Berlin - Museums

There are at least nine museums that are a must to visit in Berlin. The first five are co-located in what is known as Museum Island. This cluster of five museums was the gem in the golden age of Berlin, at the start of the 20th century. Then all kinds of things happened to them: the Nazis confiscated a lot of the art as "degenerate art". Then the air poundings of the Allies destroyed the buildings. When the Soviets took over after the War, they actually took a lot of the paintings and sculpture to Russia for awhile.

When the Soviets decided to restore some of the museums, they returned a lot of the art. And since reunification of Germany, the museums have been completely restored, one by one, so they are in their previous glory. Their history is, in itself, an amazing one.

Museum 1: our first stop was the Pergamon museum, which houses not only the Pergamon altar, but a Roman facade from the western coast of Turkey, and the gates of Ishtar. To have these three magnificent pieces of ancient sculpture in the same city is breathtaking, but to have them in the same museum is really unbelievable. We had studied the Pergamon altar in one of our first art history classes that we took at Southern Methodist University several years ago. I never thought I would be in Berlin to see this gorgeous piece of work, but here I was, standing in front of it, taking in the larger than life figures.

This altar was designed and constructed in the 200 BC era, during Greece's Hellinistic Age, later than the 400 BC Golden Age of Athens when the Parthenon was constructed. It was located on the western coast of what is now Turkey,though it was all Greece until about the 1930's AD. It is not far south from the city of Troy, right on the coast. When Jack and I went to Turkey in 2008 we visited the site, which is now called Bergama. The ruins of the great city are still there, and we walked all around the site, climbing down and then up where the amphitheatre ruins are, and standing on the site where the Pergamon altar was built.

German archaeologists had gotten permission from the Ottoman Empire sultan to do excavating, and I guess part of the bargain was to take most of what was found. The altar is huge; think of a mansion with stairs that look like about three stories high. The relief figures are all around the altar and up the inside of the altar steps. In Art History speak, these relief figures are different from the classical figures of the Parthenon: they are much more emotionally expressive; their arms and legs show bulging muscles and straining poses. The scenes depict the fight between the gods and the satyrs, so the whole scene is of frowning and desperate men and women, determined to be the victor over the other.

The altar stairway is huge; and this was just one of the altars of the grouping. Again, one wonders about having Greek sculpture in Berlin, but the Germans saved the ruins from complete degredation. Since we had been to the windswept coast of Turkey we only had to imagine how all of this fit together. We visited the museum and this room a couple more times before we left Berlin.

The other rooms in the museum were just as fantastic - the facade of a Roman library and the Ishtar gates. They also had many other relics of the past: burial stele and sarphogagi and burial statues. We wandered through the rooms, just awe-struck at the age and the beauty of these pieces.

Museum 2: the next museum to visit was the New Museum. We wanted to see the head of Nefertiti. We knew that the city was working on restoring these museums to their former glory, but part of that restoration was the changing scene of the venues of certain collections. The Egyptian collection had been housed in several different places. The guide books told us the collection was now housed in the Old Museum, so off we went. However, we found out as we got there that the collection was now in the New Museum! Fortunately, all of these museums are in walking distance of each other, so we turned around and entered the New Museum.

We have seen a lot of Egyptian artifacts in many museums, but this one held the head of Nefertiti, so we went looking for her. The museum saved a special room for her, a circular room at one of the corners of an upper floor. This piece was made as a model for sculptures throughout the Egyptian country, since she was the wife of the Pharoah Amenhotep IQ, who changed his name to Akenaten. It was painted and in seemingly perfect condition. Her eyes are made of jewels, but one of them is missing, so when I looked at the statue straight on, it was a bit distorted because of the one missing eye. But the shape of the head and the neck made it a gorgeous piece of work. We stood there, taking it in, when a guard came up to us and started telling us about the head and why the German government had this piece. He said that the Egyptians really didn't want it because it was only a model made of some kind of plaster,not the usual marble or stone. It had literally been passed around for many years but the German government felt that it was a beautiful rendition of a very famous wife of one of the most powerful Pharoahs, so they wanted to give it a special place in their museum. This head draws many visitors to Berlin.

Museum 3: the Bode museum is another gorgeous building on the island, one that was designed and built by Bode, a rich German industrialist, at the beginning of the 20th century. The building, also destroyed during WWII, had just been completely restored. It is a beautiful Baroque building, with huge rooms, 30 foot ceilings, and marble staircases. The art in this building is not much to speak of - mostly 18th German scenes, but the building itself is just exquisite.

