Berlin some more

Yesterday morning I set out to the Art and Nostalgia Fair and discovered a couple of other flohmarkts along the way. Lots of rubbish, but lots of bulky junk I would have loved to take home (antique aviators goggles, etc.) and loads of colourful beautifully-bound books I wish I could read. I headed for the Guggenheim but discovered that for some stupid reason they're closed for two months, between exhibitions. Two months! Fortunately they've employed someone to stand at the front door and personally disappoint tourists with the fact. I caught the U-Bahn out to Potsdamer Platz and walked around to the Kulturforum, where I discovered that the New National Gallery is also closed for a couple of weeks, between exhibitions. What happened to German efficiency? Or maybe each exhibition is so spectacularly different to the last that it takes up to two months to shift things around...? Stupid. Fortunately the Gemaldegalerie is also in the Kulturforum, and it was open. In fact, "Kinderfest" was underway, so the complex was overrun with little kids in painting smocks involved in all sorts of crafty activities, led by adults who were dressed as devils and angels. It looked like a lot of fun. And the gallery had an amazing collection of European art, including some of those crazy 16th century triptychs... Last night I walked out to that big gold angel at the other end of the Tiergarten. It was a longer walk than I expected but I took a less direct route back for variety's sake. It led me down a very quiet and dark path, with trees close on either side and fog across the road, rabbits on the footpath. So I was feeling lost for about half an hour before the Reichstag came into view. This morning I went East to see the longest remaining stretch of Wall, 1.3km still standing beside the river, covered in graffiti old and new. I recognised someone from the hostel on the way so I said hi and walked along with this young lad from London who was able to educate me a bit. Afterward, he went to climb the TV Tower and I went to see "Topography of Terror" - a very intriguing name for what is essentially the rubble from the SS/Gestapo headquarters. There's a lot of reading material there for tourists but nothing much to see. A film crew of tall black Americans were spread out over the site, working on some sort of inspirational feature... I overheard the made-for-TV soundbyte "it really makes you appreciate life". But I guess it does... The history seems so immediate in Berlin. Tonight I went to the Jewish Museum, which is an incredible building with sloping narrow hallways, diagonal slit windows, and a bit of a Kafkaesque feel to it.  If you follow the map you read a lot about Judaism, Jewish life and the persecution of Jews throughout the ages, but the most interesting feature I thought was the Holocaust Tower. It's a tall column of a room that you enter which is unlighted, unheated, and open to the outside. So you step into complete darkness, and all you can hear is the distant street noise above you - supposed to evoke the terror and disorientation of the Holocaust. It's effective. Tomorrow I take a guided tour to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp North of Berlin.