A light day today, not feeling great with cold. Pared down to 2 events.
I had booked to see “the Dome” at the Reichstag this morning, followed by what I hoped would be a lovely brekky at the Kafer Berlin restaurant on the roof terrace. Teemed down with rain and a howling wind! Great! Brolly inverted at least 4 times with the squall. Got water on the camera lens. Arggh! Gave up trying to take arty photo shots.
The Reichstag (Renaissance/Baroque Revival architecture), opened in 1894, was designed to house the German parliament, and did so until 1933, when it was severely damaged by fire. After WW2, it was left vacant, with both the West and East German governments choosing other venues. Full reconstruction began in 1990 after German reunification, under Norman Foster and again became the meeting place of the German Parliament in 1999.
The glass dome, which has immediately become the landmark of the Reichstag/Bundestag, glitters at night. In its technical function, the dome, which is made possible by a funnel-shaped light deflection element with 360 mirrors, brings additional daylight into the plenary chamber. Conversely, the funnel, which reaches into the plenum, transports the exhaust air of the room up into the open. 
Lovely roof top restaurant in which I had brekky, mu
shroom omlette with dill sauce.
Took a taxi tonight to the Berlin Philharmonic complex to hear Filarmonica della Scala from Milan, playing Brahms’ 3 movement, Concerto for Violin, D Major, op.77, first premiered in 1879 in Leipzig. Leonidas Kavakos is a Greek violinist and conductor. As a violinist, he has won prizes at several international violin competitions, including the Sibelius, Paganini, and Indianapolis competitions. He’s been a guest conductor for both the London and Boston Philharmonic orchestras. And guess what…he was the violin maestro tonight. Amazing to listen to him and the audience went wild after his playing of the first 3 movements. I think it was 6 bows later, he went off for a 15 min break with the conductor (Riccardo Chailly) and orchestra. Truly appreciated being able to watch him. 
And unfortunately I had to go at interval, I was struggling to suppress my cough despite drugs – didn’t want to splurt a cough in the midst of a Verdi overture….
The Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork is the largest medieval brick fortress in the world measured by land area.
d 1190 to aid Christians in the Holy Land and in the Baltics in the Middle Ages, and to establish hospitals. “To help, defend and heal”was their motto.
Poles and Germans have fought wars for centuries but the origins of Malbork castle display a rare example of their military cooperation – albeit one that backfired. In this case, a 13thC Polish prince, Konrad Mazowiecki, asked the Knights to help his soldiers defeat the Prussians, a Baltic people who blocked Poles access to the sea. The Knights moved their headquarters out of Venice and set out to convert or kill thousands of Prussians. By the early 14thC they were ruling their own expanding state from Malbork, fighting both the Prussians and Poles who finally defeated them at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410.
To explore the whole site inside and outside would take days…I had time to experience the large high square castle within the ramparts – comprising meeting halls, huge wooden doors on draw bridges, cloisters, refectory, sleeping quarters, chapel, rose garden – different levels of the castle being linked by internal steep and somewhat hidden stone and wooden staircases, quite a rabbit warren. But ably guided around by my GPS enabled audio guide that switched its description depending on the passageway or room I entered. Amazing technology.
“The Man Crossing the River” sculpture by Jerzy Kedziora is fantastic – unveiled in 2004 to commemorate the Polish entry into the EU.
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