Wanderung 32

Drifting down the Donau; Edging up the Elbe

March - April 2017


 

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Tuesday, April 25: Museum for Arts and Crafts

Tuesday we decided to see the "Museum fuer Kunst and Gewerbe" (English: Museum for Arts and Crafts), which is centrally located in Hamburg just a block away from Hauptbahnhof, and that was a lot of fun. The museum housed a lot of different applied arts. Monika enjoyed the harpsichords with the beautifully painted covers.

We were both particularly intrigued by the Asian and Middle Eastern ceramics, bronze goods, textiles, Samurai armor (!), and even a Japanese teahouse because it was all so very different from our Western traditions. One wall hanging in particular enchanted both of us because it was a grant sweeping vertical vista almost 12 feet high, and the scene ranged from a small hut in a field in the lower foreground, through some normal valley scenery in the middle ground, to a huge expanse of mountains, sky, and clouds at the top. In modern terms, it was like a painted vertical panoramic view of a scenic mountain valley. Although in fact all of that scene was imaginary, it was extremely well artistically done and made a big impact on us. It was so tall, wide, and well-crafted that you could just sit there and kind of sink into the landscape of the picture, and that is an odd feeling I have rarely, if ever, had.

I also enjoyed the detail in both the old Chinese porcelain figures and the slightly newer Meissen porcelain made in Germany. There also was a beautiful Tiffany lamp and an intricate wooden bench. But good museums also raise questions, and in this case it was what happened in 400 BC in China to terminate the thousand-year tradition of burying ceramic and bronze utensils with the dead? I suspect a religious or political upheaval but am not certain.

The museum had also a very interesting special exhibit on how they were trying to authenticate the provenance of all the items in their collection, because they are worried that they may have purchased items illegally stolen by the Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s. To ensure their WWII-era items are not stolen, they have to laboriously track back the chain of ownership and see if any of the links in that chain were either Nazi officials or known vendors or fences for the items illegally confiscated by the Nazis. I found it admirable that they were spending time, effort, and money to make certain that their collections were all legal items!

After returning to our hotel and resting a bit, we took an afternoon walk around the hotel neighborhood to try to figure out the best way to get over to the Alster, where we planned to walk with Heinke on the morrow. The street network was confusing, but we saw a really interestingly painted house. Amazing what you find on a Walkabout!

We also ran across some books in a garbage can, and we both have a soft spot for books. As inveterate (but not invertebrate!) dumpster divers, we picked out an interesting looking Thomas Mann book to take with us, that even had a curious bookmark in it that had a poem called "Die Ameisen" (English: "The Ants") by German poet Joachim Ringelnatz:

In Hamburg lebten zwei Ameisen,
Die wollten nach Australien reisen.
Bei Altona auf der Chaussee,
Da taten ihnen die Beine weh,
Und da verzichteten sie weise
Dann auf den letzten Teil der Reise.

Trying to keep the sense and rhyming scheme, I would translate that poem into English as:

In Hamburg two ants had a passion,
To see Australia was their vision,
But already by Altona's broad boulevard,
Their legs were tired and the way too hard.
So they made a wise decision
To forego the rest of that excursion!


 

Wednesday, April 26: Alsterwanderung

On Wednesday we went for a walk along the Alster Lake with Heinke. I was surprised to see the sailboats already tied up at the docks and even a couple of sloops out sailing, as the weather was still so cool this far North.

It was spring, and we saw the radio and TV tower, a Hamburg landmark, through some flowering bushes. When we looked back across the lake, it was apparent that the skyline of Hamburg had been significantly altered by the new ElbPhilharmonie building---the distinct wave-shaped white roof of it was clearly visible amongst the church spires that have traditionally defined the Hamburg skyline.

We also enjoyed some of the fancy, older houses that had escaped destruction in the WWII bombing. One even had an "old salt" sitting out on the balcony, watching out over the Alster.

Heinke invited us to lunch, so we took the next bus we saw down to Hauptbahnhof and then the S1 train up to Rubenkamp and another bus over to their place, stopping off at Famila to buy some white asparagus and thinly sliced smoked ham for the meal. Heinke and Monika fixed lunch and we all had a long, relaxed, convivial meal. Reluctantly we took our leave and headed back home for the day---my back was starting to hurt, so I needed to lie down a bit and rest it. All in all, it was a very relaxing day and a good respite before heading off to Berlin the next day.



Copyright 2017 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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