Grown-up things, kids-things, Berlin has it all

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The one thing on my plan for today was the Helmut Newton Foundation and Museum of Photography (Museum für Fotografie Helmut Newton Stiftung). I am a huge Helmut Newton fan, and photography fan in general, so I was not missing it on our trip to Berlin. Despite the fact it is open until 22.00 on Thursdays I decided we would go there first thing in the morning so even if the rest of the day all got too hard, we could make it happen.

And I am so glad we did – it is a fantastic collection in a fantastic gallery. The first floor is dedicated to Newton and has many personal artefacts as well as photographs he took, and photographs of him. The second floor houses special exhibitions, which at the moment is an exhibition of work by Newton’s wife June Newton who worked under the name Alice Springs (yes, she was an Australian). There is also a small room on that floor called ‘June’s Room’ which shows her work. The third floor hosts general photography exhibitions and at the moment it is a collection of historical photography of architecture from around the world, all of it from National Museums in Berlin.

Now a gallery of photography by someone famous for his bold and strong (and often disturbing) nudes might not be your family’s kind of thing, but Willem had a great time, and told me it was one of the best places we had been so far. He liked walking around trying to figure out who the people in the photographs were, where they came from and their relationship to each other; and he happily made up stories about them and told me. He was also very interested in Helmut Newton and happily sat watching a video about his work. If nudity is something that offends you, the Helmut Newton foundation is not for you, but if you want to see some of the great portrait and fashion photography of the last fifty years, make sure you visit. The gallery is just across the road from Zoo Station so very easy to get to.

from Wikimedia Commons

Once we finally left the gallery we walked to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Destroyed during the Second World War, the damaged tower was allowed to stand as a memorial, and a new modern church was built alongside it. The old church now contains information on the history of the church, but what people go to see are the beautiful mosaics on the walls, ceiling and floors. The new church is also well worth a visit for the glorious stained glass. While not much to look at from the outside, the inside is a magical twilight in blue glass, dotted with panels of different colour. Willem explained it as feeling as though you were looking at the world, only you were on the inside and it was all around you, folding in on itself. I think that is a pretty good description!

Or we could have just hung around the toy department of Ka De We all afternoon ...

We headed further down the street in the direction of Ka De We, and came across the Lego shop. If only I had known about this place before our trip to Legoland on Monday! The shop is on various levels, an includes things like lego clothing if you are so inclined. There are computers set up to play all the lego games you get on the website, and ample opportunities to play with various types of lego. Best of all, you can book the kids in for an hour of ‘lego training’. So I put Willem’s name down, and for €10 he had an hour of learning how to make some lego constructions that used gears for movement, with a certificate at the end. It just so happened that no-one else was booked in so he had one-on-one instruction. Frankly a much better deal than Legoland AND I could leave him there and go and do something else! A win all round!

Before that however, we had time to fill so we kept heading in the direction of Ka De We. This is an ultra-luxurious department store that has so much stuff in it makes me feel rather ill, but I wanted to take Willem to the top floor Wintergarden to look out over the city and have a treat. Australians, imagine David Jones in Sydney, including the foodhall, and double it both in terms of what is available and general luxuriousness, and you are starting to approach the level of Ka De We. While he ate his desert and I drank my glass of bubbly, Willem pointed out the landmarks we had seen on an earlier bus tour and we had a general chat about what to do next. We shared our table with a delightful woman who was visiting from Munich, in Berlin to see her youngest grandchild. After our civilized break we left so Willem could do some ‘lego training’ and I could wander aimlessly for an hour. Having just bagged Ka De We for its excess, I will admit half of that hour was spent in Ka De We, but if there is one thing to be said for it is you can usually find what you are looking for (at a price of course!)

After the Lego shop I had planned to continue to make use of our museum pass, but Willem just wanted to go ‘home’. And when Willem is turning down a chance to see a Natural History Museum, you know he is serious. So it was an early return and a bit of rest in preparation for a busy few days ahead.