Dusseldorf - Schloss Benrath

Dusseldorf

I’ve been to Dusseldorf probably 5 or 6 times in the last 20 years but Sunday was the first time I had the opportunity to walk along the Rhine during the day. Being a Sunday, there were plenty of folks out and about, enjoying the marvellous weather and sipping a coffee, a beer or a cocktail, depending on the mood.

This photo seems to capture the moment so well; a busker playing his piano (I hope he has a reasonable road crew!) with a crowd simply listening, watching the river flow past. The river being something of a simile for life on this pleasant Sunday morning; calm but still inexorably flowing along.

I hiked along the river front and then ducked back into the Aldstadt and came across zum Schiffchen (literally translated as ‘The Small Boat’) has been in operation for almost 400 years.

The part I like most is ‘Napoleon’s Corner’; so called as Napoleon and his general staff are known to have celebrated with beers after a victory parade through the streets of Dusseldorf back in 1811. You can’t buy that sort of history!

The Dusseldorf Altstadt was a curious mix of people; students filming and photographing themselves outside of the Art Museum; well dressed, middle aged folks just leaving their early morning church services; tourists (I heard accents from France, the US, Australia as well as Germany) swarming through the streets. All of us seemed to spend some time in Königsallee.  Königsallee is the heart of the expensive shopping district in Dusseldorf; but of course, being Sunday, none of the stores are open so most of us happily admired the fountains along the moat in the centre of Königsallee. In this picture you can see the Triton Fountain; quite breath taking and spectacular in its image.

Schloss Benrath

From downtown Dusseldorf I caught the 74 tram (about 25 minutes travel time) to Schloss Benrath. One thing Germany does spectacularly well is to preserve its monuments and palaces; Schloss Benrath is no exception. This view across the lake captures the scale of this wonderful palace built between 1755 and 1770.

There are tours through the palace complex but they are conducted in German and it was such a nice day that I felt like staying out in the fresh air. And am I glad I did! Not only do the Germans maintain these sorts of buildings well but they also manage the gardens and grounds beautifully. This image is taken from the rear of the central palace building and gives you some idea of the scope and beauty of the grounds.

I'm not sure that the pictures will be able to justice to the magnificence of the gardens that surround the palace. The brutality of winter is forgotten as the trees and undergrowth are now fully green; overflowing with green; a verdancy that seems to defy belief. Perhaps the green of the forest is brighter due to the brightness of the sun against such a blue sky. What a day! Warm to hot but with a breeze so cooling that it dissipates the heat to a pleasant warmth.

The foliage now so heavy that the trees screen off various corners of the park. I can hear kids laughing and playing in a clearing behind one copse of trees nearby. Interestingly, little kids seem to laugh and play in a universal language. Listening to them, these kids could be in Australia or China or the US; the universality of happy kids at play.

The only plants in flower are the rhododendrons like this one in the picture; the only colour is purple but their size would seem to be as large as any I’ve seen in the wilds of Silvan or Olinda back in my home state of Victoria.

There's something fun about watching grown men sail their remote control boats on the lake in front of the palace. The powered boats seem to fly across the water; these landlocked sailors happy to demonstrate their skills to their peers and anyone walking by. But the sail boat draws my attention. The captain of this craft seems to make adjustments only occasionally but the boat seems to just sail along on its course. Hardly interactive for the sailor but most conducive to a relaxing Sunday afternoon for we spectators.

By the way, the picture with the duck may seem a little incongruous. But the bird is remote controlled too!

I liked being here; just a pleasant day in the sunshine. Maybe subliminally I decided not to do the palace tour so I’d have an excuse to come back and enjoy this wonderful place another time. Another lovely Sunday in this intriguing place.

