111op

Hi, I just came back yesterday. I arrived in Munich the previous Saturday. I left for Berlin on Tuesday. I took a number of day trips. I was also in Frankfurt, Dresden, Hannover, Hamburg. I was supposed to return from Vienna on Sunday on an evening flight after an early morning arrival. Instead I was informed that that my flight was cancelled. This gave me one full day in Vienna.

On the whole the trip went very well. I went with a friend O, and he and I didn't argue at all. He was extremely accommodating and easy going during the entire trip -- to the extent that he wasn't going to take the 120 euros I owed him. We never had an issue with bathrooms either. We each pursued what we were interested in. I never forced him to go to an art museum, and he pursued his interests in history.

I was in Berlin in the summer of 2003. I was in Vienna in the summer of 2002. My schedule was so full that I didn't have time to revist the Reichstag or Brandenburg Gate.

I'll provide the following summary so that you can decide if you want to read the full report.

Train distances (with rail pass)

Munich to Berlin (about 600 km)
Berlin to Frankfurt (about 560 km)
Frankfurt to Hannover (about 250 km)
Hannover to Berlin (about 290 km)
Berlin to Dresden (about 200 km one way so 400 km)
Berlin to Hamburg (about 290 km one way so 580 km)

Total: 2810 km

Highest Point Visited: Zugspitze (2962 km)

Castles Visited: Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein

Cash withdrawn: 650 euros

CDs purchased

4 CD set on Michelangeli
5 CD set on S. Richter
6 CD set on E. Gilels
7 CD set on L. Berman

Meals

Breakfasts skipped: 4 out of 9
Proper sitdown lunches: 2
Proper sitdown dinners: 2
Sausages consumed: At least 3
Pizza consumed: 3/4
Beer: About 1 liter

Paintings

Raphaels: 10 (3+5+1+1)
Bruegels: 17 (2+2+13)
Vermeers: 6 (1+2+2+1)

Missed two "Flights into Egypt" on my list -- one by Elsheimer (Munich), one by Cranach (Berlin)

Museums

"German Grand Slam"

Alte Pinakothek (Munich)
Staedel (Frankfurt)
Alte Meister (Dresden)
Gemaldegalerie (Berlin)

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich)
Green Vaults (Historic and New in Dresden)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Museums in Berlin

Pergamonmuseum
Altes Museum (Egyptian Collection)
Jewish Museum
Bauhaus Archiv
Hamburger Bahnhof

Memorials in Berlin

Topographie des Terrors
Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe

Some Special Exhibitions Attended

Berlin-Tokyo (Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin)
Cranach, Cy Twombly (Alte Pinakothek, Munich)
"Black Paintings" (Haus der Kunst, Munich)
French Painting, Martin Munkacsi (Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin)
Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin)
Sigg Collection on contemporary Chinese art (Hamburger Kunstahalle)

Other Art Statistics

Art Fairs Attended: 3
Art Galleries Visited: About 10
Private Collection Visited: Sammlung Hoffmann

Concerts

Attended: 2 1/3 (Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, 1/3 of "Peter Grimes" at Staastoper)
Missed: 1

Best Art Experiences

#1: Green Vault
#2: "Black Paintings"
#3: Sammlung Hoffmann

111op

Days 1-3 in Munich, with a day trip to Zugspitze and Castles on Day 2

Day 1

I arrived at the hotel and O was already out. He had gone to Berchtesgaden. Since the Munich art galleries were mostly closed by early afternoon on Saturdays, I set off to see a few. I saw a show on Richard Artschwager. One piece on display played again with the viewer's perception. It looked like a cross, but the edges were shaved off and lined with formica, so the cross looked differently when you moved around it.

I was curious to see Funf Hofe, a shopping complex designed by Herzog and de Meuron. I didn't find it too interesting either. Nearby was Elly Seidl, a chocolatier praised highly by DK Eyewitness Top 10. I wasn't too impressed either.

By walking to a couple of galleries and visiting a few shops, I did get a sense of Munich's layout downtown.

