So after the first couple days of contemporary architecture, Dr. Etheridge arrived and its time to learn about Berlin's History from the beginning. The first lecture took place on the River Spree at the original crossing, where Berlin actually. Now I'm not quite sure if was the fact that we were actually there or just the "stanky eye" the locals gave as they passed in the background but this lecture definitely beat the hell out of a powerpoint.
The building above is the Marienkirche which is located in Alexanderplatz. I wish I had more to say on the subject but we unfortunately were unable to access this building due to timely construction. However fans don't you worry we are going plenty more old churches to satisfy you history appetites.
Speaking of churches, the next building we visited just happened to be the oldest church in Berlin, Nicholaikirche (above). What are the odds? Well sadly this building was quite hard to read. Due to additions and some bombs dropped in the 40s (WWII), this building was almost completely unoriginal. This, unfortunately, would quickly become a theme of most the buildings we visited in Berlin.
The next stop on our adventure through time and space was the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche and Schinkel Museum (above). Just in case you didn't know, Schinkel was pretty much "the man" when it came to 19th century German architecture. Therefore, for the rest of this blog I will refer to him as such. "The Man" was quite the over achiever of his time. In the museum he has sculptures, drawings, architectural works, and not to mention he designed the building. The building was fairly extravagant like most of his works yet seemed to loose a little of its charm when I realized most of the details are just painted on.
The last main visit for the day was the Concert Hall (above). Like the one before and many buildings in the next few weeks, this was also designed by "the man." This buildings charm really stopped at the doorway for me. I'm not sure if it was the extravagance of pastel colors or fake gold ornamentation, but this building made me little..... unsatisfied. For this reason I elected to negate these picture from my blog as I have a strict "no gold leafing" policy. But all and all I thought the day was a success as I got to begin to understand identity of this town further than its initial negative connotations. Just as a closing note, they seem to be quite Audi crazy over here and I must say I'm beginning to catch the fever. So dad if you're reading, one of these (below) would great in my driveway. Dankeschön.
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