Global Berlin at the Berliner Schloss

We had lunch from a bakery in Oranienburg, before returning to Berlin. Our next destination was the Berliner Schloss or Humboldt Forum on the Museumsinsel (Museum Island).

The building is a reconstruction (in concrete) of the baroque Prussian royal palace which stood on the site from the late 18th century until 1950, when the badly damaged remains of the palace were cleared by the East German authorities to create a large parade ground. In the 1970s, the Palast der Republik was built on the site and housed, amongst other public cultural facilities, the plenary room used for party conferences and the seat of the People’s Assembly (the non-democratic equivalent of a parliament in the DDR). In 2008, the Palast der Republik was demolished and plans were made to reconstruct a replica (of the footprint and facades) of the baroque palace in order to house a huge museum and exhibition space.

It had started to rain on our way back into Berlin and the rain was lashing down as we ran the 10m from the nearest U-Bahn entrance to the main entrance of the Schloss.

We had come to the Humboldt Forum in order to visit “Global Berlin”, a temporary exhibition focussing on Berlin and its connections to the world.

On arrival we were fitted with bracelets which would be used for voting and interacting with the exhibits. After each interaction was logged by the system, a randomly allocated sound for each of us would sound in the room.

After a fun hour or so, we came to the end of the exhibit and decided to seek out somewhere for dinner. We found an excellent restaurant serving Swabian specialties in particular (Spätzle) a short journey away by U-Bahn, near the Friedrichstraße station.

And then it was time to return to our hotel, via a short jaunt on a Regional Express train across Berlin, and then our regular tram to just around the corner from the hotel.Read more