Returning to the 19^th floor apartment of Uta and Andreas on Leipzig Strasse after three years was just like coming home. The Augustiner beer hall around the corner and the Brandenburg gate a ten minute walk away, Lidl downstairs for breakfast supplies and spring in the air.

in the Reichstag Dome

Entry to the spectacular Norman Foster designed dome of the Reichstag is free, but the price to pay is a long wait in a queue to gain entry in two days time or on-line booking for three weeks hence. Worth the wait. Marvellous views and a history of the site. The automatic audio guide comments on the view from wherever you are standing and prompts you when to move on. The building is said to be ultra enviro-friendly. Apparently rain and snow can’t enter the enormous hole in the centre of the top of the dome because of the force of exhaust from the ventilation system. Seems to work, because there is no evidence of weather damage on the polished wooden seats inside the dome.

The bear of the Berlin coat-of-arms appears life size around the streets in many media and guises.

The remaining 2 km section of the Wall, known as the East Gallery, is now more or less stable. Along half of the length of the gallery barricades have been placed to prevent the public from defacing some of the more iconic Graffiti. The famous kiss between Brezhnev and Honecker, the former GDR leader is now safely behind bars. Technically, their socialist fraternal kiss was quite politically correct at the time of the photograph, but this Graffiti with the title “My God, help me to survive this deadly love” tells another story. There are booths where you can have an old fashioned east German visa inserted in your passport. And there are tricksters playing a variation on the three-card trick with little upturned boxes and a ball. No shortage of punters prepared to fork out €50 in support of their madness. Was about to document on film the fast moving fingers when the shark invited me in to the game. Escaped with wallet intact but alas without a photographic record.

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Amongst all of the energy and culture of Berlin, a visit to the Monument to the murdered Jews in the holocaust is always something of an anchor point. Important to recall the horrible actions that ordinary people can allow their leaders to take. What could they have done? What are we doing now?

Street music in Berlin is fairly conservative, from a glass harmonica player on museum island to the barrel organ player with a stuffed monkey that demands feeding before photos are taken. Delightful pot-luck on the more formal music scene. Around the corner at the Concert Haus there has been a tribute to Alfred Brendl this week ending in a day of string quartets topped off with the Schubert string quintet performed by the Ebène Quartet with Alfred’s son Adrian sitting in as second cello. Alfred himself gave the introductory chat sitting at the piano – would have loved to know what he was saying. The status of the performers demanded use of the great hall that normally seats over a thousand people. A space far too vast for intimate chamber music. Problem solved by ignoring the seating in the body of the auditorium. The audience was placed on the stage on about eight rows of seats, where a symphony orchestra would normally sit. The quintet faced them, backs to the forest of empty seats. Remains of the audience, including us, perched in ascending gallery seating. Inevitably, the sound was a little thin in the cavernous space. But the performance – heavenly. The Ebène quartet studied in Paris with Gabor Takacs who also mentored Flinders Quartet. Ebène are famous for venturing into Jazz, though not on this occasion. Flinders, are you listening?

No grand opera this trip, but with the “Welcome Berlin Pass” we bagged seats at the Komische Oper. The only opera we could access during our stay happened to be The Coronation of Poppea. A Barrie Kosky production to music of Elena Kats-Chernin. The original Monteverdi score of 1643 having been lost some time in the 18^th cent, Elena took two years to complete the impressive composition that includes instruments like banjo, dobro, mandolin, 12-string, electric, classical, Jazz, steel-string, slide, Hawaii guitars and ukulele. The plot goes like this. Roman emperor Nero wants to divorce his wife Octavia and install his sweetheart Poppea as Empress. Octavia and the philosopher Seneca have other ideas, but to no avail. The dramatic climax is vintage Kosky – winged assistants of the Gods in impossibly high heels pouring buckets of blood over the head of Seneca who has been fully naked for all of this scene. He now sinks slowly into the lake. The final duet between Nero and the new Empress Poppea is beautifully romantic, but not what one would have expected given Nero’s reputation.

No shortage of exotic cars in the city, but two that caught our attention were the ancient car on Unter den Linden (above) and the beetle with eye-lashes (below)

The In-laws joined us for a week. Margaret is my in-law, George is Sweetie-pie’s. They are from Peterhead in Scotland and were interested to see a statue of one of Peterhead’s sons in pride of place here in the Bode Gallery. James Keith was born in the Inverugie castle near Peterhead in the late 17^th cent. He took the side of the Jacobites and when their rebellion failed he fled to Europe as a soldier of fortune where he was noticed by Frederick the Great and given the rank of Field Marshal. Keith distinguished himself but was among the Prussians who died in the seven year war.

Field Marshal James Keith

The Prussians were so fond of Keith that they gave a bronze statue of him to Peterhead where it stands today in a city square. With Margaret and George we also visited some of Fred the Great’s palaces. Must have been vast numbers of highly skilled artisans. Can’t help wondering what sort of home comforts the artisans enjoyed.

Visiting the Picture Gallery adjacent to Sanssouci induced massive Stendhalismo at the glittering excess. It appears now just as it did in Frederick’s time. The lavish marble flooring was taken up during the war and stored in bunkers along with the valuables. Serious restoration happened after the Russians left in ’89

The Bilder Gallery at Sanssouci

For something completely different, we sat on the uncomfortable steps at the monkey bar trying to be part of the scene.