I'm still chronicling our first afternoon in Berlin, which eventually found us at the Brandenburg Gate (seen above). Our goal was to walk the length of Unter den Linden to Alexanderplatz, the heart of East Berlin, where we would meet back up with our tour guide and the rest of our group. The Brandenburg Gate is a real tourist magnet, and there were lots of other folks milling about, taking pictures, buying souvenirs, etc. To be honest, I found it somewhat less than awesome, but you can judge yourself from these pictures. [Sorry for the vignetting on the image-- the dark corners-- I recently added a UV filter to my lense and forget to sometimes zoom a tad to avoid that effect.]
Here's a zoom shot of the statuary on the top of the gate
In the plaza on the east side of the Gate is the Berlin Art Institute (the glass building above), which had a George Grosz exhibit up. I didn't have time to check it out that day, but made a mental note to return later, which Ben and I did on Sunday. Grosz is one of my favorite German artists, very satirical with plenty of targets working, as he did, in the twenties and thirties. The show had a nice selection of his drawings, paintings, and other work.
This guy was waiting to take some lucky tourists for a ride, but there did not seem to be many takers. Ivan told us this was the first nice day in weeks, and it seems likely that many were willing to enjoy it afoot.
This is a statue of Frederick the Great on the mall on the Unter den Linden, and I shot it from the rear on purpose. Frederick is often credited with supporting the Enlightenment and promoting art, education and philosophy generally. But apparently that was just an illusion, and the sculptor of this piece knew it. That's why he put the figure of Immanuel Kant (seated) directly below the tail-end of the horse; right in harm's way, so to speak.
A short distance up the street, we passed Humboldt University, where a book sale was going on in the front plaza. I'm glad I don't read German, because that kept me from walking away with an armful of books, and I would've been weighted down for the rest of the evening.
I'm still chronicling our first afternoon in Berlin, which eventually found us at the Brandenburg Gate (seen above). Our goal was to walk the length of Unter den Linden to Alexanderplatz, the heart of East Berlin, where we would meet back up with our tour guide and the rest of our group. The Brandenburg Gate is a real tourist magnet, and there were lots of other folks milling about, taking pictures, buying souvenirs, etc. To be honest, I found it somewhat less than awesome, but you can judge yourself from these pictures. [Sorry for the vignetting on the image-- the dark corners-- I recently added a UV filter to my lense and forget to sometimes zoom a tad to avoid that effect.]
Here's a zoom shot of the statuary on the top of the gate
In the plaza on the east side of the Gate is the Berlin Art Institute (the glass building above), which had a George Grosz exhibit up. I didn't have time to check it out that day, but made a mental note to return later, which Ben and I did on Sunday. Grosz is one of my favorite German artists, very satirical with plenty of targets working, as he did, in the twenties and thirties. The show had a nice selection of his drawings, paintings, and other work.
This guy was waiting to take some lucky tourists for a ride, but there did not seem to be many takers. Ivan told us this was the first nice day in weeks, and it seems likely that many were willing to enjoy it afoot.
This is a statue of Frederick the Great on the mall on the Unter den Linden, and I shot it from the rear on purpose. Frederick is often credited with supporting the Enlightenment and promoting art, education and philosophy generally. But apparently that was just an illusion, and the sculptor of this piece knew it. That's why he put the figure of Immanuel Kant (seated) directly below the tail-end of the horse; right in harm's way, so to speak.
A short distance up the street, we passed Humboldt University, where a book sale was going on in the front plaza. I'm glad I don't read German, because that kept me from walking away with an armful of books, and I would've been weighted down for the rest of the evening.
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