Errata
So I've been keeping busy since my last post. In addition to doing nothing social of note for Halloween weekend, outside of watching the Patriots, I've been working on broadening my horizons and educating myself to the cultural treasures of Koln. This week I went to a number of interesting places. The first was the Roman museum. It should really be called the "Museum of stuff that we dug up in Westphalia, mostly Roman in nature" because they had other things too but mostly Roman stuff. Specifically Roman craft objects like pottery and glass. Old Cologne (short for Colonia Agrippina) was big on glass works. Lots of glass with the signature blueish color and snake motif, though there was some other stuff, etched and/or that looked like torchwork that would not be out of place at a gallery or head shop today. They also had a sequence of busts of famous Romans, mostly emperors. From reading my Gibbon I actually knew who most of them were. Go Classics!
I also went to an art museum called the Kolumba (pictures posted) that is housed in a church that was destroyed during WW2. The build what could have been a stiflingly modernist bunker on top of it which actually ends up being a very, almost airy structure with very large spaces within it. The bottom floor is just the ruins of the church, housed in a large dark area open to the air through small holes, and a small modernist chapel. The rest of it is two floors of modern art with a roughly religious theme, and actual ancient christian art. One of the pieces there was an altar that I have seen before, either in Catholic school or Haxan, featuring the devil as a giant toad-dragon thing eating condemned souls. One of the earlier depictions of hell, as I recall. That same day I also got denied entry to a perfume museum. I'd like to come up with some witticism about this, but it was only because they didn't have a tour guide that spoke english.
The day after that I spent the morning at a castle about 20 minutes out of town by train. It's called Schoss Augustusburg, Is a UNESCO preservation site, and has got to be the most opulent thing I have ever seen. Scratch that: beyond the most opulent thing I could have imagined, and, like Han Solo, I can imagine quite a lot. It makes the Louve look like my apartment. The main foyer alone was beyond anything I could imagine. I wish that I could have taken pictures in there but it was strictly forbidden and they watched you like a hawk. I took some external photos which I'll post as soon as I can, though I'm having problems connecting up my real camera to this laptop. You (all two of you reading this) should go on Google image search and look for pictures of Augustuburg Castle. There was also a "hunting lodge" (Ie: bigger than anyone reading this's house) where the Elector would go falconing. It was similarly opulent and unphotographibe, with a room that Mozart once played in. I have to say that kind of geeked me out a bit.
One weird, non-museum related thing, is that there is a campaign in Germany to make guys sit down when they piss. I don't know why this is, but a lot of toilets around here have a sticker on it to remind you to do this. I, of course, don't. My body gets confused when I do that and I feel no real compulsion to aid in the cleanliness of a public bathroom. I don't feel any need to air in the besmirching of one either, for the record. Just let me piss in peace!
I also went to an art museum called the Kolumba (pictures posted) that is housed in a church that was destroyed during WW2. The build what could have been a stiflingly modernist bunker on top of it which actually ends up being a very, almost airy structure with very large spaces within it. The bottom floor is just the ruins of the church, housed in a large dark area open to the air through small holes, and a small modernist chapel. The rest of it is two floors of modern art with a roughly religious theme, and actual ancient christian art. One of the pieces there was an altar that I have seen before, either in Catholic school or Haxan, featuring the devil as a giant toad-dragon thing eating condemned souls. One of the earlier depictions of hell, as I recall. That same day I also got denied entry to a perfume museum. I'd like to come up with some witticism about this, but it was only because they didn't have a tour guide that spoke english.
The day after that I spent the morning at a castle about 20 minutes out of town by train. It's called Schoss Augustusburg, Is a UNESCO preservation site, and has got to be the most opulent thing I have ever seen. Scratch that: beyond the most opulent thing I could have imagined, and, like Han Solo, I can imagine quite a lot. It makes the Louve look like my apartment. The main foyer alone was beyond anything I could imagine. I wish that I could have taken pictures in there but it was strictly forbidden and they watched you like a hawk. I took some external photos which I'll post as soon as I can, though I'm having problems connecting up my real camera to this laptop. You (all two of you reading this) should go on Google image search and look for pictures of Augustuburg Castle. There was also a "hunting lodge" (Ie: bigger than anyone reading this's house) where the Elector would go falconing. It was similarly opulent and unphotographibe, with a room that Mozart once played in. I have to say that kind of geeked me out a bit.
One weird, non-museum related thing, is that there is a campaign in Germany to make guys sit down when they piss. I don't know why this is, but a lot of toilets around here have a sticker on it to remind you to do this. I, of course, don't. My body gets confused when I do that and I feel no real compulsion to aid in the cleanliness of a public bathroom. I don't feel any need to air in the besmirching of one either, for the record. Just let me piss in peace!