Düsseldorf Series - One last look

I've come to the end of my assignment at Düsseldorf. For eight weeks, it was my temporary home. It has left an imprint on me. I could have done with more blue skies....

The promenade along the Rhine

Hauptbahnhof, where I changed trains in the daily commute

A garden space near the office

Dulwich Picture Gallery, East London

This is such a small art gallery, and rather difficult to get to as we had to traverse across London from west to east to get there. When we did arrive at the leafy suburbs of Dulwich, we found the gallery located in the midst of a pleasant garden where the locals came to sit and relax. There is also a cafe that serves food that would appeal to a Guardian reader: full of good intentions regarding provenance and green credentials. 

In front of the gallery are four sculptures that take their inspiration from Fours Seasons in One Head by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. I saw the original paintings at the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Vienna and they made such a lasting impression on me. Now at Dulwich, these four figures not only acted as a focal point, they also reminded me of the pleasant time I spent at Vienna.



Inside, the permanent collection has been squeezed into the available space, so there were paintings hanging at some height which makes it difficult to scrutinize the brush strokes or the details. The light from the windows above streamed into the gallery, and with limited visitors, the place was airy, spacious and restful. It was a perfect place to spend a quiet Saturday afternoon.

My favourite: A Girl at a Window, Rembrandt

Dusseldorf Series - Simple, elegant food

This was probably my last meal in Dusseldorf. The venue: the Kikaku stall that serves sushi and sashimi in the Airport Arcade. In front of me, on the other side of the counter, was a collection of frozen fish in small vacuum packed bags, slowly being defrosted. Fresh fish it was not. I had green tea and miso soup. A simple, elegant meal, with just enough substance to keep hunger at bay.

Dusseldorf Series - Kunst Palast

Entrance to Kunst Palast, on a blustering cold day

As a regional art museum, the Kunst Palast has a diverse collection of medieval sculptures, Dutch and Flemish paintings from the 16th to 18 Century, European painting from Romanticism, works of German Expressionism, and a beautiful collection of glassware. 

Nam June Paik 's Fish Flies on Sky.
I laid on my back on the settee, fascinated by the multi channel monitor

A playful, exquisite piece of glass sculpture

Serenely blue, with glacial tones

Simply exquisite

One tiny piece from the netsuke collection

My favourite painting by Akseli Gallen Kallela.
The whimsical look of a young peasant boy

Bonn, Germany

The former capital of West Germany is modest and unassuming. Almost everything about the place - from its size to its village feel - proclaimed that it was a temporary capital.

The Bonner Münster lies in the center of the city on the Münsterplatz and Martinsplatz, just a short walk from the train station. During Sunday mass, the church doors were closed, and an enterprising man stood outside with his upturned hat, looking for a quick donation by opening the door for worshipers who wanted to join the congregation. After mass, a younger man took over, opening doors in anticipation of a tip. This was the first time that such enterprising activities were encountered outside churches in Germany.  

The entrance to the Kunstmuseum Bonn or Bonn Museum of Modern Art, located at the Museum Mile, is a vast openness, almost like an unfinished facade. The interior is all light and space, and exceedingly quiet on a Sunday. The fee to visit all the exhibitions was €18.99 per person, making it probably one of the most expensive art museums to visit in Europe. A punter was complaining that he was not a banker, just a retired musician. As I listened to his complaint, I decided to give it a miss too. A few days later, I realized what I could have missed. A meeting room in the office is named after Joseph Beuys, one of the German artists featured in the museum.

In contrast to the super modern Kunst Museum, the historic Town Hall, situated in the market square, is adorned with a rococo facade. The use of a pastel-like pink colour, curves and gold, gives the front a jocular, florid and graceful appearance. On a hot Sunday afternoon when temperature rose to the high twenties, tourists watched the world go by in the pavement cafes on the market square, some eating ice cream big enough to feed a family of four.

Köln, Germany

Almost 20 years ago we visited Köln in the height of summer and afterwards suffered from heat stroke. This time the weather was a little kinder. Köln is literally a skip and a hop from Dusseldorf, only 35 minutes on the train and even faster on the ICE (Inter City Express). 

