Our last day – and still so many choices.  We will leave Berlin with another week’s worth of things to see and do should we return.  The Pergamon Museum was one of my must-sees.  We read about 2-hour queues, so we got there (relatively) early, and waited 45 minutes.  It is a very inefficient entry system.  You also only see part of the museum, as the wing with the Pergamon Altar is being renovated (come back after 2019).  Ian was not so impressed, but I thought it was wonderful.

The first exhibition you see is the Ishtar Gate, rebuilt within the museum from over 500 crates of original ceramic fragments carefully pieced together, in an incredible feat of archaeological reconstruction.  The Ishtar Gate was the 8^th gate to the city of Babylon, dedicated to the goddess Ishtar, and constructed in 575 BC.  Through the gate ran the Processional Way, adorned with lions, bulls, dragons and flowers.  There is also a replica of the Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian law code and one of the oldest known writings of significant length (the original is in the Louvre).

The next room houses the Market Gate of Miletus, which was an ancient Greek city on the Anatolian coast of Turkey.  It was built in the second century AD, and destroyed in an earthquake some 800 years later.  Rebuilt from excavated fragments, it is not entirely original but nonetheless impressive.  It has undergone several restorations since extensive damage in WW2. There were also sculptures, friezes, and a mosaic floor.

Much of the rest of the first floor is occupied by sculptures and carvings from Assyria and Babylon. Having admired the Assyrian Lion Hunter stone reliefs in the British Museum many years ago, I was happily occupied looking at these.

Upstairs is the Islamic Art Collection.   The main attraction is the Mshatta Façade, which originates from an unfinished desert palace in what is now Jordan.  There are many other objects including carpets, jewellery, woodwork and ceramics from all over the Islamic world.

On our first day, we never completed the Wall Trail, so we took a train to Nordbahnhof.  This was one of the so-called “ghost stations”, underground railway stations in the East that were blocked off and heavily guarded to prevent escapes via the tunnels.  Public transport was as divided as everything else.  Trains from the West passed slowly through these stations but did not stop.  Street entrances were sealed up and disguised, and over time people forgot the stations were there.  It must have been quite a surprise to find them again in the 1990s – the first people to re-enter them found ads and signs unchanged since 1961.  Storyboards in the station told of several escapes.

Outside, we walked along Bernauer Strasse, where a 1.4 km strip serves as a poignant Berlin Wall memorial.  This was the best place to get a feel for what it was really like.  The construction of the Wall and its consequences on the residents were particularly dramatic here. Apartment buildings fronting the street were sealed up, then abandoned, their occupants forced to leave because escape via windows was too easy.  Numerous tunnels were also dug under the street.  The so called Death Strip was built over a cemetery, and a church which became inaccessible by its parishioners was torn down by the GDR.  The first official demolition of the Wall also occurred on this street.  There is a vantage point opposite, where you can see how the outer wall, inner wall and watchtower, and no man’s land were laid out.

After a cultural morning and sombre afternoon, we decided to lighten the mood with cake and ice cream – all in the name of gluten free research of course.  Our last activity was a gentle river cruise along the Spree, passing under low bridges and enjoying new vantage points of Museum Island, the Nikolai district, the Reichstag and parliamentary district, and the Hauptbahnhof station which we have passed through so many times in the last five days.

Nothing remains now but to consume the leftovers, toss out the detritus, gather the souvenirs, pack the suitcases, and board a train for Hamburg tomorrow afternoon, followed by the long flight home.