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.

Little escap(ad)e: Frankfurt with my family

In the end of October my family took a three-day-outing to Frankfurt. We had wanted to go to Berlin originally, but since the Berlin Basketball team did not have a home game that weekend and a visit to a game was a precondition for the trip (for the 14-yr-old), we ended up in Frankfurt.

It was much colder when we arrived than had been predicted, and it rained, which had not been predicted either, I was absolutely not prepared for this, and so the first thing we did was buy an umbrella. 

Not that we don’t have an abundance of umbrellas at home, but it was cheaper to buy an umbrella than to buy yet another rain jacket. Of which I have a few more at home than one actually needs, too, and I am determined not to buy any more rain jackets in the next 20 years. Or unless all the ones I have already have been worn out.

Anyway – I had said I wanted to go see the Paulskirche, (link in English here) one of THE important places in context of the beginnings of a process of German unification (the Parliament of the Paulskirche in 1848, which led to the foundation of a German unified state in 1871) and which I had never been to before. On the first afternoon we stood in front of closed doors because the site was not open on November 1, but when we went in the next day (mildly coaxing a slightly less than interested 14-year-old) it turned out to be quite a disappointment. I could not believe the shabbiness of the presentations, the outdatedness of the whole appearance and could not blame my son for not developing a lot more interest for the site than he had shown before the visit. 

View of the conference hall today - nothing like what it used to look like
when the 1848 parliament was in session.

With all the broohaw going on these days about 30 years of German Re-unification and how happy are we that this took place (brushing over the many problems we have nowadays which arise from the mis-conducted annexation that it really was) I was appalled that there had not been put any seriouis thought into updating the presentation at this particular site.In terms of the importance in the development of German history this place is probably more important than the Wall. But the events along the Wall of course bear much more drama.

This is what Paulskirche looked like right after WWII.

My husband and I also went to the Museum of Communication, which used to be the Musem of the Postal Service. They still have a bit of that connection in their display of the evolution of mail boxes from different ages. It made me think about how much our mode of communication has changed over the years. I still like to write letters, and to receive them. But how many people actually still do write letters? And how often does one receive a letter in comparison to bills? And how often do we communicate digitally in comparison...?

On presentation a small display on spinning.

 

And a rather techonological section where artworks were being created by the visitors as they were moving and these movements were being caught by cameras and then transformed into changing arrangements of small wooden slabs or shadow dancers or creepy figures. Couldn't be captured well in a picture and unfortunately I don't seem to be able to upload the small video from my cell phone, so you just have to take my word for it.

They also had a fun art exhibit standing around: a herd of sheep made from the cables that used to connect the receiver to the phones, way back then when phones were still cabled and not mobile or smart.

Including a black sheep, outside the fence. 

That made me think a lot about that saying about a black sheep of the family. How many people are out there who for whatever reason have been marked as that black sheep of a family, and what kind of interactions that may have caused, the wounds it may have wrought, and yet that would not have been necessary because there is no ‘normal’ anyway and do we really all need to be looking (and acting) the same…?

P.S. I wrote most of this post four weeks ago on my way back from Friedrichshafen on the train. And then just never got around to posting. And have been writing posts in my head, probably four or five of them, and yet. Work was busy, creativity a bit on the reduced side (mainly knitting) and November is just not one of my good months anyway. Hoping I will get back into the swing soon.

Little escap(ad)e: "No Rules, Just Jeans."

After the end of my vacation I had two extremely difficult weeks in school. 

I started the training last year I was expecting strange experiences, being almost of grandmother age to some of my class mates, older than all the teachers, and higher educated already than any of them. But I figured I would stick it through with a view to the end goal, a diploma that would give me a secure job for the rest of my working life. Perhaps I am not mature enough, but these first two weeks of school after vacation tested every single strand of strength I have in me. I had not expected this training, and especially the school part, so emotionally difficult for me as it has been. I had a very very hard time enduring the still pubertarian sets of mind of some of the class mates, I have suffered in class session with poorly prepared teaching and a dulling method of dripping terms to be taken down in a text with prepared blanks which makes ‘learning’ almost impossible because nothing is self-acquired, everything is geared toward ‘learn by heart’ rather than ‘understand’. But most challenging has been the fact that I feel as if I am being treated like a child by these teachers, having to conform to a school regime which I find highly questionable. Not a good situation to be in. I was very close to dropping out twice, but am biting my tongue and hoping that some miracle will happen, patience and ease of mind will rain down from the heavens and I will find a way to push through.

In the middle of this particularly challenging stretch I had the fun of traveling with Barbara Lange to the opening of “No Rules, Just Jeans”. 

Barbara is the current Chair of the German Patchwork Guild, a wonderful quilt artist with a streak of creativity to her that has always kept me at awe. And she is always good for cheering someone up because there are so many things to laugh about when she is around, even when they might be serious indeed, that it was the best medicine to go about with her.

This exhibition, a challenge for German Guild members who had to sign up and received a small package the items in which had to be included in the quilts, is now showing at that Levis Museum in Buttenheim, which is located in Levis Strauss’ birthplace. 

We traveled by train, chattin along the way and stitching, too. When walking from the station to the museum, and thinking how much we assumed the look of the place had improved since the 1840s we still understood why Mr Strauss had emigrated…

The museum is (partly) funded by the company that sells the jeans, 

and it includes a photo of the house how it looked before the museum was established.

And it gives quite a bit of information on the evolution of that piece of clothing now so everpresent all over the world. For example, we learned that the idea for those little metal studs which have made apparel history was not Mr Strauss’ idea. But he was smart enough to grasp the opportunity when Mr Davis approached him to finance the patent and use that as the foundation for his company. 

The German Guild’s quilts made from Denim and some patches to sew on is an exhibition well worth a visit, and the presentation in the museum is fantastic. 

So should you be in the area before the end of January, go and have a look. Bamberg and Bayreuth and Nuremberg are close by for other places of interest, because Buttenheim doesn’t have much more on offer than this little jewel of a museum.