As the last review of the Museuminsel is 7 years old, it can use an update – especially since the surrounding, revamped cityscape now is more or less ‘finished’. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean it’s the end of seeing cranes on the horizon, as the Pergamon Museum is currently being renovated.

I started my revisit with an early morning walk through the neighborhood, taking in all the monuments on the Spreeinsel. Often it is better to walk on the opposite side of the river to get better views. The Altes Museum I still find the most impressive one architecturally, the others are neo(classical/baroque)-on-steroids. The whole area now resembles a monumental heart that fits a capital city, although it is somewhat devoid of 'normal' life.

For the obligatory museum visit, I chose the Neues Museum. This is the most recent to have fully reopened to the public (2009). I had booked a time slot for the opening hour of 10 a.m., but it wasn’t busy at all. I entered via the new James Simon Galerie, the 2019 addition designed by Pritzker Prize winner David Chipperfield (he also was responsible for the reconstruction of the ‘old’ museum). Seen from the outside I think the modern part integrates well with the (reconstructed) old architecture. The interior however is just a big hall meant to create some extra space which they don’t use well. Currently you can view a very poor exhibition on Uzbekistan – when I wandered in I wondered whether it was open at all. You can get into the Neues Museum either this way or via the old entrance, but the latter seems the better option as I had to walk in the wrong direction, my ticket was checked twice and the audioguides were handed out at the other side.

The Neues Museum was damaged the worst of the five Museum Island-museums during WWII. It housed (and houses) collections from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. The original museum covered Ancient Prussia as well (to show they were at least at the same level), but that has now been left out except for a few bits and pieces from Xanten and Charlemagne. Its interior decoration fitted the exhibits – so the Egyptian objects were displayed in an Egyptian setting and the Ancient Roman ones were among Roman columns. Wherever this was still present, the restoration has tried to preserve it. On the lower floors, this isn’t very visible and you wonder what the fuzz is about. But that improves later on at the higher floors and there are some splendidly decorated halls.

After my previous visit, I gave the Museuminsel 3 stars and I will keep it at that. The rates overall for this site vary a lot – I can see that it does not appeal to the younger crowd as it reflects the ‘old’ way of doing museums. Later in the day I also went to the Humboldt Forum across the street, which now houses Berlin’s ethnological and Asian collections. This is very much a modern museum, where the building doesn’t distract from the contents and the exhibits are put into context instead of showing them all like in a warehouse.