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Mon, Jul 25, 2016, 6:35 AM
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What to do on a Sunday in Germany when all the stores are closed? Visit churches and museums of course!
We finally saw the inside of the beautiful catholic church beside us that is being renovated on the outside. It's called St. Peter and dates from the the 15th and 16th centuries. You wouldn't know it today, but the church was heavily damaged in WWII from fire bombs. It has been restored, and luckily, many of the valuable paintings and art were stored in the crypts for safekeeping.
It's a lovely red sandstone just like our Legislative Assembly building at Queen's Park. Took a bunch of photos then we walked to our local palace (now a museum) to see some art. Well, the price would be €30 in total and not worth the price to see 15 pieces of modern art in my opinion, but we took the free tram to the north of the city to see some modern art for free since I had coupons.
It was a huge building with only 10 works of students who had won scholarships for their art. Interesting. The one that stood out was a pitch black room save for a 6 ft circle of light on the floor in the middle of the room and a voice saying intermitteding, 'No thing' repetitively. Then, after 5 min. The circle of light faded away and we were in complete darkness and the voice said, 'Nothing!' Instead of No thing. ART!
Since we were in museum central so to speak, we walked through one of many gardens to the Museum Kuntspalace. They were having a special exhibit on an artist called, Jean Tinguely (1925-1991). He did a lot of sculptural art with found materials, just like Tante Magda, except his were mostly metal, and also mechanical because they moved. Really cool actually. Some were the size of 4 chalkboards! Very crowded there. In the other galleries, not so much. Thank goodness, most, but not all of the place was air conditioned...that's why I prefer to see the old masters because at least you have some air to take the humidity away.
I especially liked a whole exhibit of statues and paintings and icons all based on the Madonna with Jesus as a baby. It was really interesting to see such a varied and wide collection of the same genre in stone, wood, metal and paint from different centuries all in one area.
I also liked the Glass Museum, although by this time, Steven and Elowyn were showing serious signs of fading. Everytime we went into a different area, they looked for the nearest seat! I was intent on seeing it all though. There was great collection of glass from the Roman times, through medieval, renaissance, and beyond, up to modern artists. Some things were so delicate, you had to wonder how they survived, while others were so exquisitively lovely with their design and colour. Luckily, this museum let you take as many photos as you pleased...so I did!
Afterwards, I left to go outside to see Steven in a sling chair resting his feet on the round stone pool with a vigorous fountain shooting water in the middle. Many of those chairs were spread out along the fountain, filled with other tired people, who like us, who were all museumed out, so when two more chairs became available, Elowyn and I grabbed them and sunk down with gratitude. It was so comfortable and pleasant with the breeze and sound and slight mist of water that I started to doze, only to be woken by Elowyn complaining of being hungry and wanting to eat lunch, or I guess dinner at this point because we were close to 5 pm. I didn't want to leave though, that's how comfy I was, and begged for five more minutes.
Finally, I gave in and off we tread in the heat to Steven and Elowyn's favourite, 'the Schweiner Janus Restaurant' for the schnitzel and roasted pork hocks with crackling pork. It was in the Altstadt, (old city),so we walked for 20 min, only to find the patio completely filled, so we had to eat in the stuffy inside. I felt sorry for the guys tending to the spits of roasting pork. It smelled sooooo good, but it was really hot from the heat. We had beer and water and E and I had schnitzel while Steven had his usual pork hock. All delicious! They charged us a euro each for ketchup and mayo, and also the water. Nothing free here!
Of course, with a full stomach, I didn't feel like moving, but move we did, albeit slowly to an ice-cream parlour to share a dish. Popular flavours are hazelnut, walnut ( no visible nuts!), vanilla, chocolate and erdbeeren (strawberry). My fave is strawberry because it has bits of strawberry in it.
Then came the long walk back. E got tired of us and walked back faster alone. Steven walked to another street to check something out, and I walked to my favourite area near the palace with the ponds and Japanese bridges to feed the ducks, geese, and occasional pigeon. They came right up to me. One of my fave ducks caught each morsel in his mouth and waited patiently, so I gave him more. Lots of baby ducks and goslings too. The Canadian geese were bold and surrounded me. (How unCanadian of them!) one kept nipping at another one trying to get all the bread. I had a flash of thought that they'd soon be nipping me too with their sharp beaks!
I was the last to return to the hotel and a cool shower was in order. Elowyn has been going to the hotel gym for the last 4 days doing weights on the many machines and also jogging and running on the treadmill. She went again for 45 min. I had to send Steven up to get her as it was getting late. She says she LOVES it! She had me there too one evening. The only thing on TV while we were exercising was old Much Music type videos from the 80s from artists I've never heard of with questionable taste in esthetics. Yeah, they were so badly done, but like a car wreck, we could not turn away!
On average, we've been clocking over 8km a day in walking! We sleep well I must say, mostly from exhaustion!
Today, we get the key to the apartment and can start getting it ready to live in. I will measure the windows for curtains too and Steven already has E's bike in his car and will keep it there. I thought it more important to bring the fans first, but that's just me being practical.
Overcast today. E and I are taking it easy and I'll start to pack, so Steven can bring over one suitcase a day, so that on our last morning, Aug. 2nd, we won't have much to bring. That's the plan, anyway. Then, it's goodbye Dusseldorf, hello Ratingen. I think I will really miss this hotel life of having a gym, a maid, AC, and breakfast included, plus we're right in the city and close to it all.
One good thing is that I have an unlimited train pass, so I could be in the centre in 20 min which is great. The trains still do run on time here and their transportation system is A+.
Time to start packing!
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