Day 35 Staying in love and visiting museums

A question that many people asked us before we began this trip was ‘How do you think you will get on with each other in such close
quarters for 13 weeks?’ After 26 years of marriage this trip is a wonderful opportunity but still a challenge. Will we get on? Will we still like each other?

Well you’ll be pleased to know that so far the happy couple have indeed been a very happy couple. But it would also be truthful to admit to a couple of less than perfect moments. Sadly one area of tension is museums. Wendy loves to wander through museums carefully reading and taking in all the history. Richard is much less patient. Having said that, we were completely united in our appreciation of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum.

Firstly there was the dramatic Pergamon (an ancient city mentioned in Revelation) altar, a huge marble staircase and structure framed with the most wonderful marble statues. To see such a huge part of antiquity in a Berlin museum (thanks to 19th century archaeology), was a bit of a surprise. However a greater surprise appeared around the corner as we stood in front of the 6 metre high gates from Nebuchadnezzar’s palace in Babylon. Again, removed brick by brick from Iraq in the 19th century, these gates and walls, which are made from deep blue glazed bricks are indeed a wonder. Adorned with lions and other exotic animals it was possible to imagine the time when Daniel in the Bible may have seen these same walls and gates when he was in captivity in Babylon as a young man.

In the afternoon we queued for an hour to climb the contemporary glass dome, which adorns another of Berlins iconic buildings the Reichstag. The home of Berlins early post WW1 parliaments, The Reichstag’s history was stained when a mysterious fire in 1933 became Hitler’s justification for introducing sweeping totalitarian powers and the abolition of democracy. The glass dome, completed just a few years ago now allows visitors a wonderful view of the city while at the same time the Parliament is in view below. In many ways this building, now the home of the united German Parliament, is a wonderful symbol of hope for Germany in the 21st century.