Museum 4: the Alte Museum is another beautiful building on the opposite side of the island. It is not a large museum, but its rooms are huge and beautiful. It houses mostly sculptures, which are copies of the famous Greek and Roman ones. We didn't see many new pieces, but strolling through the building was an experience in itself.

Museum 5: the Painting Gallery is across the street from the New Museum. It is probably the least monumental of the museums but it is impressive in and of itself. Most of the art here is German, not too memorable, but they have two whole rooms of David Caspar Friedrich, a German artist living from 1748-1850. We were introduced to his art in our art history survey class. He paints mostly dark, wintry scenes of mountains, lakes, trees, etc. The subject matter is not important in itself; it represents the futility of life and the darkness of getting to the end of it. A lot of his work is kind of spooky, but the detail is good. Artists didn't start going out into the scenery itself to paint until Monat and the Impressionists - in the early 20th century, so one has to believe that all of his nature is by memory.

We went to about five other musuems, located all over Berlin. We visited the art gallery near Potsdamer Platz. We had to return to this museum more than once. There is so much art one cannot take in everything in one afternoon. It has a fabulous collection of all famous artists from every era. We saw Rafael, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, some Spanish artists, all of the Impressionists and even some British art.

The modern art is located in two different places: one museum designed by Mies van der Rohe is near Potsdamer Platz in his signature minimalist building. Since the whole building is glass, the art is located in the underground portion of the building. There was another modern art museum, in a former Hamburger train station, near the Hauptbahnhof. The building was the usual Renaissance/Baroque design, but once we got inside, it really looked like a railway station - huge, and I mean huge, open spaces where the modern art could be set up. A lot of modern art tends to be gigantic, so this was the place for it. We also went upstairs and the building in the back stretched at least a mile and half, with rooms full of the weirdest stuff you have ever seen. Some of the German modern artists were very odd - I am thinking Beuys and even Raushenberg (though he was born in Port Arthur Texas). Anway, these rooms could hold huge displays. We had three semesters of modern art at SMU but still, some of this stuff is really weird. There is an exhibit at the Ft Worth modern art museum, a film that shows a man digging a post hole. It just loops and loops - well, I found a similar film in this museum. Either it was the same artist, or someone copied from someone.

We went to the photography museum that is dedicated to the Helmut Newton. This museum was very interesting; it had a lot of his memorabilia and all of his photographs he had taken, for the covers of magazines and for his own shows. His wife was also a photographer, so lots of her photos are on display also.

Let's see, what other museums. We went to the ethnology museum; German archaeologists loved to go to places like Bali and Mexico and islands of South America and sponsor digs. They evidently made arrangements with the host government to take some findings. The display of Mexico was about the Mayan ruins. They were beautifully displayed. The museum also had huge boats from islands I had never heard of - it was a great museum, and one that takes a long time to wander through. Really, if we had the time, we could have spent a few days there.

The museums dedicated to the history of Berlin I will describe in another post.

Berlin - Transportation

The first thing to learn about Berlin is the transportation system, unless you have a private driver who can take you everywhere. I love subways, so I was looking forward to learning all about it. The first thing I learned is that the subway system - the Ubahn - is not an "it". There are two systems which are separate but meet in certain stations.

I was used to the Paris metro, which I thought was confusing enough. But that one is pretty simple, compared to the Berlin system. In Berlin each line is numbered, and the signs direct you by the numbers only. Then I had to learn the destinations of each line, which is similar to other subway systems; they are named by the end of the line. So first we had to learn the numbers and then the names of the lines to figure out which direction to head.


Since we were going to be in Berlin for several weeks, we decided to buy a monthly pass. In the little station near our hotel we punched in our requests - these machines are also in English - and got a card, saying that our money was lost in the machine and we would have to go to some address to redeem it - no subway ticket, just a voucher. Of course we had no idea where in Berlin this addres was, so we were very frustrated.

We had already learned that there are not always information booths in every station, so we must have asked which station to go; I can't remember now. Anyway, we rode the U2 toward Pankow to Alexanderplatz to find the subway information booth to find out what happened to our money and get a monthly pass.