Chicago

This week’s letter from Bonn comes from Chicago. After a fairly extensive week of travel, it’s been nice to spend some downtime here in Chicago; especially when the weather is warm and sunny.
The only drawback is that this weekend happens to be the NATO meeting here in the Windy City so half of the city is shut down and the other half has police and homeland security lurking in every corner.
Saturday saw me heading off on 2 self guided walking tours; one through the old town and another downtown checking out the amazing architecture.
The Old Town begins near Lincoln Park, named for the assassinated president and inspiration for the band Linkin Park, The walk from downtown does provide a beautiful look back to the city itself.

The tour begins in Wells Street and kicks off with a recommended visit to the Chicago History Museum. It’s not too bad a place; especially if you enjoy 1930’s dioramas. Actually, that’s a little patronising as the dioramas are beautifully crafted and pick out a series of key events in Chicago’s history. The early fur trapper huts, early development of the town, the fire and the re-building that followed and concludes with the Exhibition of 1893.
How neat is that some of the 3,000 one room shanties built as accommodation straight after the fire are still in place in Menomonee Street.

As well, St. Michael’s is a beautiful church; it’s amazing how many people were sneaking in to take a look.

As you can see, who can blame them? The windows imported from Munich in the late 1800’s. The story goes if you can hear the bells of St. Michaels then you must be in the Old Town.

I liked this statue on the right. The whole thing is made of chains and has a feeling of such hardship and exhaustion just flowing from every single link.

It just seems to capture my imagination. Who would have thought?

I grabbed a sandwich and headed back downtown for the architecture walking tour. Sadly, it was defeated by the security services and my inability to walk anywhere downtown and not see some reference to the ‘Blues Brothers’ movie.
But as hopeless as my artistic side is, it was very interesting to have some direction on buildings to look at and what specific aspects to check out.
Sorry but few of the pictures actually came out well but the Carbide & Carbon Building (built in the late 1920’s) is just the classic Art Deco skyscraper, with its black facings (in granite and marble) with green and gold trim. The necked in top part of the building has classic cornices and arches, just to really capture that Art Deco look.
For pure size, it’s hard to go past the Merchandise Mart; it was the world’s largest building (with 4 million square feet) until they built the Pentagon, but again the facades and design are still considerations. It’s like all of the buildings have some artistic and/or design merit. As you walk the streets, you can even see the effort that has gone into houses and small apartment buildings. It may be the facades or the design of the banisters on the walk-ups or the window frames but so much effort and expense has been added to so many buildings; all simply to make them look beautiful. You have to appreciate that.
But then we make it to the Richard J. Daley Center and suddenly all I can see is the Blues mobile finally dying as Jake and Elwood rush in to the Cook Country Assessor’s office with these
statues looking on. And here they are!

Cool. Its like the roads under the elevated railway or ‘L’; sorry this image is a little blurry but again I can easily imagine the Blues Brothers tearing along this sort of street as part of their final scenes in that movie.

The structure for the 'L' seems so old; the supports are thin but very close together. It too feels like a throw back to another age.

One thing that still pervades is the last vestiges of the fire of 1871. It is hard to imagine a fire burning a city to destruction but this is pretty much what happened. The conditions were hot and dry, the buildings predominantly wooden and the fire burned virtually uncontrolled for more than 48 hours until the rain finally came. But by this time most of the combustible material had burned and 300 people had perished.

As such, consider the fire escape here.

It seems almost anachronistic today but I guess it remains functional.

But my favourite is this old water tower.

Making out the details in this picture is tough but trust me, that is a wooden water tank sitting at the top of that building; a genuine throw back to another era. Speaking of another era, away to the left there is some writing on the wall referring to ‘Ferris Wheel Restaurant’. When the Exhibition of 1893’s committee met in their planning stages, they were looking for a statement landmark as per Paris’s Eiffel Tower. The story goes that one George Washington Gale Ferris (an engineer usually focused on building bridges) had an idea for a massive wheel that would allow patrons to spend 50 minutes riding up and around and getting a wonderful view of the fairgrounds and Chicago in general. The design was accepted and, in spite of the massive depression of the early 1890’s, the Ferris Wheel Company raised the money necessary and a new form of entertainment was born.

