Being a tourist

This is the first post this week--Richard was visiting, and I have been balancing my work with some activities as tour guide (I've actually done very little sight-seeing this time, at least of the conventional type!). We also went out on 5 out of 6 nights!

On Sunday we went to the Alte Nationalgalerie. I confess that I wasn't so enthusiastic about a museum devoted to 19th-century German art, but I ended up liking it more than I had anticipated. Here are some music-related things I saw:

1. Liszt & friends (the piano in this painting is now at the Musical Instrument Museum in Berlin!)















2. Wagner looking even uglier than usual. Is that a pearl necklace he's wearing??




















On Tuesday we went to the suburb of Potsdam, where various emperors named Friedrich and Friedrich Wilhelm invested tons of money in excessive displays of wealth. The main attraction is "Sans Souci," built by the nelly flute-playing emperor Friedrich der Grosse. It's a HUGE park containing several palaces. Some photos:

1. Detail of palace exterior:




















2. The "New Palace," built later in the 18th century:



















3. Posing in front of various phallic symbols: