Wernigerode, Germany

 Wernigerode

30th and 31st July, 2023

After the big city feel of Berlin it was time to see some of the more beautiful towns in Germany.  Berlin is mostly square concrete boxes, with graffiti everywhere…. as..ugly as!  We’ve moved to a small city called Wernigerode .  All the centre of town is old style German building, WOW beautiful. Our park-up is a short 800m walk into town.  The town is a place where Germans come to see the town and when you’re walking around town you get the feel that there isn’t many international visitors.

Over-looking the town is Schloss Wernigerode (castle).  We took the yellow tractor-trailer (dressed up to look like a train) up the hill and had a look.  The Schloss is a real castle, not like the palaces we have been visiting.  Great views over the town and the timber work in the Castle (WOW).  The German’s have been great craftsman for forever. 

It was also very nice sitting at a coffee shop in the town square watching the town come to life. 

We’re going to take a steam train up to the highest peak (Brocken) Elevation = 1,143 meters.  It’s a rainy day and we don’t expect to see that much, but looking forward to the steam train.  Actually lots of steam trains, couldn’t tell just how many, but there was 3 or so at each station we pulled into. The ride up and back was great, at the top just rain and cloud.  But there was a charming restaurant for a hot chocolate and a slice of apple crumble. 

Schloss Wernigerode

The yellow tractor trailer

The inner courtyard of the castle

The castle chapel

A model of the castle 

The woodwork was amazing.

More amazing cabinetry

The great hall

The view overlooking the town.

Toot toot here comes the train - Steam Train to Brocken

The castle high on the hill above.

Berlin - Day of the Museums

 Neues and Pergamon Museums

29th July, 2023

Thought we’d do something a bit different, not that we’re museum type people, but we thought it maybe nice to do some of the the museums on Museum Island precinct.

Neues has Egyptian exhibits …plus more and Pergamon has Babylon, Roman, Early Islamic plus, plus, plus.

We got there at 10minutes after opening time and we were lucky to make it in. They had signs up that they were full sold out….but we made it in.  OH I do have an annual pass if anyone is visiting. 

A very enjoyable day, 5 hours wandering through….sore feet.  23deg and 95% humidity.  The German’s don’t do air-conditioning and the huge crowds made it a steamy day…but fun. Well worth it!

Some of the exhibits are 3 to 4 stories high, lots of BC works….arrr, I will put up a small collection of Gill’s pictures to give a flavour. 

Islamic prayer niche, all mosaic tiles, very beautiful.

The “Aleppo” exhibit.  

Papyrus scrolls from the Book of the Dead

Egyptian burial masks

The Neues Museum opened in 1859, so the building itself is amazing.

Is this a picture of a golden hat or mobile phones.

The Berlin Golden Hat - the best preserved specimen among the four known conical golden hats from Bronze Age Europe discovered so far.

The Ishtar Gate reconstruction.  The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon.  It was constructed circa 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar.  The 1904-1914 excavation was led by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey.  

Potsdam - New Palace

 The New Palace

Lots more palace today, the New Palace isn’t as good as the Sanssouci Palace  I’ve left out lots of the inside pictures because they are so similar.  When Fredrik built the new palace the styles had changed but he built what he liked, that was the same as he already had.