It was there that we found out there were two companies running the U and the S. Jack did his best to communicate our dilemna, but the BVG man just directed us to another office where we could buy tickets from a real live person. So we trudged up steps and down steps, trying to stay out of the way of the streaming people going this way and that. The signs are clear if you know what you are looking for. We found the ticket office and Jack waited in line to find out about the ticket and where to go to redeem our voucher. The amount for the monthly tickets was 100 euro, so we couldn't just forget about the money.

While he was in the office I was over in the corner, trying to make out the map that the BVG man had given me. A young woman stopped and asked if I needed help. In English? I asked. Of course, she said. She explained the two systems, one literally on top of the other and how to read the routes, etc. She was very helpful and I thanked her profusely. By that time, Jack had the tickets and the directions to the BVG office.

In Paris and London there are machines to enter the metro, where one pushes in the ticket and it pops out on the other side and the gate opens to let you through. In Berlin there are none of those things. We are supposed to carry around our tickets but everyone just enters the subway station and goes to the cars. There are subway police who ride the rails and check tickets, and there are signs on every car, saying that if you don't have a ticket you will be fined 40 euro. It is nice not to have those machines to walk through - the traffic runs more smoothly. Are the Germans more trustworthy to buy the tickets? I wondered at the philosophy of each country.

We learned a lot that day about the system, since we had to report to an office in some god-forsaken part of Berlin - somewhere we never went again. It was way on the east side of town, in a huge office building, near the Soviet TV tower, that I remember. The people were very nice and returned our money. I noticed a few days later in our little local U station that the machine where we had lost our money had a sign saying "out of order".

I carried our monthly tickets in a safe place in my purse during the whole month and only once did we meet a subway policeman - on a Sunday - and he found someone who did not have a ticket and was escorted off the train and made to pay the 40 euro. Since a day ticket is about 6 euro, it is worth it to pay for the ticket.

We were going to be in Berlin for the first week of October, which meant we needed a weekly ticket after September. I persuaded Jack for us to go back to Alexanderplatz to buy the weekly ticket at our leisure, and then when the first of October rolled around, we could stamp it in the machine, to show when we started using it.

On October 1, we went to the subway station for our daily field trip and I remembered that we had to stamp the ticket. We got on the train, enjoying the sights, when we were aware that there were subway police checking tickets. The woman checking our tickets, I swear, was disappointed that we had it stamped correctly! I guess we just looked like dumb tourists who did not know the ropes.

The two sets of subways are very efficient and always on time and, during the week, coming every few minutes. On Sundays the trains do not run as often. One Sunday we noticed all kinds of subway police, with German shepherd dogs. They were riding the rails that day because one of the German soccer teams was playing and all the fans were riding subway out to the olympic stadium.

Once we understood the signs - and the long German street signs end mostly in "strasse" so you just read the first part of the sign - we were able to navigate everywhere we wanted to go. The stations themselves are huge - in Paris everyone just gets off the train and goes out or goes to the connecting train - but here the stations are very long and there are shops to buy snacks and papers and postcards or to eat lunch or buy magazines. The stations that connect the U and the S are huge, and we had to be careful to follow the signs to go up or down or around. We had to know where we were going before we read the signs so we knew what to look for. One time we got on the wrong train because I did not know the name of the destination. By the time I pulled out my subway map and studied it, we were at the next station so we hopped off and tried again.

The next big step in learning how to get around Berlin was to figure out where we wanted to go and then figure how to get there. We had museums, places of interest and neigborhoods on our list of required visiting, so the first thing to do was to get a detailed map which had the U stations superimposed to make our journeys easier. We soon learned that it would be necessary to walk a long way once we arrived at the appropriate subway destination. There is just a lot of walking in Berlin, no matter how good the public transportation is. We really were not prepared for how long the blocks were, but I think we got used to them and accepted the walks as good exercise.

The U2 was our primary U bahn that we rode during our two week stay at our first hotel. This hotel was more or less in the middle of the city, so it was connected to most of the tourist sights that we were interested in. It was a horizontal, east/west line, and the S line looped around the city and then headed out to the suberbs. When we stayed in the eastern part of the city, we had a more complicated route to get around, since the U5 ended at Alexanderplatz, so we had to transfer to the U2 or the S. Traveling around Berlin is just long and complicated because it is such a huge city. Now I need to talk about what we saw - unbelievable history in the city and they are still working on construction projects all over the city to build it up to its former glory.

Berlin Part 1 a short history

August 30 came and it was time to visit Berlin. I have wanted to see this city for many years, since the Wall was torn down. I really did not know what to expect, except a lot of new buildings where the old ones had existed. I wondered how the eastern part of the city would be like twenty years after the Soviets had disappeared. There were so many things to learn about the city and I was ready.