I then made my way for Alte Pinakothek. The layout confused me, and I afterwards realized that I had used a side entrance initially, which led directly to an exhibition on Cy Twombly's sculptures. I saw some Twombly sculptures at the Whitney recently. The ones there were reminiscent of elongated Giacometti sculptures. The works at Munich were much more varied. The most interesting and colorful was perhaps a sculpture that looked as if colorful paper towels had been crumpled and put on a birthday cake. However this sculpture was also roped off and one had to see it from a slight distance.

On one of the sculptures, Twombly had written in his trademark scrawl: "Beauty is the promise of happiness." I'm still trying to understand what this means.

I then went to the permanent collection. I didn't have time to see everything -- of course -- and I quickly hurried off to see the Leonardo painting that had been exhibited elsewhere in a special exhibition. This is the only Leonardo owned by a German museum and is an early Leonardo. In my opinion, the figures seem rather awkward. The Christ child has rather unnatural folds of skin that look more like drapery folds, but a booklet that accompanies the show seems to think that deterioration of painting materials could explain this. In any case, I skipped the rest of the paintings in this special exhibition. I was in such a rush that I nearly forgot to cross off the two Bruegels owned by this museum.

I only had about 25 minutes to see the Pinakothek der Moderne across the street. I quickly walked through the latest works by George Baselitz. Wolfgang Tillmans got a show, as did Araki, with his erotically charged photographs.

My favorite room in this museum was a Dan Flavin installation. Flavin used violet flourescent light in a dark room, and the effect wasn't unlike my experience with the Eliasson Pavilion at the Venice Biennale last year. This was Flavin with a twist. There were signs posted outside that the room emitted ultraviolet light, so one shouldn't spend more than five minutes for health reasons. I walked in and out a few times.

Afterwards I walked to Maximilianstr. with its elegant high-end stores and then on to Haus der Kunst. Since this closed at 8, I left it for last. I very much enjoyed the show on "Black Paintings," which displayed works by Rauschenberg, Stella, Reinhardt and Rothko. While this experience was no match for my Dresden experience, it was nonetheless a wonderful show.

Finally on my way back to the hotel I happened upon a grocery store and bought some water and bananas. I was amazed by beer prices. I bought a huge can of Augustiner hefeweizen for 0.70 euro or something like that. It was insanely cheap. The store didn't seem to offer plastic bags to bag the groceries, and fortunately I had a spare one. I then went back to the hotel and napped, and O returned from his day trip quite late, around 10 pm.

Day 2

O rented a car for this part of the trip, and we set off together that day. The weather had not been cooperative and it had been raining, but fortunately by the time we were nearly at Zugspitze, the skies had cleared up a bit. The music on the radio station even matched the evolving scenery, as we happened to be listening to Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony.

Since we didn't have much time, we opted for the cable car up to the peak and down. One had to marvel at the engineering that made a 3000 m ascent possible. I wish that I had bought an additional day on my German railpass as this would have cost me only 4 euros instead of 45 euros.

Upon our descent, we went to view King Ludwig's castles. The road signs were a little confusing, and all roads seemed to lead to Fuessen. Finally we followed signs for Konigschlosser to reach the village of Schwangau (Hohenschwangau) to buy tickets for the castles. Fortunately the castles still had a late close that day (at 6 pm), so even though we arrived around 2:15 pm, we had time to see both Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles.

Entry to the castles was by timed entry and guided tours only. One had to go to Hohenschwangau first and then Neuschwanstein later (about two and a half hours later, I think -- our tours were at 2:45 pm and 5:15 pm or something like that). Each guided tour was fairly short, just about 40 minutes. While there were carriage rides and bus rides for the castles, we walked to Hohenschwangau and back and to Neuschwanstein. We did return from Neuschwanstein by bus. The climb for Neuschwanstein was definitely much more strenuous.

While one was advised that the climb for Hohenschwangau would take about 20 minutes, it took us about five minutes. This was an easy climb. This was actually not Ludwig's castle but rather the father's, Maximilian's. I was surprised to see a billiard table upon entry. Then there was bread on a silver tray that had been offered by the Russian royal family as a present. We were told that it was never eaten. The bread was more than a century old.

We were also told that because of a private arrangement, Hohenschwangau remained private property (of descendants of the former royal family). Further the patriarch lives in a wing of the Nymphenburg castle in Munich. Neuschwanstein, on the other hand, is state owned. Our guide for Hohenschwangau said he was entitled to tips as a consequence, but we didn't tip.

