Today John headed off for a technology museum and Fan, Ben and myself decided to get a Berlin tour bus to visit the ‘Staastlche’ Museum, one that Joy and Garry had visited and recommended. We checked that this museum would be on the Yellow Berlin Bus route and she gave us a kind of cryptic yes. As the first bus didn’t arrive until after 10am we went for a short walk around the area and found a very nice, quiet church. We boarded our city bus and then tried to use Google Maps to find this museum. Fran’s said to get off at Stop 3 and Ben’s said Stop 4. No problems, sit back and enjoy the sights.
We passed several cathedrals which were in different states of destruction/renovation. We also got to see both the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, as well as the Jewish Memorial. As we were going past the Tiergarten we heard from John that the tech museum was listed on Mondays.
We got off the bus at Stop 3 and went looking for our museum. And then found it, or kind of. You see, as we found out, the word ‘staatlche’ basically means ‘state’, so we had ended up at the STATE museum of contemporary art. NOT what we were looking for. We decided that we would forgo our museum hunting and instead hunt down a coffee shop. Much more civilised. Whilst here, we used their wifi to find that we were only 7 minutes away from The Spy Museum. Why not try that. As such we continued, with John texting me to let me know that there was no aeronautical museum in Berlin at all, and that Tom must have seen it outside of the city. The Spy Museum was fascinating, with a focus predominately on spying within Berlin, but a number of displays on the history of spying, from the ancient Egyptians through the ages to the present day. There was a story about the time of Cromwell, when he forbade one of his generals from seeing a lord who was imprisoned. The general went ahead and visited the lord, but took care that the cell was pitch black. Such was the efficiency of Cromwell’s spies that when the General came back he was asked if he had visited the lord. “I have not seen him”, was the reply to which Cromwell retorted, “Had the candle gone out?” Then again, the CIA ‘enhanced’ a cat by implanting microphones in its ears amongst other devices. The cost of the cat came to about $15million. The project was stopped when the cat ran onto the road and was run over by a taxi!
The end of the museum was dedicated to spy films, with a screen showing snippets from films. Ben and I sat there and managed to name all but one of the films, much to the amazement of Fran. Of course, being the ultimate spy film series, there was a whole section set aside for Bond.
We left the museum looking for a coffee shop along the way to Checkpoint Charlie. We didn’t find the coffee shop, but came across an Asian restaurant which was particularly awesome. All 3 of us finished the beef in lemongrass and galangal and then the rice and all of the veggies and salad. By this time, John had caught up with us and sugggested that there were spoons available on the table. After this there were three clean bowls on the table. Checkpoint Charlie was a joke. There was a mock-up of an American sentry box, complete with actor in a US uniform that you could go and pay to have a photo with. There were souvenir shops on every corner of the crossroads, and it was swamped with tourists. We decided just to skip it and continue to walk back to the hotel.