A Museum City

A trip to Berlin is not complete without a day (or ten!) spent museum hopping. With more than 170 to choose from, and even more that are privately run, Berlin is home to some of the oldest, largest, best-preserved, and out-of-the-ordinary artifacts in the world.

Most renown is Berlin's Museum Insel...an island in the Spree River consisting of five museums. During Berlin's division the island lay on the East side of the city. Only recently has it reopened in full with the completion of Neues Museum in 2009 (destroyed in WWII). From the Nefertiti bust to papyrus, Neues Museum houses one of the most extensive Egyptian collections outside of Cairo.

While Neues Museum is sure to please, the crowned jewel of Museum Insel is the Pergamon Museum. Named for the full-sized Greek alter it houses, this museum makes ancient ruins and the stories they tell come to life...in life size! The first room you enter puts you up close and personal with the museums namesake. Found in present-day Turkey's ancient city of Pergamon, the altar spans almost 40 yards across and the front stairway can accommodate the multitudes of visitors who must climb up and through it for museum access. And if the first room does not inspire awe, the subsequent rooms will. From the grandiose Market Gate of Miletus to Babylon's colorful Ishtar Gate and Procession Way, the Pergamon Museum is "awe"some to say the least.

But even a wander off Museum Island will not disappoint. Gemaeldegalerie am Kulturforum houses such talents as Rubens, Raphael, and Rembrandt. And for music lovers, Berliner Philharmonie has some of the best acoustic in the world. There is even a Currywurst Museum which celebrates the best and "wurst" of Germany's most popular sausage.

For intellectuals, museum-nuts, and those merely looking to be entertaind, the museums of Berlin should not be missed.