Sunday dawned just as warm and, after doing a little work in the morning, I decided to walk to Wrigley Field and see what all the fuss was about. I did make it to Wrigley Field but I didn’t make it into the game. I walked around the stadium and, for those who remember the VFL in Melbourne, it has a real suburban feel like Carlton’s Princes Park or Collingwood’s Victoria Park. Basically, the stadium just seems to materialise at the side of the road, seemingly to emerge out of the shops and houses in the area.

Pre-game vibe is amazing; this might be driven by this game being a cross town derby between the two Chicago teams; the Cubs and the White Sox. I have to be honest that I do have an affinity for the Sox. Like my Aussie Rules team (Sydney Swans), the Sox went through an extended drought before winning their most recent World Series. The Sox waited 88 years while the Swans endured 72 years of agony but they both won their pennants in 2005. Today’s game concludes a triple-header played over Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I’m happy to report the Sox won all 3 games and managed to keep the Cubs to 0 runs in today’s game. Yay!
But prior to the game, the Cubs fans were out in huge numbers; the surrounding bars were over flowing and there was a real feeling of carnival or celebration.

Ticket touts were everywhere and they had special deals for everyone. Score card and program vendors were yelling their wares (and at $1 for this special souvenir program, they were providing good value compared to the Footy Record). Plus there were stall holders selling shirts, caps, pennants and the like. The place was humming!
The neatest part for me was walking around the back of the stadium and finding these boys (may be 12-13 years old). About 8 of them were standing and staring at the top of the stands, their gloves ready and waiting. This is pre-game and the boys are waiting for practice pop flys to come out and over the back of the stadium. But it is the intensity of their watching that is captivating; they are expecting a ball at any second; at any millisecond. Their focus is palpable and it is easy to imagine that they will fight and kick to capture that one fly ball. So intense and I get a feeling that this has been going on for many, many years.

I left the stadium and began a pseudo bar crawl back to the city; a chance to get a beer or two on this terribly warm day, simultaneously keeping tabs on the score. By the 7^th inning it became clear that the Sox were likely to win so I headed off the main drag and down to the lake. So many people! And all of them out and busy whether it be sun bathing, biking, walking, running and roller blading. They talk about the obese Americans but I didn’t see too many at the lakeshore today. I was more concerned about folks running and exercising in this heat.
Anyway, I eventually found my way back to the hotel and have to pack and get ready for the early flight tomorrow. This hotel’s location is great and Chicago was a lot of fun. I didn’t even talk about last night’s visit to the House of Blues; just amazing but would be better to share with someone. The music was wonderful.

See you next week when I’m back in Bonn.

Rhine in Flames

The first Saturday in May has the Rhine in Flames. The deal is that a huge armada of boats (cruise boats, pleasure craft, ferries, almost any craft that can comfortably carry passengers) leaves Linz and travels downstream to Bonn. As the flotilla passes through each town and village, a series of fireworks are set off.

Obviously, this all happens after dark, and with Bonn at the end of the line, there is quite a wait for the flotilla to arrive in Bonn. But Bonn has organized a huge fair with concerts and amusements in the Rheinaue. I arrive at about 8pm and the party is just getting started.

I'm not sure what to expect so have left the fairgrounds and bands and noise of the Rheinaue to walk over to Oberkassel. It’s far more civilized here, he said taking another sip of Merlot. Drinking red wine from a glass while sitting by the Rhine, waiting for the fireworks to begin.
These Germans have it all worked out!

