Day 56 The Greeks are ‘armless……
Achtung!! Gidday … Day 56… Brekkie at hostel. This is a new hostel, all sparkling shiny and immaculately designed. And all for 14 Euros a night. The young people around here seem to have been designed along with the hostel. Tomorrow night, which I shall miss because I will be back in Zurich, there is a mens strip night in the big bar area. Drat, I could have been part of that!! Only joking, my out of shape nakedness would have cleared the bar instantly! And talking about nakedness…….
This is Perecles. There are many many ancient sculptures in the Altes Museum. And the Greeks really idolised the youthful athletic bodies of young men and women. Some were damaged and some had been resculpted by a later Greek scupltor, so there were absent limbs. And strangely, nearly all the male figures had there penises removed, but not their testicles. I regret not asking one of the stewards why this was so, but I was a bit shy I guess. The young women were intact.
Not sure if it was PC to remove this part of his anatomy, or that he had suffered a dreadful misadventure. Some statues were intact, but most weren’t. There were no security barriers around the pieces so I could touch the ancient stone gently. Incredible. Also incredibly the museum suffered bomb damage in the war and some items were on display showing that damage quite visibly.
In the afternoon, I decided to go exploring in a different part of the city. I caught the S train to ZOB, the bus station, and walked all the way back to the hostel. About 3 hours slow walk. Partly this was a trial run for tomorrow when I have to make an early start along the same route, so I wanted to be sure I could find my way there by public transport. I was particularly impressed by the Tiergarten park on my walk back.
Dinner was fush and chups, not bad … and then a Starbucks coffee where I tested the IPad and found that it worked fine. Back in the hostel I got on line ok so I must have been doing something wrong before.
Summer returned to Berlin yesterday, after that cold cold day on Monday. Today has started with nice weather too, but back home its icy blast time coming up from the Arctic…
OK better get out there and be in my role… its my last day as a tourist in Berlin.
🙂
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Again I”m glad to hear about Berlin. It’s so rare to have accounts of it as a tourist destination. Thank you. Can you tell me why you included Berlin in your trip? There is so much history there but we tend to not think to go there.
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What an amazing thing to be able to put one’s hands on that old stone. Just reading that sent a shiver down my spine. Though I don’t understand the, uh damage. It’s possible those sorts of bits got sold somewhere on the art black market, though. I’ve heard of that sort of thing. Do you know, is there a memorial or anything where The Wall used to be? Were I to go to Berlin, that would be one of the first things I would look for, where the wall had stood between East and West. I remember vividly watching on the television as that wall came down. What a city of history and conflict!
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Makes you wonder when they adjusted the men’s anatomy as well as why.
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Interesting! Thanks for yr note – so far so good in terms of Noah’s school – he’s so enthusiastic – let’s hope it continues. Take care.
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What a great museum! The hostel sounds great.
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