Schwan is the German word for swan, and this was the symbol for the Bavarian royal family, which traced its lineage to medieval knights who used this symbolically as well. It also features in Germanic legends -- like the one for "Lohengrin," in which a knight arrives on a swan to save a maiden in distress (as explored by Wagner in his opera). Anyway, the swan motif was much more prevalent in Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig's fantasy castle. Ludwig himself was mad and was obsessed with Wagner's operas and decorated many of the rooms with opera scenes. The bedroom, for example, used scenes from "Tristan."

I did think that the tour for Neuschwanstein ended rather abruptly. It was a bit of a letdown, but the castle itself exemplifies the Disney fairy tale castle. And it is quite modern too, as it was built in the late 19th century. There were running water, toilets that flushed and other modern conveniences.

Everyone would tell you to go to Marienbrucke to get a view for Neuschwanstein, and we did so after the tour. I found the bridge a little frightening. It shook a little and I felt like it would collapse. But it has been functional over one hundred years and I'm sure millions have walked on it.

We actually had a pretty rainy day, and it rained quite a lot during the drive back to Munich. Fortunately O was driving and I just had to sit back and relax. We returned to Munich around 9 pm.

Day 3

Having paid 187 euros for a hotel room a night, we had to go to Oktoberfest. I was afraid that beer tents might close to visitors when they got too crowded, so we went there before noon. We went to the Hofbrau tent. Some tables were reserved, and we couldn't sit there. But soon a German family of four (parents, grandma, daughter) were beckoning us to join them. O and I each ordered a liter of beer, and O actually finished his beer. I had about half a liter and was remarkably sober.

The tent's atmosphere was what Germans would term gemuetlich. I quite enjoyed it. The family was warm and shared their pretzels and roasted hazelnuts with us. The grandma kept telling me to eat a little and then drink a little so that I'd not get drunk. I had half a hen, the customary Oktoberfest meal, for lunch.

We left the grounds around 2:30 pm and the Hippodrom tent was closed to visitors. O was feeling sick and we went back to the hotel. I also took a nap and got up around 4 pm. I went out to run a quick errand and returned to the hotel.

In the evening, we walked to Marienplatz. Unfortunately we had missed the show with the Glockenspiel.

seetheworld

Welcome back!

I think you ment to post this of the Europe forum.

seetheworld

Dang..."meant"

111op

Day 4 in Berlin [This was written while I was on my trip -- so the grammar police will have to forgive me for tense conflations. ]

To my surprise, I managed to get up for my 5 am train ride from Munich to Berlin. The train station is literally right across from the hotel. I was able to sleep for much of the six-hour train ride. I had a cream of mushrooms (porcini, I think) soup on the train (4 euros).

7-Day Pass

I arrived in Berlin and found out that I could use my German rail pass for the S-bahn rides. However, to be on the safe side, I bought a 7-day pass for the two inner zones (25.40 euros). Almost immediately I started to regret it, as I realized that I really could get by with mostly the S-bahn. However the U-bahn is more useful for the former West Berlin. The pass really won't pay for itself unless I take lots of U-bahn rides over 4 days. But I did use U2 a lot today.

Two Art Fairs, A Few Galleries

I rearranged my schedule completely so that I can go to Kestner tomorrow (or now today -- since it's past midnight). I went to two satellite art fairs of Art Forum -- first Berlin Liste and then Preview Berlin. These were a little disappointing. I'm not so plugged into the art world that I could really spot "emerging artists." These art fairs were in Mitte and the former East Berlin (I used U2 to get to these fairs). I also realized that I wasn't completely unfamiliar with these parts of town. I explored the nightlife in Penzlauer Berg three years ago, and I ate at Gugelhof then, where Bill Clinton ate, which is also in the neighborhood.

I had some sphagetti bolognese for lunch in a local cafe. That was amazingly cheap -- at 4 euros. With a Pellegrino Limonata I paid 5.50 euros for lunch.

I had drawn up a list of galleries to visit, but two on Auguststr. were closed -- presumably because of the holiday (German Reunification). I then made it to another cluster near Topographie des Terrors. I went to Klosterfelde, mentioned in one NYT article. In the same complex was Arndt and Partner. Though I had come across it during my preparation for the trip, I neglected to note it on the final itinerary. So I was glad that I stumbled upon it because it was hosting a show on Yayoi Kusama, one of my favorite artists.