Rhine in Flames is traditionally celebrated on the first Saturday in May. The only drawback tonight is that it’s cold and may rain. Doubly annoying as tonight is also the night of the super moon: currently hidden by total cloud cover.
I've now moved up to the Konrad Adenaur Bridge and I'm looking south down river. I'm guessing the flotilla approaches as I can see the clouds light up in the distance. From a distance, the fireworks cannot be seen, simply that the clouds well off in the distance are flashing with red and white colours. It might be me but suddenly it is easy to imagine 70 years ago when Rhine in Flames had a whole other meaning.
But now the fireworks are moving downstream now and the colors and flashes light the sky in a beautiful but benign way; the actual fireworks are now visible.
While the fireworks still light the sky over Bad Godesberg the flotilla floats serenely round the bend at Oberkassel and in sight of Bonn. Brightly lit they seem to be floating on air as the river is now so dark it is virtually invisible.
There are more boats than can be counted. Large and small. Old and new. But all are crammed with people, with music pumping loudly into the air.
And crammed so tight on the river; how do they not hit each other?

They spend about 15 minutes milling about, finding space in the river. Then, with a single enormous boom of one skyrocket, the Bonn fireworks display begins.

Wow! How amazing. 20 minutes of the most beautiful and colourful fireworks light the night sky. I look around and notice that the bridge is now completely packed with people, all of us oohing and aahing at the spectacle taking place in the sky over the Rheinaue.

Twenty minutes seems to flash by as the setting by the Rhine with the huge flotilla of boats and the crush of the crowd on the bridge and both sides of the river who are all happy and smiling as the fireworks light up the sky and the surrounding country side.

Like I said, these Germans have it all worked out!

Sorry but no photos worked on my little camera in the dark but this image from http://www.journeymart.com/holidays-ideas/festivals/rhine-in-flames-germany.aspx begins to hint at how beautfiful the evening was. Definitely something to see and take part in.

May Day in Bonn

May Day is a traditional holiday in Europe and its traditions go back to pre-Christian times. One of the traditions in the Rhineland region is to leave a maypole (a tree covered in streamers) at the house of a girl the night before.
This maypole was placed overnight just across the road from my Bonn apartment. I'm not sure if you can read the name on the heart but it actually says 'Nicolas'. That's because, although usually its the boy leaving the maypole for the girl, in leap years (like 2012) the roles can be reversed and girls can leave a maypole for their favourite boy. The lovely part is that this all done in secret; the maypole magically appears overnight. The sender can even choose to remain completely anonymous or leave a little clue to their identity.
The one thing to avoid is a tree covered in white streamers. The multi-coloured paper shows love and admiration but plain white streamers imply intense dislike. I did see one sad little tree covered in white streamers around the corner; Omer, I don't know what you've done but someone went to a lot of trouble to let you know they don't approve. Time for a long hard look at yourself buddy :)

Down in Munsterplatz, poor Beethoven (well his statue at least) is totally closed in by craft market in the picture above. But let me tell you that this is a genuine craft market.
How so? Well, when I saw the lady using a spinning wheel to produce the yarn for her homespun clothing line, I was impressed. Until I saw the lady with her loom, who was making the cloth for her scarves she was selling. Until I saw the wood turner who was using his own lathe to produce his carvings. Until I saw the basket weaver who was hand weaving baskets at her stall. Until I saw the bread maker who had brought two wood fired ovens to make his own bread that he was selling to a happy clientele (and can I tell you how nice fresh bread direct from the oven tastes on a sunny afternoon).

But the prize has to go to the blacksmith. Check out the photo on the left. The smithy has brought his own anvil, fire with coals and hand driven bellows to make his own wares for sale.
This has to be the most hands on, hand made craft market I have seen. The milliners had their own sewing machines set up to make their hats. The leather workers were making belts and wallets and bags in between making sales.
There was an education to be had in just walking around and looking at these artisans in action.

And to cap it all off; at one end there was a lute maker who, when not playing his wares, had CDs playing the most beautiful lute music. And at the other end of the market was a young girl selling ocarinas; and she had no hesitation playing a tune or two and the ocarina sounded so clear and pure; music in Munsterplatz and then, further off in Marketplatz, a stage was set up and musicians were playing concerts for appreciative audiences.

There was rain this morning but the afternoon has fined up beautifully; tee shirt warm with sunglasses needed to keep the glare of the sun at bay.

Just a great day in the sunshine