Everyday Life in the Historic City

Guten Tag!
I am feeling very confident about my use of the U bahn--at least the two lines I use the most.  I know my way around the stations, I know which direction to go in (as in the Paris Metro you look for the sign showing the last stop in the direction of your desired stop), and I am getting good at working the ticket machines.  Today was hot, but I was in the mood for more history museums.
My first stop was the Markisches Museum, which offers a history of the city narrated by a personification of Berlin in an audio guide.  As I was given to understand there would be period rooms and reconstructed streets, I was somewhat disappointed. The concept is interesting.  The architect of the museum wanted to create rooms reflecting the period and exhibits.  There's an early Gothic/Romanesque hall, a guildhall, a late nineteenth century barbershop, and a few things of that sort.  The audio guide introduces the visitor to prominent and influential Berliners.  I did learn why there are paper mache looking bears here and there in the streets.  The bear is Berlin's spirit animal.  The strongest part of the museum to me was the account of the struggle to endure and rebuild after World War II.  In exchange for meal vouchers, thousands of women spent long days clearing the rubble from streets.  They took pride in their work.
People from my generation will understand the term "Care Package." Sure we expanded the meaning to any welcome gift of necessities, but back in the day impoverished Europeans depended on them for survival.  I remember hearing incessant anti Communist propaganda as a child, and commercials urged donations to help the starving and stave off Soviet domination.  One of the exhibits was an actual Care Package!  It was pretty basic stuff for the most part but did include some sugar and chocolate.
Then I went to the DDR Museum.  It's near Museum Insel and being easy to get to was also crowded.  I found the exhibits in this museum more satisfying and felt I got a sense of life in East Berlin and the constant tension felt by the government at their failure to even to keep up with the West let alone create that promised workers paradise.  They tried hard.  I'll give them that.  Many imitations of capitalist output were produced, but never in enough numbers to meet demands.  A waiting list of sixteen years might get the consumer a Trabant, an automobile subject to regular breakdowns and for which replacement parts were non existent.  Here is where I found period rooms, including a cell for the political dissident and a recreation of an interrogation room used by the secret police to root out those dissidents.
Since it's hot, I did not cook much.  I had some nuts and I hard cooked some eggs, which I'm having with aioli and some cheese.  I chose a beer from Bavaria that I liked--Paulener.  It's a weissbier, and I do not feel disloyal to Berlin in drinking it as beer from Bavaria is popular all over Germany.  Mmm.  It's tasty and refreshing--the perfect accompaniment to an improvised dinner.