Day 4 - Alte Galerie and Dom church, Philharmonie

We got up rather late and had the usual nice breakfast in the Radisson Blu. Rain was forecast. We took umbrellas and strolled across to Museums Insel. There was a long queue for the main art museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie.

We paid to visit the ImEx exhibition of Impressionist and Expressionist art of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was rather crowded but we managed to see all the works by Manet, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne and Kirchner, Liebermann, Macke and Munch. They were grouped into themes such as Bathers, Leisure, Relationships and Premonitions of War. We also made a quick visit to the rooms of Constable and Courbet.

The Berliner Dom church interior was rather ornate

We walked over Friedricksbruecke and found a place for lunch, Allegretto, where I had a salad and Richard had a ham and cheese breakfast. It was raining by now and we dived into the Dom church and saw the ornate altar, stained glass windows, pulpit and the crypt with historic tombs. Much of Berlin was destroyed during World War II and has been recently restored.

Back at the hotel our rest was interrupted by the cleaner so we had a coffee in the large bar. Many people visit the hotel foyer to see the huge blue aquarium above the atrium, which is cleaned by a diver daily.

Richard at the Philharmonie before the concert

We are going out soon after 5pm to go to the Philharmonie Berlin where Simon Rattle is conducting a concert with works by Brahms, Debussy and Enescu. We arrived early to see the concert hall and have a drink. We had very good seats up high behind the orchestra. In the first half, Christian Tetzlaff played solo violin in Brahms Violin Concerto and the augmented orchestra played works by Debussy and Enescu in the second half. There was prolonged applause. Then Sir Simon paid tribute to flautist Andreas Blau who was retiring.

After the concert there were encores and applause

Afterwards we walked towards Potsdamerplatz and got seats at Billy Wilder bar for beers and nachos. A very nice evening.