A Rainy Reichstag has its Benefits

Jeff and Becca in front of the Reichstag

When one goes to bed at 8pm local time, one feels quite refreshed the next morning.  We got off to an early start as we had reservations to tour the Reichstag Dome at 9am.  The Reichstag is Germany's seat of government where the Bundestag (aka the parliament) meets.  The building originally opened in 1894 but was destroyed by fire and bombings during the world wars.  It was partially refurbished in the 1960s, but the huge refurbishment that we see now was done after reunification in 1990 and finished in 1999.  It seems to be like several buildings we've seen where the outside is old (and by the outside we literally mean just the walls) and the inside is 100% new.  Despite what you see on the outside, the inside is completely modern and very energy efficient.

In the refurbishment after unification, the architect added the dome back to the top of the building.  The original dome was destroyed in the fire and bombings.  The new dome symbolizes a united Germany.  From the glass and metal structure atop the building you can peer right down into the Bundestag and see the parliament meeting.  The dome is AMAZING. The free audio guide knows where you are as you walk up and down and points out what you're looking at in the 360 degree view of Berlin. One of the benefits of a rainy day was that the water on the roof gave us a very cool reflection of the dome!  Below are a bunch of pictures from both inside and outside the dome on the roof of the Reichstag.  To see all our Reichstag Dome pictures, click here.

The rain made pictures taken from the dome a bit wonky, but the views were still impressive.

The Federal Chancellery - where the German Chancellor's office is.

Walking up the dome and looking down the to the windows above the Bundestag

See the purple chairs? That's the Bundestag.

Top of the dome is open and helps with some sort of energy efficient ventiliation

See the four of us reflected in the mirrors? Me, Jeff, Becca and Todd from left to right.

Look how tall we are in this reflection - like 6 mirrors tall!

The extra metal structure on the right acts as a sunguard and the mirrors in the middle move to reflect sun.

The walkways up and down

Rain = awesome reflection!!

The Brandenburg Gate and the American embassy behind it.

Written on the entry to the Reichstag - For the German People

Here's another (less rainy) picture of the German Chancellery. Like the White House, the Chancellor works here and can live here, but the current chancellor, Angela Merkel, prefers to live in her private apartment in Berlin.  The building's nickname is the washing machine.  You can kind of see the resemblance.

After our tour of the Reichstag Dome, we headed over to Museum Island to get tickets to two museums - the Pergamon Museum and the Neues Museum.  Although I'm not (and neither are Todd, Jeff, and Becca) a huge museum person, these museums both came highly recommended.  The Pergamom Museum has the ancient Pergamon Altar and the Gates of Ishtar and an Islamic Art collection that I liked the best.  The Neues Museum has a huge Egyptian/Pharaoh collection, but it's most famous piece is the bust of Queen Nefertiti.

A mini replica of Museum Island

A prayer niche in the Islamic Art collection

Todd's photography skills have me kissing a statue in the Neues Museum courtyard

Carved heiroglyphics

Luck was truly on our side on this off-and-on rainy day.  We took a break at a coffee shop and pondered sitting outside like many were but instead snaged one of only four tables inside the shop, about 5 minutes before the skies opened up and the wind blew like crazy.  We would have been soaked in about 30 seconds.  Phew!  From there, we headed off to a sports pub to watch the All Blacks vs. South Africa rugby match. We found ourselves a few more rugby fans and were surrounded by English soccer fans in this no-sign-of-a-German bar.

We finished the evening with a traditional German entree (really only to be purchased from a street vendor) of currywurst.  In the pre-trip podcasts we were listening to and advice we were taking, we heard lots about currywurst, so there was no way we were leaving Berlin without trying it.  It's basically a steamed then fried sausage heaped with a curry flavored ketchup.  Apparently it was created after World War II when someone used the ingredients they could get their hands on to make an easy dish to sell workers.  It was interesting - not too bad but not necessarily something that makes my mouth water. I might try it one more time.

Today we'll be wandering around all the outside sites that we postponed due to the rain yesterday.  We walked almost 10 miles yesterday according to Becca's pedometer...I'm guessing we'll do at least as much today, so I'm off!