above the inclined plane

We spent hours this afternoon at Berlin's Jewish Museum. I don't think the impact of architecture has ever brought me almost to tears so easily. Yes, the city and the nature of the collection has set the visitor up for it, but I had not yet gotten beyond the ramps inside Daniel Libeskind's masterpiece when I had to stop and catch my breath.

I had expected much, but I was given more.

groom and groom seated inside the Neuer Salon of the Berlin Mitte Standesamt this afternoon.

Dan and Adrian confront the Beamte

Laurence was invited by the presiding official to go with his camera anywhere he wished. He did.

It was the funniest wedding I've ever been to.

Dan said it certainly must be the most documented. Everyone had a camera and half of those were in video mode. One hour later, at the lunch following the ceremony, Laurence presented each of the grooms with a CD including hundreds of his raw stills alone. I think the presentation itself was documented.

We enjoyed the day in the company of wonderful people in a wondrous mood in a wonder of a city. Tonight we wish them all good fortune.

walls of our borrowed apartment, in a 1929 Hans Poelzig building, disappear near the ceiling

inside Der ehemaliges Palast der Republik, a small carnival on the Platz outside

the streets below are even more cool

This noble old building lies directly west across the Spree from Museum Island, in the midst of the most heavily touristed part of Berlin. It still shows the scars of the battle for the city after sixty years.

Just steps away from it to the south, another veteran of the war has been totally repaired and restored. The many holes left by large and small-arms fire exchanged in April and May of 1945 have been filled by stone cosmeticians, who have painstakingly simulated the subtle textures of the original rusticated stone on the surfaces of their plugs. See the image below, taken hours later than that above, as we left the Pergamon Museum in l'heur bleu.

seen from the Strassenbahn haltestelle across from our apartment

celebrating [whatever] near the Fernsehturm tonight

the new East Berlin

youth dallying at the schnell Imbiss, age rushing on