Day 5

We had breakfast in a street café and then walked to Hackesche Hofe, traditional Berlin apartment buildings with famous 9 connected courtyards. Very eclectic – each one is different. Then to the Pergamon museum. Amazing collection of antiquities from Middle East from 2300BC to 200. Half of the museum is closed for renovation so it was actually quite pleasant and manageable to go through the collection. Their most famous pieces are from Mesopotamia and Babylon because it was the German archaeologists who got there first and secured them for the German museums. Then back to hotel for a mid-day break and then we took the subway to KaDeWe, which is the largest department store in continental Europe visited by 50,000 people each day. The food court is enormous and has every food imaginable. We settled for German followed by chocolates. Then we walked to the Bauhaus museum, and then walked back to the hotel for evening wine. We concluded the evening in the same Italian restaurant we ate in yesterday having pretty much the same meal --- a rack of lamb with veggies and potatoes + a side dish of eggplant, and a tiramisu for desert. It was a great meal.