Wall

Woke a bit later than yesterday to bright sunshine, and after a bit of a slow start I sat out on the balcony in the sun (although chilly!) to do a food order for P and sort another homeswap for July to Naples.
Decided to go and see the section of the wall that’s still intact, and walked over there and explored the area with its helpful signs and photos of people who’d been killed trying to cross. There were white roses laid by the people who’d died on this date (extra). Unfortunately the information centre was closed on Mondays (became a theme for the day) but there had been a lot of interesting signage so I’d still learnt a lot. The wall had gone up, led to all that killing, and been torn down again all in my lifetime….sobering.
Walked from there through the pretty areas around Augustrasse and popped into a couple of galleries and shops, including the shoe shop we’d had recommended (but when they’re €250 in the sale it was a wee bit out of my range!), then enjoyed a coffee whilst I read some tourist info and had two calls to P’s GP etc
Walked down via the State Opera but I’m no great Wagner fan and although I thought it might be fitting to see Das Rheingold in Berlin the only seats left were a couple of hundred Euros….so won’t do that! From there I walked across to the Philharmonic’s hall, via the monument to the murdered Jews of Europe (extra). It was having a lot of restoration work done but unlike at the wall there were no information signs and once again the centre was closed. Wasn’t sure what to make of it without some context of the artist…I need to look up about it later. The Philharmonic hall and musical instrument museum were both built on the former site of a hospital where gassing experiments had begun in 1940. Really shocking, carefully explained displays were very interesting.
Sat down in the hall for a while (nothing on this week that there were tickets for) and thought about what to do. I looked up all the various galleries and museums thinking I’d go to one that Laura may not want to, but all were closed except the German history one that RR had recommended to me, so set off for that.
The sun had long disappeared under thick cloud and it’s been a very cold day…just as well I have my big coat and warm scarf! I thought about visiting the Reichstag on my way across to the museum and queued up for a while only to find there were no more tickets available for today, so gave up. We can do that another day. At the museum the main exhibition was closed for redesign so I didn’t bother with the other gallery as that was on a single topic. No cafe unfortunately and by now I’d heard Laura was delayed, so dithered a bit about whether to go back to the flat or find a bar to wait in, but I was a bit whacked (after the 10 miles I walked yesterday I did 11 today!) so decided just to go home.
Walked back, buying some beer and crisps on the way, and just collapsed on the sofa with them and the sunset (extra) til Laura arrived about 9.30pm and we had supper and chatted for a while before bed…we’re both tired!