Had a friend from the States visiting this weekend, and got out to a couple of museums for the free Thursday museum nights. The Pergamon museum showcases architectural antiquities – here’s Dawn sitting on the steps of the enormous Altar of Zeus, which is not exactly the sort of thing you expect to find in North-Eastern Germany. 19th century archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann dug it up in Turkey and sent it home for re-assembly… rather makes you wonder how much the Turkish people would like to get it back! It does still have that sort of tingle old temples give me, but I kept wishing they’d paint the walls with murals of what the land would have looked like in Greek times; temples like this tended to be sited over very picturesque views.

I may have gotten spoiled by visiting the temples at Dougga, in Tunisia, though; they’re mostly intact and the wind was blowing over the hills and ancient olive groves when I visited, and the sheer beauty of the site made me feel as if light was bursting out through my skin every second I was there.