Little Escap(ad)e: Freising, Germany

 ow long it has been since I used this particular category for a blog post! Almost six years, and reasons must have been the epidemic, for one thing, and work. (Although I now think I could have put the excursion to Paris with my son in there, as well, when we went to see l'Arc de Triomphe Wrapped. I didn't think of that then.)

Now we are living in a new place that is still a bit foreign to us, and I felt the need to get out, see a friend, taste a bit of the world. Last Saturday I wanted to go to Freising and took the train. Deutsche Bahn unfortunately being what it is right now, the train I had planned on was canceled. Instead of waiting around in a cold and drafty station for over an hour for the next one, I hopped onto another which brought me to Nuremberg. That had not been on my schedule, but gave me an opportunity to make a small detour when changing trains, as I had been wanting to take a look at the oldest globe model, the Behaim Globe, on display at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. 

 

Which I may want to use as inspiration for a quilt I am thinking about. It turned out that the globe’s colors are so faded that the digital presentation, which has been color enhanced, enlarged, and turned into an interactive display, is more attractive to look at than the globe itself. But it gave me enough material to keep contemplating the idea.

As I still had time before I wanted to catch the next train, I tried to make my way towards the world-famous Christkindlmarkt, which I had never been to before. That was not a particularly good idea, on a Saturday, and around midday. I didn’t stay long! Travel to Freising was uneventful, and I was met at the station by my friend Barbara, before we proceeded to her quilt group’s exhibition in the Medieval Prison. (I have written about events in this location before on my German blog and here. )

I loved their exhibition, but somehow didn’t take any photos – perhaps I was too excited about seeing all the group members again after sometimes several years? Barbara and I then spent a leisurely evening at a restaurant, catching up on all that has been going on. It was very good to be talking to a friend and be allowed to vent about the entire year and all its miseries.

Next morning I wanted to – and did – visit the Diözesanmuseum on cathedral hill. However, the one exhibit that I came for specifially, namely the ‘Chapel for Luke and his scribe Lucius the Cyrene’ by James Turrell is only open for rather limited periods during visiting hours.  Which I had not researched properly beforehand – I arrived 20 minutes after the morning period ended and would have had to wait for more than two hours if I wanted to catch the afternoon period. My train home was leaving before that, so I decided to just go with the glimpses of the changes of light colors I could see through the passageway that leads into the installation. 

 

 These photos were taken within only a few minutes, and it gave a small impression of how special it must be to look at these changes when you are in the center of the rooms.

That makes for a good excuse to go to Freising again, soon, with a bit of better planning.