museum was open until 20:00 and jumped on the M41 bus to get there fast. It was impressive architecture but the stories make me so sad and depressed about our humanity that I had to move quickly through some sections. I walked through the garden of concrete towers. The shape of the building made it very hard to navigate (maybe that is the main point - confusion - where do I go next - I'm not in control of myself). They have put little arrows on the floor as a guide.
The M41 bus took me straight back to the hostel (via a long tunnel ?). I had a simple meal as my meal last night will last me a number of days.
Showing posts with label Walks and galleries around Berlin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walks and galleries around Berlin. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Travels in the modern art of Berlin
Tuesday April 5 Berlin
Today the museums are all open it is going to be a big day. I got away 20 minutes behind schedule and was off on the S ban for Hackescher Market station. My plan to go straight to the main Alte National Gallery and I finished up spending more than 3 hours covering all the floors. It was another excellent gallery. I went straight to the impressionists on floor 2. It was an excellent showing of many paintings which I was not familiar. An excellent Manet and Renoir. German painters of personal note were Carl Spitzweg and Max Liebermann. See following notes (if I get time).
I now had to revise my plan to go to the Bauhaus for the afternoon so plan B was the museums in Challotteburg. They were all in the same street and I would be able to do them efficiently.
Back on the S ban to Charlottenburg then changed to Richard-Wagner place. A short walk and I was at the museums. The first was the Brohan museum which was featuring Art Nouveau art, furniture, porcelain & beware. I'm trying to extend my appreciation of modernism. The wooden furniture by Ruhlmann & Enduring van de Else were very good and so was the porcelain and steel tableware. I found the painting very good. I will have to research the artist: Jean Lurcat, Mart Hagemeister, Emile Claus, Theo van Rysselberghe, Leon de Smet, George Lemmen, Xavier Mellery, Maris Slavona & Willy Jackel. Their degree of abstraction is about where I would like to be in my work.
The next museum was The Berggruen museum. This had been a private collection of Picasso, Martese, and Klee. Found it very interesting and it extended my knowledge of their philosophies.
Across the road was the third museum Scarf Gerstenberg. and that was concerned with the surrealist. Salvidor Dali, Klee, Max Ernst featured. I'm always interested in surrealism but it is not my main interest.
They kicked me me out at 6pm and I walked down to the shopping centre at bought a meal - a huge pork knuckle, potatoes, sourcrout and purayed brocelle. It was far too much. At 10:30 euros it was excellent value. By the time I finished the meal it was dark and I made my way back across the city on the metro to the hostel.
Today the museums are all open it is going to be a big day. I got away 20 minutes behind schedule and was off on the S ban for Hackescher Market station. My plan to go straight to the main Alte National Gallery and I finished up spending more than 3 hours covering all the floors. It was another excellent gallery. I went straight to the impressionists on floor 2. It was an excellent showing of many paintings which I was not familiar. An excellent Manet and Renoir. German painters of personal note were Carl Spitzweg and Max Liebermann. See following notes (if I get time).
I now had to revise my plan to go to the Bauhaus for the afternoon so plan B was the museums in Challotteburg. They were all in the same street and I would be able to do them efficiently.
Back on the S ban to Charlottenburg then changed to Richard-Wagner place. A short walk and I was at the museums. The first was the Brohan museum which was featuring Art Nouveau art, furniture, porcelain & beware. I'm trying to extend my appreciation of modernism. The wooden furniture by Ruhlmann & Enduring van de Else were very good and so was the porcelain and steel tableware. I found the painting very good. I will have to research the artist: Jean Lurcat, Mart Hagemeister, Emile Claus, Theo van Rysselberghe, Leon de Smet, George Lemmen, Xavier Mellery, Maris Slavona & Willy Jackel. Their degree of abstraction is about where I would like to be in my work.
The next museum was The Berggruen museum. This had been a private collection of Picasso, Martese, and Klee. Found it very interesting and it extended my knowledge of their philosophies.
Across the road was the third museum Scarf Gerstenberg. and that was concerned with the surrealist. Salvidor Dali, Klee, Max Ernst featured. I'm always interested in surrealism but it is not my main interest.
They kicked me me out at 6pm and I walked down to the shopping centre at bought a meal - a huge pork knuckle, potatoes, sourcrout and purayed brocelle. It was far too much. At 10:30 euros it was excellent value. By the time I finished the meal it was dark and I made my way back across the city on the metro to the hostel.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Learning the history of Germany
Monday April 4 Berlin
It's Monday and most of the museums are closed so I use my Berlin Welcome card to get a discount in the German History museum and spent the whole day learning German history from the Celts though various kings and despots, to Napoleon and then the 1st and 2nd world wars. I missed out on the last few rooms on post war industrialization. Extremely interesting.
It's Monday and most of the museums are closed so I use my Berlin Welcome card to get a discount in the German History museum and spent the whole day learning German history from the Celts though various kings and despots, to Napoleon and then the 1st and 2nd world wars. I missed out on the last few rooms on post war industrialization. Extremely interesting.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Walk around old Berlin April 3
Sunday April 3 Berlin.