Topographie des Terrors

When I was in Berlin three years ago and went on a walking tour, our tour guide gave us his top three for the city: Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag Dome and Topographie des Terrors. I didn't have time for it during my last trip. This time, I stumbled upon it after visiting galleries near the area and while walking back to the hotel. It's located near Wilhelmstr., a street with a rather notorious past, and housed in the remains of a building with a notorious past. The trouble with this exhibit was that nearly all the labels and exposition were in German -- except for the bit near the end that explained that the project had run into difficulties several years ago so that construction was finally halted.

Fortunately I ran into an English guided tour and listened in for a few minutes. One especially chilling exhibit dealt with a secret conference in Wannsee in 1942. Our guide told us that a movie was made about this episode (starring Kenneth Branagh). There were plans to kill eleven million -- some of whom lived in territories yet to be conquered -- like 330,000 (or so) in England.

Hotel

I finally returned to the hotel to check in as I wasn't allowed to check in until after 3 pm. This hotel (Holiday Inn Express) is really a steal at an average rate of 56 euros a night. It's modern, clean and offers free internet access. The location is not the best, but it's perfectly adequate and quite convenient.

I freshened up, changed and headed for Berlin-Tokyo at Neue Nationalgalerie.

Berlin-Tokyo at Neue Nationalgalerie

This exhibition on the mutual influences and interactions among German and Japanese artists closed today. I arrived around 5:20, so I really didn't have much time to see this in great detail. Yayoi Kusama got her due again, and there were two large installations. One comprised balloons with her obsessive dots that recalled Warhol's silver clouds.

The building itself was designed by Mies. I also noticed a cast of "Broken Obelisk" (by Barnett Newman) outside.

Berlin Art Forum

I walked over to Philharmonie to pick up my ticket for the night's concert. Unfortunately the doors had closed at 6 and wouldn't reopen again for another half hour or so. I decided to head to Art Forum.

This art fair occupied just one section of the massive Messe Berlin. I think that there must have been simultaneously a few fairs going on. The building for Art Forum reminded me of immense fascist architecture. There was a lot to see at Art Forum.

I only had about half an hour as I had to leave for the concert at 8.

Missed Concert

I was cutting it quite close, and I thought that I'd attempt a short cut with the S-bahn. This turned out to be a mistake as the S-bahn required some inconvenient changes. By the time I realized this and ran over to the U-bahn station (line U2 again -- to Postdamer Platz), I had to wait about ten minutes for the next train. I finally reached Philharmonie around 8:10. I was worried that the box office would close when the concert started (even though this would not be the case in the New York), and my fears were founded. I left while hearing strains of the second movement of Prokofiev's "Classical" symphony.

I was annoyed for wasting money on a concert I missed (I think the ticket was 39 euros).

Rest of the Evening

Missing the concert gave me time to return to the hotel to regroup. I thought about the itinerary for the next day and decided to see if I could take an early train for Frankfurt. The best option for me was a 6 am train that was an ICE sprinter train. This would require a reservation, so I hurried over to Hauptbahnhof to see if I could get one. Unfortunately the train was already fully booked. My option is now a 4:34 am train for Frankfurt.

I went to Monsieur Vuong for dinner. This is mentioned by lots of guidebooks. The menu was quite short, and there were three specials for the day written on boards. I had the waitress translate them and I opted for the curry chicken (6.40 euros). It was prepared incredibly quickly and was pretty tasty. The serving bowls looked more like satellite dishes in that the rims didn't have the same heights uniformly. The curry chicken was mixed in directly with rice, basil, bean sprouts, red peppers, etc. I wasn't used to having my rice pre-mixed in this manner. I had a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (3.20 euros) to go with my meal. Dinner cost 9.60 euros. Wow! I left a one euro tip.

Afterwards I returned to Penzlauer Berg to check out the nightlife. But the place I visited was pretty dead and I escaped after a few minutes.

111op

Oh dear, I did it again! They really should make Europe the default forum for the US.

Sorry.

starrsville

glad you are back, 111op. Can't wait to read your trip report

(There's an interesting "conversation" on the Europe board you may want to take a look at)