One thing I never got to do on my first trip to Berlin was to check out the museums. It now seemed like I was making up for lost opportunity by going to three this time around. The first was the DDR Museum that showed us life, mainly in East Germany, before the wall came down, which to be honest was spartan but not as bad as other parts of the world at that time.

The second was the Altes Museum, which had Roman, Greek, and Etruscan art – most likely stolen – mainly because I was under the impression that the famous Nefertiti bust was found there. After touring all of its two floors, we unfortunately couldn’t find it and discovered it was next door at the Neues Museum. We easily got into that one but again unfortunately for whatever reason were forbidden from taking photos of its most famous resident. If the world’s most famous painting found in the Louvre can be photographed, why not Nefertiti you say? Who knows. The Neues Museum interiors and large collection of Egyptian art were exceptional though also like the Altes, most likely stolen from the source, and as with other antiquity museums left me feeling ambivalent afterwards. I sure hope Egypt is okay with this – maybe they can at least lobby to have this nonsense no photography rule lifted.