squeezing in a couple of additional museums in Berlin

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Day 11

We must head to the airport for our flight to Moscow at 3, which means we only have time for 2 museums. I picked the Kunstgewerbemuseum Museum of Decorative Arts, and Jack picked the Museum of Photography that also houses the Helmet Newton foundation. At the Kunstgewerbemuseum once again, the architecture was the most exciting part of the visit. In fact many of the buildings in Potsdam Square and the Kulturforum were innovative and exciting. The Decorative Arts Museum had some gorgeous carved furniture from the 15th Century. Unfortunately, I got terribly hungry to we headed out to our next stop via Ben-Gurion Strasse. It was strange to see that a street was named after Ben Gurion. I’m reading When they come for us we’ll be gone which is a history of the freeing of the Russian Jews. In the section I just read, the treatment of Jews in Russia became harsher after the ’67 war. Russia was allied with the Arab states and they lost. Evidently, for many Jews, being Jewish began to mean something other than having “J” stamped on their passport at that time.

Since we arrived we had heard about Curry Brats, and I was committed to trying them before we left. The dish consists of bratwurst, which are fine, smothered in curry flavored Ketchup. Yuck! At least the French fries were good. The first floor of the photography museum was dedicated to Helmut Newton. Even as a fashion photographer working for magazines, designers, etc. he was a “tits and ass” man according to Jack. The second floor was Guy Bourdon who photographed shoes for fashion magazines. I certainly am not into $1,000 shoes, but found his staging immensely creative. There were other photographers on display but none that were memorable.

Before we left we had one parting gelato. After an early lunch of French fries we were hungy, wait we don’t need an excuse for gelato. We’re certain it will be the last gelato of the trip.

We got to the airport and through check-in in record speed and had plenty of time to kill. Our driver was waiting for us at the airport, but with traffic, we didn’t make it to the hotel until 11:30. Moscow traffic is awful, even at 11 PM there were traffic jams on the Ring Road.

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