As the train pulled into the Hauptbahnhof, one can see a sea of love padlocks along the railings of the Hohenzollernbrücke Bridge facing the River Rhine. There are literally thousands of them, glittering in the sunshine, attracting hordes of tourists who were posing in front of these objects. The presence of these little objects are not without controversy: Deutsche Bahn, the bridge's operator, had threatened to have the locks removed, but in the end relented in the face of public opposition. Here, a Regional train was captured hurtling towards the main station.

It had not occurred to me until I arrived at Köln, or Cologne, that the once famous brand of eau de cologne - 4711 - is "water from Cologne". At Cologne's Central Station, the 4711 advertisement dominates the station's western facade and has done so for several decades. I don't remember where I last saw 4711 being sold.





My first encounter with such a gravity defying trick was in the Dusseldorf city centre, along Konigsallee. Here in Köln, at the square next to the Cathedral, two white guys whose face had been painted brown to resemble Indians, had added a new dimension to the trick. Instead of a lonely mystic perching on thin air, the accomplice was hoisting the entire weight of a man on a stick. The jaded tourists who had seen one too many of such tricks just walked on, whilst the novices were busy taking pictures. It is not without irony that the trick was performed in front of a famous French label, where Chinese tourists were busy stocking up.




It was a Saturday, and Köln was bursting with tourists. Adding to the hustle and bustle was the unmistakable beat of the West Indian steel drum. The performer was wearing a rastacap no less - a tall, round, brightly coloured crocheted hat - perhaps used to tuck away the dreadlocks. The beat was good, the music was enjoyable, but no one, not even the young ones, was dancing to the music. What a pity.


To get away from the crowd, we visited Agnesviertel, a traditional neighbourhood just a stone throw from the Cathedral. We came upon this boulangerie cum cafe, selling French bread and pastries, as well as offering a relaxed atmosphere for friends and families to have breakfast or a snack, all presided over by an unusually chatty and friendly garçon.




Between the North City Gate (Eigelsteintorbourg) in the Agnesviertel and the railway arch just beneath the Central Station is an area dominated by shops selling exotic merchandise: big bold gold jewelry and voluminous bridal dresses in flamboyant pinks, greens and blues (thankfully not on the same dress). These are statement dresses, brash, loud, and dazzling - quite a change from the sleek white affair favoured by the majority of western brides. This pink taffeta dress is demure in comparison to the other bling bling gowns, but the gold threads on the groom's outfit make no such concession.





The magnificent forest of the Gothic spires of the Cologne Cathedral dominate the skyline of Köln. It is nothing short of a miracle that, although badly damaged, Cologne Cathedral survived the Second World War in spite of extensive bombing. It comes as no surprise that stonemasons, glaziers, roofers and other specialists are constantly at work on the maintenance and restoration of the fabric of the building.

Dusseldorf Series - My favourite architecture

The facade of a building at MediaHafen, Dusseldorf

The humble signal box, along the S11 route on way to Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof

One of the trio of buildings designed by Frank Gehry,
at Mediahafen, Dusseldorf

A boat shaped building at the Medianhafen, Dusseldorf

Dusseldorf Series - Graffiti

Graffiti is everywhere along the railway embankment. Some are well executed, others are just graffiti without any artistic merit. Here are some of the better ones - they were taken from S11, the train from Dusseldorf airport to Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof.

Dusseldorf Series - Food

The first thing I tried was roasted pork knuckle at a brewery pub called Im Fuchschen (Fox) at the Altstadt. The volume of food was overwhelming, even after the skin and the fat were removed. The Alt beer however, was delicious. The place was packed with locals, most of them eating literally mountains of food, washed down of course with Alt beer. 



The second thing to try were sausages: bratwurst, bockwurst, currywurt.  This Meister Bock food stall at the Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof is a national chain, with a simple concept: a sausage, a bread roll, with mustard or tomato ketchup. No tables, no chairs, you stand and eat at the counter. Mostly the clients are students, or men who want quick sustenance. In Koln, the same concept also sold smoked Polish sausages. My favourite is pan friend bratwurst, which of course is full of cholesterol. The bread rolls are being baked in the oven, in full view of the customers, to assure that they are included freshly baked on the premises.

The menu at Takumi. Looks very elaborate on the walls but really everything is on a laminated A3, with photos to illustrate the food. For a non German speaker, the photos are vital in figuring out what to order. The Takumi is a noodle shop, no reservations, just a queue. The gyoza was excellent: the pastry was paper thin and fried just right. The portion sizes have been adjusted for the German appetite.