U-bahn station

The other day on the U-Bahn, the train went through a station that was much more richly decorated than the others I'd seen around here. The walls were completely covered in marble, as were the supporting columns on each platform. I didn't take a picture, but some other people have- it turns out that this marble decor is quite famous.

more about Charlottenburg

So Schloss Charlottenburg, which was originally named Lietzenburg, was commissioned by Sophie Charlotte. She was a pretty big deal in terms of her social standing and royal family history, but on the tour's audio guide, it mentioned that her mother's grandfather was King James I of England. From my ninth-grade Scottish History class many years ago, I remembered that James I had previously been known as James VI of Scotland, taking over that job when he was just over a year old. It's always good to see Scotland's influence in distant lands.... This means that Sophie Charlotte's great-great grandmother was Mary, Queen of Scots!

Charlottenburg

For the last week I’ve been in the Berlin area, I’d been wanting to check out Charlottenburg, a part of town known for its enormous and ornate Baroque palace and gardens.  Today seemed like the perfect opportunity! I got a ride there, which saved a bit of time- I needed every minute inside the palace since there was so much to see.

Schloss Charlottenburg was mostly destroyed during WWII, so like many of Berlin’s historic structures, it was painstakingly reconstructed relatively recently at great expense.  Almost none of the original furnishings survived the war’s fires and air raids, so much of what’s there now was brought in from the area’s other palaces (including the now-demolished Berliner Schloss) to make the atmosphere a little more reminiscent of how it was a few hundred years ago. The palace now houses many priceless works of art, but many of the original ceiling paintings were replaced by white ovals during the rebuilding process.

Terrace Party

On Saturday afternoon and evening, the Willerts hosted one of their terrace parties on the roof of the Stargarder Strasse building.  It’s a cool setting- a couple of different decks, all with great city views.  Unfortunately, it rained on and off for a few hours late in the afternoon, so all 40 of us moved in and then back outside a couple times.

There was a LOT of wine and food for a crowd of this size- sausages grilled outside, and inside, a chef had been hired to prepare a buffet:

But my favorite part, of course, was the CHEESE!

After seven hours of partying, everyone was too worn out to do much cleaning up, so that waited until this morning.  A few of us had leftover cheese, bread, and cakes for breakfast outside while the tables were still set up.

Poor Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn wrote some great music, so when I saw "Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Park" on the map, I was expecting something rather grand in his honor. THIS is what they gave him? A little patch of overgrown messy vegetation? To be fair, the rest of his eponymous park (on the other side of the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy U-Bahn station) is a little nicer, but you'd think they would have put the statue in the part of the park where you can actually walk!

Today was a long day- I assumed a triple identity- 80% tourist, 10% athlete (ran a few miles this morning), and 10% violinist (praticed a bit tonight). A lot of walking- starting out at Mendelssohn's park, then to Potsdamer Platz to take a look at the Sony Center and its stunning canopy/roof, then to the Philharmie and musical instrument museum. Some good violins there- I hope they let people play them every now and then! Then, I walked over towards the Reighstag and the Brandenburger Tor at Pariser Platz, on to the Statsoper, and finally to Alexanderplatz (a.k.a. "Alex"), where I opted to wait in line for about an hour just to get a view of the city from up at the top of the Fersehturm, one of the tallest structures in Europe. It was a little expensive, but I REALLY like good views (from anywhere-- car windows, airplane windows, mountains, towers like this one, hotel rooms, etc.), and it was a clear enough day that the visibility was about as good as it could have been, given the considerable layer of window dirt. But that's a minor complaint- I really enjoyed it.

Berlin Pictures

are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mshultz/Berlin

.. check back soon for more! We went on a short bike ride to forage for mushrooms this morning- now it’s badminton and kayak time.

Arrival in Germany

After two relatively painless and on-time flights (and making it through the maze of CDG Airport in Paris), I got to Berlin’s Tegel airport around noon on Sunday. Instead of going to Eberhard and Elke’s place in the city, Eberhard took me directly to their place by the lake. Actually, it’s two small houses across the street from each other, both with gardens producing parts of tonight’s dinner- plums, apples, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes. The salad at lunch came from a nearby farmer—local eating seems to be the norm here!

After lunch and a nap, it was time to enjoy the lake- kayaking and swimming. There were a few other people out on the water, but it wasn’t so crowded for a weekend.

The weather’s been perfect- warm and sunny during the day, and then cool enough to have dinner outside by a fire. Very relaxing first day so far! (pictures will come eventually….)