Travelogue – This is art?

Wednesday, August 14

In addition to traveling with us Niece is also working on a business project. So this morning she declined our morning jaunt.

Brother and I took the tram to the apartment building I lived in 30 years ago. It is a tall tower near the Rhine River and I had a marvelous view from my 9th floor apartment that included the cathedral. Along the river is a path for walking a bicycling that is lined with trees. This setting was the best thing of my time living here.

We took the tram back downtown and walked past the cathedral …

… and over to the Philharmonie where I attended several concerts a month while living here. I explained that I almost always bought a Stehplatz, a standing place. Once the concert began I could slip into any empty seat. There was only once I actually had to stand, though several times I saw the length of the Stehplatz line and decided not to join it. Brother and I then walked around the building and up onto a plaza. I had lived there for quite a while before I realized that plaza was actually the roof of the concert hall.

We went back to the hotel to collect Niece. Then on to the Altemakt where we had lunch. From there we went to the pedestrian shopping district. Niece decided she wanted to shop for sandals (and was successful) while Brother and I went on to Neumarkt (which, alas, unlike Altemarkt, is a big empty plaza when it isn't Christmas). Brother pointed to a church on the far side of the plaza and said what's that? So we went to investigate. It was the St. Apostles church, built about 1645 and rebuilt after WWII. This is what is above the altar.

After meeting back up with Niece we went to Museum Ludwig, an art museum. We had only an hour to look around. That was more than enough time for Brother – this was modern art of the time around 1900-1950. Signs explained the different threads of art development (dadaism, expressionism, etc.). Brother declared he didn't like any of them. Why did artists stop making art that was beautiful? That got us into a spirited discussion and I offered parallels from the history of music.

When the museum closed we walked along the Rhine for a while, then had supper in the Altstadt, a row of old buildings along the river. We sat inside because it was a bit too chilly for outside.