I got the 9:04 from Dresden to Berlin arriving at Berlin on-time at 10:14. I immediately bought all the maps and guides at the tourist office. I also bought a combined 3 day museum and 5 day all transport pass for 52 euros. 3 museums and 2 ride/day will break even. I then walked to the hostel and dumped my gear. I was on the streets at noon.
The first thing I now do in a new city is to get to know it. So I caught the metro from the hbf to the Markisches Museum station. Here I started a self-guided walk through the old area of Berlin and the churches which defined the original communities. There were 2 cities originally, Berlin on one side of the river Spree and Colln on the other. Industry and trade were based around a river port and a mill. When they decided to construct a bridge the became the city of Berlin. The most important church in the area was the St Nikolai Church and I could see its two steeples all the time during the walk. The area is called Nikolai Quarter. We traced a depressing route around some ancient and bombed out churches. We passed the old parliament house and the old mint. Getting back to the Spree river again we entered the grounds of St Nikolai. Almost all of the buildings here have been rebuilt retaining the small shops and cafes. This was a truly delightful place. The restaurants with their umbrellas lined along the river bank (wall) and spring colours starting to show. All the Berliners were out enjoying the Sunday in the spring sun.
Crossing the Spree again to an island where there were many important buildings built over many years. This island is called the museum island as there are 5 very large museums built on it. A number are still undergoing extensive repairs.
After 65 years Berlin is still a reconstruction site with large holes and big cranes all over the city. Some individual projects are said to 1 billion euro. The amount of money the tourists are pouring into these cities I'm sure they will get the money back.
I continued along Unter den Linten Boulevard, which was the horse trail for the Kings to ride to their hunting grounds in the Tiergarten, to Bebelplatz where the Nazis book burning took place. I believe that this was where the Berlin opera house was (now call the State Opera) located. When Churchill bombed this Hitler retaliated by bombing London and Covientry. I walked on 1 km or so to the very famous Bradenberg Gate. The Boulevard was full of tourists and there were many restaurants. There was an excellent guitar player drawing a large crowd. It was late in the day and I hope the photos are ok. Particularly the one of myself.
Although there were a large number of people on the street all the side roads were completely empty. Together with construction going on at every turn this gave the city-scape a surreal and artificial feel. I could have been on a movie set.
After sitting and studying the gate for a while I felt it was time to find food. It was not the best place to look as it was one huge tourist trap. I got the U Ban back to the hostel and I had to settle for some take-a-way. I negotiated some steamed fish with onions and fried potatoes. Not the best meal I have had.
My hotel room was now filled with its quota of 4 and I set myself up in the lobbie cuddled up to a spare power point for a few hours.
I got the 9:04 from Dresden to Berlin arriving at Berlin on-time at 10:14. I immediately bought all the maps and guides at the tourist office. I also bought a combined 3 day museum and 5 day all transport pass for 52 euros. 3 museums and 2 ride/day will break even. I then walked to the hostel and dumped my gear. I was on the streets at noon.
The first thing I now do in a new city is to get to know it. So I caught the metro from the hbf to the Markisches Museum station. Here I started a self-guided walk through the old area of Berlin and the churches which defined the original communities. There were 2 cities originally, Berlin on one side of the river Spree and Colln on the other. Industry and trade were based around a river port and a mill. When they decided to construct a bridge the became the city of Berlin. The most important church in the area was the St Nikolai Church and I could see its two steeples all the time during the walk. The area is called Nikolai Quarter. We traced a depressing route around some ancient and bombed out churches. We passed the old parliament house and the old mint. Getting back to the Spree river again we entered the grounds of St Nikolai. Almost all of the buildings here have been rebuilt retaining the small shops and cafes. This was a truly delightful place. The restaurants with their umbrellas lined along the river bank (wall) and spring colours starting to show. All the Berliners were out enjoying the Sunday in the spring sun.
Crossing the Spree again to an island where there were many important buildings built over many years. This island is called the museum island as there are 5 very large museums built on it. A number are still undergoing extensive repairs.
After 65 years Berlin is still a reconstruction site with large holes and big cranes all over the city. Some individual projects are said to 1 billion euro. The amount of money the tourists are pouring into these cities I'm sure they will get the money back.
I continued along Unter den Linten Boulevard, which was the horse trail for the Kings to ride to their hunting grounds in the Tiergarten, to Bebelplatz where the Nazis book burning took place. I believe that this was where the Berlin opera house was (now call the State Opera) located. When Churchill bombed this Hitler retaliated by bombing London and Covientry. I walked on 1 km or so to the very famous Bradenberg Gate. The Boulevard was full of tourists and there were many restaurants. There was an excellent guitar player drawing a large crowd. It was late in the day and I hope the photos are ok. Particularly the one of myself.
Although there were a large number of people on the street all the side roads were completely empty. Together with construction going on at every turn this gave the city-scape a surreal and artificial feel. I could have been on a movie set.
After sitting and studying the gate for a while I felt it was time to find food. It was not the best place to look as it was one huge tourist trap. I got the U Ban back to the hostel and I had to settle for some take-a-way. I negotiated some steamed fish with onions and fried potatoes. Not the best meal I have had.
My hotel room was now filled with its quota of 4 and I set myself up in the lobbie cuddled up to a spare power point for a few hours.
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