June 30, 2017     Berlin

I had made an appointment at the Berlin Kunstbibliothek to see “The Temple of Isis and Osiris” by Carl Friedrich Schinkel.  We had tried to see it on our first visit to Berlin.  The book listed the painting as being at the Staatliche Museum, Berlin.  There are only about 18 museums that show up when you Google this.  We couldn’t locate it on that first visit.  After much internet searching and email different museums I had located this copy.  Schinkel had designed the scenery for the Opera “The Magic Flute”.  So we showed up at the Art Library and asked to see the painting.  The gentleman who helped called one of the people I had emailed and he showed up as we were looking at the picture I photographed.  Then another lady showed up who I had also communicated with.  She said that this was a color print of the original that was upstairs in the Kulture Cabinet.  She didn’t offer to take us up there and I didn’t think to ask.  So now we may have to try and see the original on our next trip to Berlin.

Our next stop was the Sanssouci Bildergalerie in Potsdam.  There is a Caravaggio there.  Sanssouci is a Palace built by Frederick the Great.  It is over an hour west of Berlin.  We actually found something better in the Potsdam train station” HEISSER WOLF!!!!  We had fallen in love with the ham sandwich at the Heisser Wolf at the Potsdamer Platz shopping mall.  But we had not been able to find them anyplace else in Berlin.  We would have lunch here after we saw the Caravaggio.  The Bildergalerie is hidden behind the tomb of Frederick the Great.  Once again a license was required to take photos, and at this stage of the trip all we wanted to do was see our painting and then get back to Berlin.  The gallery is actually one long domed room that the Donald would love, everything is gold.  There are some very nice paintings, and we saw them all, and then it was back to Berlin.  We were going to meet Ruth for dinner that evening.  We had exchanged homes with Ruth and Karl five years ago, and then met the next year when we lived in Amsterdam.  The day after we met them in Berlin four years ago Karl had a heart attack.  He died a few months later.  Ruth has a new boyfriend and we were going to meet him on Saturday.

We met Ruth at the restaurant were we had last had dinner with her and Karl, but there was a wedding that was going to take up the place.  So we walked to another place that Ruth knew of.  We had a wonderful time catching up with Ruth and hearing about Michael.  The food was of course wonderful, but it was just a great evening, it was so nice to see how happy Ruth was in her new relationship.  We were at the restaurant a long time.  They don’t chase you out in Europe, you have to ask for the check, not like here where you get the check with dessert.  We were going to have brunch at this same place tomorrow.

 

2017 06 30 Berlin