I have tried to organize the topics of this city: the geography, the subway systems, the places of interest, the museums, the Nazi history, the Soviet history, the neigborhoods, the shopping, the restaurants and bars, the music, the new buildings, and the people. Those are 12 topics that I would have to hit upon to give anyone a feel for the city. Was I up to it??? I wasn't sure. But here goes.

Berlin has been the center of German history for about four hundred years. Bismark was from these parts, and when Germany actually became a country, the city of Berlin was chosen to be its capital. Along with the political business of the city came the social activity; as a result wonderful hotels and restaurants and museums and concert halls thrived here.

The German government directed the WWI activities from here, and Berlin was especially hit hard when the Germans capitulated. The Weimar government tried desperately to gain control in the 1920's, but government after government failed and chaos reigned - just in time for Hitler to step in and create some kind of stability. The people of Berlin were so worn down and aching for something to work that they embraced Hitler and his ideas - until they realized that maybe his ideas were not all that great. But it was too late, and they just went along with him and kept their mouths shut.

When the war started they thought it was a good idea and were all for it for years, until the Allies started getting their act together and making some progress, and the Soviets were inching their way west to control Germany. Then the Allies started bombing Berlin - and other places - to smithereens. Berliners were really suffering and needed help, so after the Allies destroyed Berlin they started the airdrops to save the people from completely starving to death.

Then relations with the Soviets became so bad that they built the Wall and the cold war started. Berliners overnight were separated from friends and families; the situation continued for almost thirty years until the Wall miraculously came down. From that time on Berlin has worked to become one city again, with brand new buildings, restoration of old buildings as they looked in former years, rebuilding of subway systems, etc. The restoration that started about twenty years ago is still very much underway all over the city. There is a vibrancy in the city which can be felt today.

We wanted to feel it all and investigate as much of the city as possible. We weren't sure how long to stay but decided on about five weeks. We have only one week left and we feel the loss of having to leave already. We have seen and experienced so much and everyday is full of exploring, looking, studying, feeling and photographing. In the following entries I will try to describe what we have seen and what we have felt about this big city.

Gottingen/Magdeburg Germany

We decided to stay in Gottingen an extra week so Jack could get to the doctor and even to a specialist. It turned out that the second set of pills that his doctor gave him worked and Jack was able to sleep at night. His head was not stopped up anymore. Miracle. I don't know what the doctor gave him, but they were probably some kind of steriod, don't you think? Anyway, he did not have to go to the other doctor and we had a few more days to relax or to drive through the countryside. We did a little of both.

Jack found some great- looking beer mugs to send to his beer-drinking buddies in Dallas. We found a Mailbox store - UPS - in Gottingen, so he went from bar to bar, checking out the glasses and deciding on three nice ones. He spent a small fortune sending them to Texas, but the reactions of his friends were great, so he was satisfied with his effort. And all of that beer drinking was fun too, as we checked out different beer glasses.

We finally got back to Wartburg. We had gone there a couple of weeks before to see Luther house and Back house, but we still needed to see the castle. Fortunately we picked a beautiful day to travel. We got there in record time, parked at the bottom of the hill with the rest of the tourists, and trudged up to the castle. This place has been here since about the 1200's, as a castle for German princes when they were carefully guarding their territories from each other. The castle has been restored and only guided tours are allowed. We waited for one in Engish. It was pretty interesting; it was more fun to look out the windows to see the extraordinary views from all sides. You can just imagine the enemy sneaking through the forest, trying to overcome the defenses of the castle. Even now the land around the castle is dense forest - I wondered how cold it would be in the winter with the layers of snow on the trees.

In the 1500's, after Luther pinned up his 99 objections to the Pope, he was a hunted man. He was told to explain himself and then he was excommunicated, which meant that any bounty hunter could go after him for a price. One of the German princes took him into his care and gave him a room in this castle as a hideout. While he was there, Luther translated the New Testament from the Greek to German, so he kept himself busy while he was being protected.

The castle has a large meeting room where they have concerts and other get-togethers to this day. (I will have to add photos at a later time; I am not at my notebook computer but at an internet cafe. Sometimes these hotels where we stay have wireless, but it is very expensive to use it).

