Berlin - Museum

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We had a late start in the morning as we actually had a bit of a sleep in!! We said goodbye to our American friends as they were headed off to Prague, and we went into the city to go for another wonder.

We went to the old church in the middle of town which was once a huge cathedral. It was bombed in WWII and only a very small portion remains today and they left it in this state to show what war can do. The windows are still totally blown away and its quite sad to see so much of the cathedral as well as many other landmarks where destroyed due to the war. You can still see bullet holes and schrapnel marks in some walls and columns around the city.

From there we went in search of some Aussie football gear for us in order to get ready for the game against Brasil - unfortunately our colours are very similar to Brasil and they only tended to have European stuff, so we settled for a dodgy t-shirt and a cheap Aussie flat (we think the stars are all in the right places).

We then went to the Pergamon Museum which is on the museum island in the city. I finally got to see the Ishtar Gates of Babylon which was amazing. As some of you may know, I actually studied it back in college and even made a little model of it, so it was so cool to actually see the real thing. It was built in 2500 BC under the ruler Nebacudnezzer, and Alexander the Great once walk through the Processional Way and under the Gates - it was very surreal standing there under the same gates!!

We also saw the Pergamon Altar of Zeus which was actually taken from Greece and moved to Berlin about a hundred or so years ago. Its absolutely massive, but only one third of it is shown in the museum. All around the columns it as a freize of the Greek Gods fighting the Titans and the sculptures were just fantastic.

Okay, so after my little Geeky moment, we said goodbye to Berlin which we had a fantastic time in and hope to get back to again!

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Photos

Cathedral
The old cathedral which was bombed in WWII.

Ishtar Gate of Babylon
The gate was so huge you can't actually fit it in one camera shot!

Ishtar Gate of Babylon II
That's me under the gate.

Altar of Zeus
This is the end portion of the Altar of Zeus - it used to be painted with colours so it is amazing to think what it would have looked like 2000 years ago.