We got showered and dressed up in our good clothes and left at 9am to catch the bus to the Spandau cruise port picking up rolls and croissants on the way.

We enjoyed travelling the canals going through the locks into the middle of Berlin where we got off. We had coffee and our breakfast on the way. 

We enjoyed the city sights from the river.

Our first stop in the city was the east side gallery – art on the remains of Berlin Wall. This is what the Berlin Wall looked like.

At 1316 metres long, the open-air art gallery on the banks of the Spree in Friedrichshain is the longest continuous section of the Berlin Wall still in existence. Immediately after the wall came down on 9 November 1989, 118 artists from 21 countries began painting the East Side Gallery, and it officially opened as an open air gallery on 28 September 1990. Just over a year later, it was given protected memorial status.It was restored in 2009 by an artists collective.

We then decided to go to the New National Gallery to see 2 exhibitions.

The first was titled ‘Ruin and Rausch – Berlin 1910-1930’. It was selected works from many different collections showing the contrast of excess and poverty in the city. 

The headline painting was a portrait of dancer Anita Berber by Otto Dix – a painting I know well as my good friend Paulette has a print. 

There were many paintings showing the social misery of Wedding , a poor part of the city. 

I like this one where people are realizing that society is going bad and the future is not good.

The next exhibition was totally different – a contemporary sculpture exhibition including taxidermy pieces by Maurizio Cattelan entitled Night. It’s about the loss of certainty, but only temporarily. 

The initial structure on entry is a miniature Brandenburg Gate in wood representing Purgatory – a period of transition – as it was between east and West Berlin. But also changing over time.

The hanging horse was an example of hanging around. 

There were hundreds of stuffed pigeons on the roof. 

I’m not sure I understood the meaning in some of the pieces. 

He had 2 images of himself in bed together looking surprised. 

We then moved on towards the opera house. 

On the way we stopped of at a free exhibition named Iconic on Unter der Linden. The VW beetle might be of interest to our neighbour Ian who renovated VW beetles as a hobby.

I saw an Audi similar to what I used to drive 35 years ago.

We then went for dinner at Nante-Eck  – Altberlin restaurant on Unter den Linden.

Angela and I had very nicely cooked trout while Glenn had his favourite goulash and potato dumplings. 

We then walked the short distance to the Berlin State Opera to see the Marriage of Figaro. 

The opera house is very grand with lots of gold decoration.

Glenn and I know nothing about opera but we really enjoyed it. There were English surtitled so we could understand everything. The opera had also been brought up to the 1930s abd had a lot of comedy in it. 

We went home on the train and bus – and were back in the campsite at midnight like pumpkins.