Our last day in Berlin, our last day of the trip. Tomorrow we will be homeward bound.

We enjoyed our last time to sleep late and then spent most of the day on Museum Island visiting museums. Before going, we went shopping at the Ampelmann shop. The ampelmannchen are the graphics used on the streetlights for Walk and Don't Walk in what used to be East Berlin. After unification, they were removed. However, the people had such a strong response and preference for the old style that the city put them back up. The ampelmann style is much cuter than the newer style.

We visited the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, and the Pergamon Museum. All had amazing collections of ancient works, but my favorite by far was the Pergamon. The collections there were huge statues, walls, floors, other architectural pieces reconstructed inside the museum. Ishtar’s Gate is amazing and beautifully preserved with embellished brickwork with vibrant colors on a long hall and courtyard area leading up to the gate. I have not seen anything like it before. Magnificent!

My other favorite piece was the bust of Nefertiti. It is now in the Neues Museum, but was in the Egyptian Museum. I didn’t figure out if the Egyptian Museum is just part of one of the other museums or a separate one or why the Egyptian collection is now in the Neues Museum. There is lots of construction going on in the area so perhaps that meant it had to move.

After touring museums for hours and having lunch at one of their cafes, I am pretty tired. All the walking and stair climbing has left me with sore knees and tired feet. I haven’t walked this much in ages, and I am so out of shape. Philip has slowed down to my speed and helped me on the stairs and uneven walkways so I haven’t fallen. There were some close calls, but we have made it. The longest single walk was the one back from the tour yesterday. At lunch we both ordered sandwiches with ham and bacon. They came with chips and salsa, too. What a surprise to have salsa served in Germany. It tasted very similar to a mild, grocery-store style salsa and the chips were just like plain Doritos.

We took a few minutes to rest at the hotel then shopped some more. Philip saw two stores nearby where he wanted to spend more time. The clerk at the Karl Lagerfeld shop seemed determined not to make a sale to us. She mostly said, "This will not fit you." She didn’t have a dressing room to try on. Philip really liked a couple of the shirts and was ready to buy, but we got discouraged and went on to another shop. There the clerk was kind and helpful and made a pretty good sale from us by the time we left; Philip bought four shirts and a tie. It reminded me of that scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts has such a snooty, uppity salesperson at one store, then goes back a few days later showing off her purchases from another store. It felt pretty much like that.

We stopped by an enoteche for a taste of what they were pouring and sat on the sidewalk to enjoy it. Next, we had an early dinner at the Mark Brandenbug Restaurant. I finally ordered the right thing to get a taste of the long pale wurst that I have seen in several other places. It came on a plate of a trio of regional sausages with sauerkraut and mustard pickles. All of them were good.