Tuesday 29th September 2026

Tobia and I had decided that today would be our museum day. Berlin has five amazing museums all clustered together. Of course there is way to much to see in a day, or even in a couple of days, but you can get a day ticket for all the museums and then pick out some highlights from each one. I have already mentioned my love of ancient things so the Neues Museum was my non-negotiable visit. I did some research in the evening before and over breakfast and picked out some of the highlights to see. I wrote them in my Filed Notes notebook which I stashed in my handbag for handy reference. We did not confine ourselves to my list but it was a handy reference when everything would have been too overwhelming.

Neues Museum

This was the first stop, and the one place I just had to see. This would have come second to the Pergamon but it is closed at the moment, and was also closed last time we were here (I hope to come back to see the Altar and the Ishtar Gate). We spent quite a while in the Egyptian section. The details in the carvings was amazing. Tobia is a great person to have with you in a museum, we spent a lot of our time, marveling together at the craftsmanship and pointing out little details to each other.

The star attraction of the museum is the Bust of Queen Nefertiti. She has her own room and the setting is dramatic. It sets off the bust beautifully. No photos allowed though so we just admired it. I had to chuckle about the people standing just outside the door with the no photos sign to take their photos. There are enough photos online that I didn’t feel the need to do this. It was nice to be able to enjoy it without having to dodge the selfie-taking.

The Berlin Gold Hat was also on my list and also presented in an impressive display. This was pretty cool. It is a hat with decoration that calculates the suns movement in the sky relative to the stars. It is dated about 1000BC.

Next up was Priam’s Treasure. This is a collection of treasures found in the vicinity of ancient Troy by Heinrich Schliemann. There were some beautiful objects in this section, including stunning jewellery and headdresses. There is a photo displayed with the golden diadem below of Schlieman’s wife wearing it which was a bit cheeky I think.

Alte Nationalgalerie

Next up we went to the Alte Nationalgalerie. This was next on my list because of the Impressionist Gallery which we found, on entry to the gallery, was closed. Luckily I also wanted to see the work of Caspar David Friedrich. These were atmospheric, moody works often including tiny human figures dwarfed by nature. I also wanted to see some of the German Realist paintings.

By this stage in the day we were needing a bit of a break and getting hungry so we met Tobia’s husband at Curry 61 for a Berlin specialty—currywurst. the three of us sat by the Spree in the sun and chatted away while eating. I needed this break and it was lovely to meet and chat with Tobia’s husband as well.

Bode Museum

The Bode Museum houses the Sculpture Collection and the Museum of Byzantine Art. The Baroque Building is beautiful but we kept getting lost, or maybe not so much lost, as not knowing where we were. Is that the same thing as lost? I could not leave without seeing the mosaic from Ravenna (I have been to Ravenna and seen the ones in situ there as well). No photos of this, I just sat back and looked. There was a lot of religious art in the museum. The detail on some of the carvings was impressive.

I was looking through my photos to write this post and I came across the one below and I initially had no idea what it was, then I remembered it is the Mirror Cabinet from Merseburg. It is a Rococo cabinet built to display porcelain and other treasures and even had a mirror on the roof, hence the photo. Zoom in and there we both are.

So that was a very full day of museums and we needed a bit of silly fun and in the process tick off another Berlin specialty. Tobia took me across the river from my hotel and we had a beer mixed with either woodruff or raspberry syrup. I had the raspberry and Tobia had the woodruff which she let me try a little of. I think I preferred the raspberry.

You can see Tobia’s recap of our three days together here.

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. Check out San’s blog for all the details and to join in yourself.