Berlin: Museum Hopping

The Alte National Gallery, or Old National Gallery at Museum Island

Berlin has a place called Museum Island, where several museums are within steps of each other, making it convenient to do all your cultural must-dos in one place.

We also bought a Berlin Welcome Card for 79 euros for two days which offers free public transportation, and free admission to all the museums at Museum Island! Yesterday was Thursday and we were lucky to find out all the museums are open that day until 8pm.

The beautiful bust of Nefertiti

Also when you go in, you can get a sheet that lists all the exhibitions, and highlights the must-see. So if you want to whip through the museums you can do that just by seeing the best of each institution without having to go through all the rooms.

The Altes Museum or Old Museum houses old antiquities and we saw many classical Greek statues, a bust of Athena with her helmut perched on her head. It's very serene, yet powerful too. There is also a circular gallery that shows off many Greek statues in a dome-like room reminiscent of The Pantheon in Rome.

Meanwhile the Neues Museum or New Museum is best known for housing the bust of Nefertiti. No photographs are allowed in the room, and the beautiful sculpture is behind glass. The queen is shown to be very delicate, sphynx-like, elegant and petite. Her eyes are gorgeously lined, showing a serene but wise face.

In the same room is a black copy of the bust, but here the blind are welcome to touch her face, which is fascinating. They are so lucky to touch it, while the rest of us have to guess what it must feel like -- behind glass.

Claude Monet's View of Vetheuil-sur Seine

The Alte Nationalgalerie or Old National Gallery features lots of artwork, and we chose to focus on the rooms with art by the Impressionists. Much of the art by German artists in that period were particularly dark in colour compared to the French Impressionists, and many are exhibited here.

Claude Monet's View of Vetheuil-sur Seine (1880) is almost like a photograph, where it's midday, and the sun is coming from directly above. When you step back to admire the painting, from far away it almost looks like a photograph.

We also headed to Pergamonmuseum, named after its main acquisition, a  massive marble altar from the Hellenistic city of Pergamon, but alas it is currently closed. But we did see other amazing things here, like the gigantic recreation of Ishtar Gate of Babylon.

The awe-inspiring Ishtar Gate of Babylon

When the gates were excavated in 1899, they found the gate literally in ruins, broken pieces, and they shipped them back here in 500 crates where they were painstakingly fitted back together like a massive three-dimensional puzzle. The effect is stunning and gorgeous. The deep blue tiles are a wonderful contrast to the animals, such as lions and goats, and a mythical creature that are in yellow.

There was also an exhibition going on featuring cultural artifacts that were saved from Aleppo in Syria before the civil war broke out in 2011. Many are massive stone carvings, gorgeous artifacts that are so intricately detailed. How did they even take them out? Seeing all these things was a relief to know they were being kept safe and protected -- otherwise who would know the state of them now if they had remained in Syria?

Intricate stone carvings from Aleppo, Syria

Next to Museum Island is the Berliner Dom or Berlin Cathedral. Inside we paid 5 euros each for the privilege to go inside and marvel at the giant circular dome above the congregation that has a dove at the centre.

But visitors can also wander through a model section, perfect for architecture buffs, where you can almost look right into the churches and see the inside.

And if you have enough energy, you can climb up to the top of the Berliner Dom. At first there is no signage to explain how many steps it is until part way through when it warns there are 132 more steps to the top and that it is physically demanding!

The panoramic view of Berlin from the Berliner Dom

I take on the challenge and walk up the narrow staircase that climbs up to the top. Once you get there, you have to walk through a long corridor divided by doors until you can finally get outside and be rewarded with a 360 view of Berlin. It's fantastic and well worth the trek up if you can do it.