The morning started later than planned after a relaxed breakfast in a cafe around the corner from Nollendorfstraße . Today we had a plan and it was a visit to the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) on Museum Island. We caught the Ubahn and have now become experts on the Ubahn just as we are leaving the city.

A word of explanation about the galleries on Museum Island. Museum Island is the name of the northern half of an island in the Spree River in the central Mitte district of Berlin. It is so called for the complex of internationally significant museums with sometime contrary names:

• The Old National Gallery is a gallery showing a collection of Neoclassical, Romantic, Biedermeier, Impressionist and early Modernist artwork
• The Old Museum holds classical antiquities;
• The New Museum shows Egyptian antiquities and early pre-history
• The Bode Museum late antiquities and Byzantine art.
• The Pergamon Museum,historically significant buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.

So the new museum has old stuff and the old gallery has newer stuff. The gallery was enormous with over thousand painting from 18th to early 20th century. It is well laid out in a purpose built building with many small galleries. When we were here a month ago we didn't contemplate entering due to the length of the crowds and the long wait to get in. Greg looked for a work by his favourite artist Turner, but there were no Turner painting although the artist travelled through Germany many times.

The artist Adolph von Menzel must have been "the thing" in late 19th century Berlin as he was the most popular artist there. Greg discovered the artist Arnold Böcklin (1827 -1901) and he was very taken by this humorous and skilful artist and wanted to find out more about him. Greg is always attracted to someone a bit different. The staff were officious and were speaking animatedly to Greg about his bag, luckily there was another patron who explained that bag needed to be worn in the front, for reasons that were hard to establish. The Chinese visitors were even more bewildered thinking they had to take their coats off; nevertheless we had a wonderful timeI in spacious uncrowded gallery with plenty of seats to contemplate the works on display.

One painting, Greg noted, showed a Greek temple being built with technology that would not have been invented in Ancient Greece. Naked Greek men where shown pulling huge stones into place using a rack and geared wheel. I was more concerned of the WHS impact, no hi-vis vest and naked men are is not a safe working environment.

In the Impressionist collection there were many Renoir's, Manet's, Monet's and Pissaro's.

We spent three hours in the gallery and finished in the cafe for the strongest coffee we've encountered in our European tour.

Not knowing how the traffic in Berlin would be on Sunday evening we decided to leave earlier than planned and headed to the airport thinking we could sit in the lounge and contemplate the day. Our plans, however, came to a crushing blow when the checkin wasn't open so we had an hour wait. Now I come to my previous statement about Tegel. There was not a chair in sight to wait for checkin. It's design means that people are funnelled down narrow corridors so there are bottlenecks everywhere.

Now in the British Airways lounge and the only food on offer: gherkins, cheese and crackers, but worst of all no champagne, can you believe it! Don't worry this will all be remedied when we are on board.

I'll update you from Doha.