Today started out sunny so we decided not to take umbrellas as we made our way to the Gemäldegalerie, a museum of old master paintings from the 13th to 18th centuries. This is a huge museum with more than we could see in one morning, so we counted on Rick Steves to guide us to the most important pieces. As we left the museum, we regretted our umbrella decision because the thunder crashed, and the lightning flashed, and we were soaked by the time we got back to the hotel.

After drying out a bit, we had an early dinner and then took a bus to the Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin, the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum. We had fun looking at this collection of old European instruments and comparing them to contemporary ones. Paul was itching to play some of them but the signage was clear that that was verboten.

There was no opera tonight, so we had booked tickets to hear our favorite orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker and we’re glad we did. The musical instrument museum is next to the concert hall so we didn’t have far to walk. The program tonight began with the premiere of a new work by Jörg Widmann, Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, featuring the principal hornist, Stefan Dohr. I found this piece strange but very amusing, and it certainly demonstrated the virtuosity of the French Horn player as well as this amazing orchestra. In the second half the orchestra played Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6. Our seats were just above the orchestra where we had a good view of tonight’s conductor, Sir Simon Rattle and it was a real treat. Paul is now convinced that we must hear this orchestra when they come to Boston or New York this year because we are now Berliner Phiharmoniker groupies.

When we returned to our hotel after the concert, we turned on the BBC channel to hear the news because we knew something big was happening in New York.

Tomorrow we will visit another museum and then attend the 6-hour long, third opera in the Ring, Siegfried.