Sanssouci

The Berlin public transit system includes the nearby town of Potsdam and the palace where Fredrick the Great escaped his cares. He called it the Palace of Sanssouci ("without care").

Climb off the bus, and join Bill and I,

 as we step into another time.

Apparently Fritz decided to build the modest palace in 1774 as a getaway from the Berlin court and from his wife, both of which he hated. Tickets in hand we passed through the trellised arcades,

glimpsed the elegant, formal garden with its fountain and statuary below us,

and began with a visit to the 18th century Bildergalerie or Painting gallery believed to be the first of its kind in Europe.

The original collection was looted in the war but the new collection offers a Caravaggio and some big Rubens. We found the style of display suggested that the paintings were valued most as a display of wealth rather than as works of art.

The lush gold-leaf decoration

 is decidely

opulent.

 We love how furniture gilded in gold goes so well with marble floors and walls.

Outside, the richly decorated roof,

overlooks the Dutch garden with its lovely leafy pergolas.

Crossing to the formal gardens in front of the main palace building

we passed in front of the stairs fanning up to the Schloss (palace) past terraces lined with vineyards.

We loved the edge of the riverbank in the less formal Marly Garden.

 Ornate heads provided the sound of spilling water

 and the open fields were a rich yellow and white expanse of buttercups and daisies.

A meandering path was occasionally lined with gorgeous rhododendron bushes in bloom.

We scurried back to Frederick's getaway to join our timed-tour.

 It began with a lavish gallery lined with Watteau paintings.

We loved the delicate ceiling frescoes.

 One of our favourite rooms was Frederick's study, apparently one of his favourite haunts.

The outrageous ornament of the following rooms was charming in its extravagance.

The guest bedrooms were almost austere by comparison.

But not so the monarch's own bedroom with its chunky, Rococo excess.

 His bed looked cozy though.

Imagine our surprise to find that one our last sights in the Schloss Sanssouci was a portrait of Frederick by Andy Warhol! But then we decided that if he'd been a member of 20th century high society he probably would have commissioned one. Don't you think?

A Taste of Italy

 After a thrilling morning and afternoon under the grilling sun in the gardens of Sanssouci, Bill and I decided to eat Italian when we returned to our neighborhood in Berlin. Our waiter immediately struck the right note when I wasn't ready to order. She said, "There is no hurry. Take all the time you like."

We started with tomatoes dressed lightly in excellent oil and vinegar with some fresh basil.

As we ate the delicious perfectly ripe tomatoes life crept back into our tired bones.

 Bill ordered orecchiette, or "little ears" pasta with sausage and Parmesan cheese.

 He offered me a taste.

 I wish I could share it with you!

 When I ordered my Spaghetti Carbonara the waiter said, "Bravo!" It was so much fun to be trying to speak Italian again. We commiserated with her on the difficulties of German.

Do you know Spaghetti Carbonara? The sauce is made with eggs, cream and Italian pancetta (better than bacon) and lots of Parmesan cheese. The pancetta had been fried in olive oil until crispy so that it exploded with flavor when chewed. With the sprinkling of coarse pepper corns the taste explosions were ravishing.

After half a plate, the cream, eggs, bacon and cheese launched an assault on my circulation system creating a pleasant sense of stupefaction which I noticed Bill's pasta and sausage had also induced in him. Over espressos we spoke of our future travel plans which suddenly leaned, heavily, toward our beloved Italy. We plan to return to Amici Amici before we leave Berlin!

Egyptian Art at the Neues Museum

Berlin's Neues Museum is world-renowned for it's Egyptian antiquities, but the Neues is also features a vast collection of prehistoric artifacts, Celtic art and artifacts from the early history of Germania.

Bill and I were astonished by the realism and freshness of this animal sculpture from 18,000 to 12,000 BC. Wisely, this is one of the first things they show you when you get off the elevator on the top floor.

The next thing they showed us was this skeleton of a moose -- Europeans call it an elk -- to remind us these creatures lived and died twelve thousand years ago.

We loved the Neues Museum's study collection with its old cabinets. Like others on Museum Island, the building was severely damaged by 2nd World War bombing, but has been restored and redesigned slowly under the guidance of British architect, David Chipperfield. He tried to retain as many elements of the original building as was possible.

No-one can resist the appeal of Celtic gold with its geometric decorations. The Celts appeared in the area now know as Germany in the late 1st millenium BC.

Bill loved this bronze helmet was created sometime between 600-500 BC. We've never seen anything like it.

The Bronze age "hoard" room is an excellent example of the tasteful renovation of the galleries.

The Neues Museum's Egyptian collection did not disappoint. Here are two bronze figures of a female priest and a noble woman from around 700 BC.

Bill liked  this New Kingdom family group (1250-1200 BC),

with its back relief of an intimate scene of the Pfahmi family.

while John favoured this kneeling nobleman holding a tablet inscribed with hieroglyphics.

This New Kingdom Study for a Horses Head (1345 BC) is one of my favourite objects in the museum. I find it so fresh and modern -- astonishing.

Bill and I loved this New Kingdom artist's sketch Walk in the Garden of a Royal Couple.

and this tomb releif of pharoh Amemhotep III.

I might mention that the Neue Museum was full of tour groups. Every group was treated to a long lecture about this delicate New Kingdom portrait of Queen Tiy in a double-feathered crown.

Another exquisite New Kingdom work of art -- Pair of hands from a group statue of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Photography is not allowed in the room with the famous bust of Nefertiti

 except for this little striding statuette of the famous lady.

Bill and I are always as interested in other museum goers as we are in the displays.

But the displays always win out. Bust of King Tutankhamen, 1335 BC.

Here's another view of the famous King Tut. Such an elegant head!

On the ground floor we returned to more early German history. The label for this "Zanten Youth" is below. He's introducing some artifacts from the Roman conquest of Germania.

The Zantan Youth would have held a tray of food at Germanic Roman banquets around the middle of the 1st century AD.

Relief depicting a Roman legionary from about the same period.

Colossal Statue of Helios, 138-161 AD

John looks at an ancient sculpture of a Celtic god in the room dedicated to archeological finds in German lands not occupied by the Romans.

The guidebook tells us that the museum was heavily damaged by air raids in 1943 and 1945. Many pieces of decorative masonry could be put back together again when reconstruction work was begun in the 1980s but the items here in the "Fragmentorium" could not be relocated "because the rooms to which they belonged were completely destroyed".

We'll leave the early German history rooms with the medieval tombstone of Heinrich Beyer von Boppard and wife, Gattin Lisa, 1376.

The Neue Museum is vast. We were ready to leave when we went downstairs and discovered more Egyptian artifacts in the "crypt". Bill and I are big fans of these Roman funerary portraits from Egypt. Lady Aline, portrayed here looks so contemporary and lifelike.

Quite different from this portrait of Queen Ahmose-Noretari (1152-1145 BC) in the classic Egyptian style.

We'll say goodbye to our abbreviated tour of the Neues collections with these Egyptian soldiers and Nubian mercenaries, 1470 BC. Hope you enjoyed our little glimpse of the treasures.

Bill and I LIVE for museum shops and we always pray for good postcards. Once again the Neue Museum did not disappoint. Yep, those are copies of the Nefertiti bust in the background.