This winter's installment of one of the coolest city-wide events I've ever seen took our intrepid explorer to some amazing exhibits. In case you missed my blog about Lange Nacht der Museen (Long Night of the Museums), this event is a Berlin-wide event in which all of the city's museums (84 at last count) are not only open late, but for the price of one ticket, you can visit as many as you can in one night. A truly amazing way to experience the amazing cultural smorgasbord that is Berlin's museum scene.
This time, as I said above, took me to some amazing exhibits, though mostly with an animal theme. Regrettably scheduling difficulties got us on the road late, but our first stop was at the German Natural History Museum. I don't know if you gentle readers have ever made it as far as New York to see the American Natural History Museum, but Berlin's could certainly give it a run for its money.
The museums foyer consists of a giant vaulted hallway, in which 5 fully complete and full size dinosaurs are on display. I had quite the dinosaur fetish as a kid, and I must say it took me back to see Allosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and a relative of the stegasaurid family on display. (I still remembered the names! Amazing.) The museum did not disappoint after such a grand entrance, with fascinating exhibits on Earth Science, some neat and historical displays on mammals and fossils, and a fabulous multimedia planetary display. But for me, the real treat was the biodiversity and the Darwin exhibit. Now I'm not sure where you come down on the whole issue, but it was utterly fascinating to see facial reconstructions of all the hominid predecessors, as well as some helpful English displays to help Luddites such as myself understand what I was seeing. On top of that, realistic and often life size models of over 200 species illustrated the overwhelming degree of biodiversity on our planet. and as if that weren't enough, the museum had a bit of a behind-the-scenes display, with a very engaging (and discomfiting to boot) of how the museum makes the models of all of the animals, extinct to modern, from enormous to microscopic. (It really is quite something to see a house flea rendered as large as a small house cat.)
After touring the Natural History museum for what seemed like five minutes, we set out to discover the Berlin Zoo Aquarium. After some initial missteps in trying to locate it, eventually we arrived and set out to see some fishes. I'm not sure if it's because I've been spoiled by some great aquariums back home (Monterey, Chicago [Shedd], etc) but I was a little disappointed. To be fair, the aquarium took great pains to highlight endemic species and those threatened in N.Europe, but aside from a couple gorgeous Blacktips and Wobbegong, I came away less than satisfied.
At this point, we ran out of time, it being 1:30 in the morning. Though once again, Lange Nacht der Museen has proved to be one of the most fun things I've done here in Berlin. Maybe I'll make it for this coming summer's again!
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A museum night sounds amazing. I have always been a fan of museums but I never realized how much they can vary from location to location. For example, poorly kept and lacking information, the museums in Italy were terrible. I think I can better appreciate the art that is actually setting up a museum to be both entertaining and informational. Which is why I doubt your NY Natural History museum comment. ;)
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