Quote:I plan on going to the Pergamon museum and pillaging it with my camera, but where else should I consider visiting?
The
Berliner Unterwelten are spectacular.
Of the big museums, the Pergamon Museum is a must, but it is crowded and the guards haven't improved their old GDR manners. The Neues Museum is overestimated; the Altes Museum is partly closed, but what is open is superb; the Bode Museum is a delight. My reviews
here.
There's a small museum for the Kennedies, opposite the Brandenburger Tor; nicer than you'd think. The GDR Museum is to be avoided at all costs. Do not forget Sony Plaza (cinema in original language), the Gemäldegalerie and the Bendlerblock (Von Stauffenberg).
Make a walk along the
Schinkel monuments. The man was a genius, and if you start at the Opernplatz, continue to the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche, cross the Schloßbrücke , see the Altes Museum, return over the bridge, and look at the Neue Wache, you've seen five of his finest works. The restaurants opposite the Neue Wache are excellent and not expensive.
The Jewish Museum is overestimated. The pretentious building creates a sense of chaos that distracts from the objects. Nearby Checkpoint Charlie - well, go there if you haven't seen it; otherwise, no longer worth a detour. (Although I had to smile when I noticed that the Kochstrasse is now called Rudi Duschke Strasse. Axl Springer's HQs are now in a street named after the man who was nearly killed by Springer's newspaper.) The Zeughaus might have been interesting if they had allowed the designers to follow up the advise that "in der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister". In other words: too big.
Plus
this, from an earlier thread.