Remember the movie Phantasm? Where the characters walk into a dreary, corpse laden yet hospital clean mortuary? That's my experience in Berlin's famed Museums.

Pergamonmuseum: I read in Time Out Berlin, it's the place to be so okay, I gave it a try. Thats €10 down the drain. Although a bit of a archeology buff myself and seeing some of the stuff I learned in school, the atmosphere of the place and the display of some of these well... displays are quite dreadful. Dreadful is the word, yes. The tags next to each art piece adding to that the disgusting fluorescent light that goes through the place, I feel like I'm in an autopsy room with a hint of green. Also to add to that, I realize Germans and their relation to modern art, but at the archeology museum, the whole second floor is overtaken by modern art, which is okay but art by ONE artist alone, an artist that specializes in honey combed aluminum? Sweet freaking Christ! I got out of there quick.

Deutsches Museum: The good thing about this place is that there's people in here... Well, a tad better than Pergomon, it showcases the history of this country from middle ages through WW2 and beyond. Very informative in some parts, yet kinda lacks in the medieval section which I understand I guess. The WW2 section really catches your attention as it does deal with Berlin in a very personal matter I bet. But all and all, it was a satisfactory visit.

Included in the entry fee of Euro 4 is an audio set available in several languages. The audio guide is very good and leads you through the exhibitions providing sufficient general information without becoming overbearing. More detailed information can be requested for most displays should they really tickle your interest.

The star exhibition is the Pergamon Altar, a Greek construction with beautiful freezes that dates from the second century BC. The remains of this ancient building were shipped to Germany at the end of the nineteenth century during a period which German archeologists were very active. In contrast to the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, some of the pillars came with and the display is build up so you can climb the decidedly modern stairs and see how it was presented originally.

In an adjacent room towers the Market Gate from Miletus. It is the façade of a market from a Roman town in Asia Minor and is more than 16 m high. Original date of construction is estimated to be about a century BC.

Passing through this gate you enter what is if not the most beautiful definitely the most colorful of the major displays – the Ishtar Gate. This gate from Babylon dates from the sixth century BC and gives the Pergamon Altar strong competition for star of the show. The glazed tiles, mostly in blue, are in astonishingly good condition given the age. Large pieces from the Processional Way leading up to the Ishtar Gate decorate both sides of the passage.

The displays of Islamic art on the second floor are smaller but no less interesting. The façade of the Mshatta Palace in Jordan, eight century BC, fills a room while another displays the inside of a seventeenth century paneled room of a rich merchant in Syria. Also of interest is a large world map from India – the audio guide is necessary to make much sense of it from a modern viewpoint.

On the ground floor are several more rooms with statues and mosaics, mainly from Greek and Roman times, but they have a hard time competing with the splendor of the larger exhibitions.

The museum is open Tuesday – Sunday 10 am to 6 pm (Thursdays until 10 pm).