June 22 - Museum and concert day.

Today's adventures included Museum Island as well as a classical concert at Charlottenberg Palace. After our always delicious breakfast (complete with yummy latte for me), we bought a 48-hour transit pass, timing the purchase so that we could use it to take the express bus to the airport on Friday.  It was another beautiful morning in Berlin, so we walked to Museum Island along the Spree River, passing by some of the other places we'd been during the week.  Our journey began with the Pergamon, the antiquities museum.  I was hoping to get some pictures related to the Epic of Gilgamesh, which I teach.  However, the majority of the museum was under construction, so no Gilgamesh for me.  We did see the recreation of the Palace at Ishtar, which I remembered from our previous visit to this place.  

The Palace at Ishtar segments

The design of the palace

Then it was on to the Altes Galerie and the collection of 19th century art. 

Bob contemplated another version of Rodin's The Thinker.

 We saw some impressionist paintings, but the jewels of this collection were newly restored German paintings, both of which were striking.  

And one of the artists had the same obsession with the moon that I have....

By this time we were ready for lunch, so we found a lovely outdoor spot right by the Humboldt University. Graduates included people as diverse as Karl Marx, Heinrich Heine, and Albert Einstein.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_University_of_Berlin#Notable_alumni.2C_professors_and_lecturers
Our restaurant was also close to the Berlin Cathedral, which is a massive structure right on the river. 

After lunch, we used public transit to return to our hotel and get ready for dinner and a concert. Because Charlottenberg Palace is also undergoing renovation (it seems never-ending in Berlin), instead of having our dinner in the palace, we were sent to the Opera Italiana, a place right across the street from the palace. 

We took the bus from the nearby train station to Charlottenberg and got there early enough to go the Picasso Museum that was right down the street from the restaurant.  We took a quick tour of the place, which was quite small compared to the museums we'd seen earlier in the day.

Then it was dinner time. We were seated outside and enjoyed a delicious meal served by excellent servers. 

Salmon carpaccio 

Delicious salad

Veal, potatoes, and haricot vert

Tiramisu

After dinner, we walked across the street to the palace.  We sat near the front and had a great view of the performers.  The program included Vivaldi and Mozart, with the first half of the evening mostly Vivaldi and the second half all Mozart.  The musicians were so talented; dressed in Mozart-style clothing and wigs, they performed some truly difficult string-woodwind pieces with aplomb.  And there were also two singers who performed some Mozart arias, both of whom were charming as well as talented.

During intermission, a jester performed outside.

Afterwards, I spoke to one of the violinists about the lack of program notes related to the artists performing and found out that she had attended the New England Conservatory of Music.  Too bad we never got to find out about the other musicians.

We took the bus back to the hotel and stopped in the bar for a nightcap.