A Second Chance

There have been modern art museums in many of the cities we have visited, but frankly after the Pompidou Center experience we have been turned off modern art. However, since we had already paid for it and they had a few Andy Warhol pieces, we decided to visit Museum Ludwig.

The museum had a wonderful temporary exhibit of Gerhard Richter's work, the artist that designed the new stain-glass window in the Dom. In addition to the huge pieces of abstract work, they had a collection of 100, paired painted glasses pieces that were gorgeous. I would love to have one of those in my home.

In addition, the museum had a neat audio exhibit from Paul Plamper called A Radio Play in Space. It was a room filled with tables; on each tables was 2-5 speakers (symbolizing the number of people sitting at the table) and 2-5 chairs. When you entered the room you were greeted with the ambient noise of a restaurant; you could sit down at any of the tables and listen to the conversation. Then something happens; sometimes inside the restaurant, sometimes outside the restaurant and a collective hush falls over the room. It is social experiment in whether people will become involved in the event or become distant.

Other highlights of the museum included:

• 20th century American Pop Art
• A temporary exhibit for filmmaker Jonas Mekas
• A wonderful graphic design exhibit of Thomas Bayrle
• An exhibit titled "Looking for Mushrooms, Beat Poets, Hippies, Funk,and Minimal Art: Art and counter cultural in San Fransisco around 1968"

Maybe the art wasn't so modern, maybe it wasn't so out there, but we definitely enjoyed Museum Ludwig. So much so that we might venture into a modern art museum in the city we visit.

Cologne, Keulen, Koln

We rose extremely early for our train ride to Koln - like 4:20am early - the trade-off for dirt cheap train tickets. Due to the early departure time, we had to ride around the country in order to get to Koln and over five hours later we emerge from the train station.

We were quickly jerked out of our half-opened eye state by the site of the Dom. It was ENORMOUS! We were amazed despite having seen TONS of huge churches lately.


Amazing Facts:

• It was the world's tallest building until 1884 (when the Washington Monument was built)
• It has the world's second tallest church Spires
• It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for "exceptional work of human creative genius"
• Has the largest facade of any church in the world
• It has stained glass from the Medieval time period, the Renaissance, post WWII, and a window designed by Gerhard Richter in 2007
• Houses the largest reliquary in the Western world - the bones of the three wise men
• Has the largest free-swinging bell in the world