Germany trip: Berlin - 29/5 (Part 4)

Germany trip: 29/5 Berlin


Bowl in front of the Egyptian Museum

After the Antiquities Collection, I returned to the Berliner Dom, where the Hohenzollerns were interred. They got a better dea than the Hapsburgs, whose hearts, bodies and internal organs are all in different places.


Portal to the church


Dome


Tomb of Frederick William, 1620-1688


Johann Cicero, 1455-1499


Altar


Above altar


Organ


Window above altar


Above altar

Save for the 2 tombs photographed above, everyone else was in the crypt.


Frederick I, 1659-1713


Tombs


Frederick William II, 1744-97. It looks like the remains of his old tomb were used to cover a new coffin.

I saw 2 empty tombs in the crypt. Perhaps surviving descendents get to be buried there.


I was disappointed at how plain and new Frederick the Great's tomb was. I felt very cheated.

Addendum: Freddyrocks comments that: "Frederick requested a simple grave without any ceremony or embellishments." However further research reveals that his tomb is not in the Berliner Dom. Hmm.


More tombs

At the souvenir shop the woman laughed at my signature because it was so small. Wth.


Funky toilet. Wth is there a time limit?!


666 man on the bridge to Museumsinsel. I thought Europeans were too smart for this kind of thing.


Okay, maybe not. There's a reason why "none" is the largest religious affiliation in the Netherlands

I had a spiessbraten (a very thick slice of roast pork) with kraut salat in bread at Friedrichstrasse station for €2,40. At the other side there was a chinese place with hot and sour soup for €1,60 and wanton and egg flower soup for €2 each. Berlin is cheap!

German strawberries for selling for €2,99 a box, twice the price of normal strawberries (€1,55). Wth. I doubt they were really so much better, and it was just a play on economic nationalism.

At one of the Berlin train stations there was a sign: "WC-center". What, there's a room with row upon row of cubicles?

I expected lower food prices at Berlin Hauptbahnhof because of competition, but I found prices there much higher than at other train stations. Must be the rent and hype.


The food at Hauptbahnhof is expensive because it is very... special.

[Addendum: I took a train to Freiburg and arrived in the evening, and was picked up by xxoos]


The tagline for Big Mama's Haus 2 in Germany seems to be "Jetzt kommt's richtig dick!". It must be some German pun.

A Häagen-Dazs advertisement called Vanilla Caramel Brownie "Canada's Delicacy". I have no idea.

After finding out about the refund policy for soft drink bottles in Germany, I understand why Deutsche Bahn bans rummaging in garbage bins. Maybe the next time I go to Germany, instead of money I should give empty soft drink bottles to beggars and buskers.

A tourist brochure proclaimed that "to celebrate the FIFA World Cup, shops in Berlin will be given the opportunity to extend their opening hours between June 9th and July 9th 2006. Both Berliners and visitors will be able to shop... [*list of times*] during this period". You'd think that the authorities were being very gracious in giving them the privilege of extending their opening hours, and that extended opening hours would normally be an unforgivable sin. Hah! And there seems to be a hint that they were tempted to only allow foreigners longer shopping hours.

In German trains there's a sign saying the tap water is not for drinking. I bet it's just a plot to earn more money for the Bistro.