A few days later we drove to a preserved Benedictine monastery west of Gottingen, near the little town of Munden. This monastery has been preserved also, which I find interesting since most of the catholic churches were turned into protestant churches in Germany. But these monasteries are usually out in the country in beautiful settings. This particular monastery is still very beautiful and the chapel is restored very faithfully.

The town of Munden is really a touristy town, with lots of restaurants and lots of tourists. The setting is just gorgeous, near the river and next to a forest. We had a great lunch there and enjoyed walking around the town and even getting some postcards. We have really been very lucky with the weather also - blue skies and lofty clouds and in the 60 degree range.

After more than a week in Gottingen we were ready to move onto our next stop, Magdeburg. This town is not far from Berlin, so it was deep in east Germany, so we were very interested in how the town would feel.

It turns out that this town was bombed extensively by the Americans, so there was nothing much left of its former buildings. We saw photos of the main street back in the early 20th century. It was a beautiful city, with tall baroque-type buildings lining its main streets. Everyone of them were destroyed by Allied bombings. Now those same streets had huge modern offices and new stores. The tram system ran in the middle of the street, with auto and bike traffic on either side. The downtown looks newer than many American cities, with very nice stores and cafes, bars and restaurants.

The large hotel where we stayed was also a focal point for a lot of parties and celebrations. One Sunday we came in from a drive out in the country to see the lobby filled with couples dancing to the music of someone, like Lawrence Welk maybe. There was not a person younger than 65, and they all seemed to be having a great time.

We visited the churches that the city had restored; they were huge and beautiful once upon a time. They have spent quite a bit of money making these churches look as they did before the war.

We made a trip to Wittenburg to see the church where Luther pinned his 95 objections to the pope, back in 1519. Wittenburg is a nice little town which now has tour bus after tour bus descending on it everyday. I was amazed that so many American tour groups come to visit this town. So many of these tours are church groups, headed by their minister who schedule times to preach in this church that Luther made famous. I saw one tour bus that had a sign in its window: Reformation Tour. I guess Protestant groups think this church is their beginning, so they want to step foot inside and savor the history. The Catholic church does not give so much attention to all of this, and why should they? It was just the beginning of the end of Roman Catholic domination in the world.

The town itself has adjusted to its famous place in history by outfitting itself with lots of restaurants, bars, hotels and cafes, parking areas and souvernir shops. This particular day one of the art galleries was selling plastic molds of Luther - about four feet tall. The gallery had filled the entire platz with about 800 of these Luthers, some red, some green, some blue. I will have to include the photo I took of these guys in my next post.

Seriously, the church where Luther started the reformation was indeed quite impressive. He was probably an earnest young man who was horrified at all of the richness and decadence that he witnessed when he visited Rome, the seat of the mother church. And he also heard from the German princes who were disgusted at so much of their money going to Rome to build St. Peter's. It wasn't a coincidence that he was protected by a German prince when he got into trouble with the Pope and had to hide out later. I am so glad to see the church where the Reformation started.

I guess we were ready to see the big city, Berlin. We turned in our car in Magdeburg and then took the train to the Haupbonhof. Oh, my goodness. This city is huge! More later on what we found during our five weeks there.

Jever, Germany Aug 2 - 6, 2010

Here we were in northern Germany, and guess what? It looked like Holland! Of course, it did, since it was part of the flat country on the border of the North Sea. We had no trouble finding the little town of Jever, and the hotel was on the main drag, so we drove right up to it. The owner was there to guide us to the parking area in back of the hotel. But oh my gosh, she nor her husband spoke a word of English. Right away Jack had to use his German, which is very good, by the way. But immediately he had to think German. He had bought a handy little dictionary, and it was by his side from that time on.

We walked into the small town to find a restaurant and some schnitzel! I was looking forward to eating schnitzel and pomme frites, so we found a typical place and had a nice meal. We walked around the shopping area; everything was shut down for the evening, so we could just look into the windows.

Our hotel was a very nice one; it looked like a huge family home, with beautiful furniture and accessories. Our room was a little one in the back. It was very adequate and comfortable and we had a good night's sleep. We reported to breakfast in the morning in the dining room; this breakfast came as part of the fee. It was a big dining room, with about ten tables, so we met all of the other hotel guests. I don't think a single one of them spoke English, but they were very friendly. I couldn't imagine why people would come to stay in this small town; but I think it was just a jumping off point for more outdoor activities, like hiking or biking.

Our first assignment here in Jever was to find the small town of Sandel where the Luehrs family came from sometime in the early 1800's. Jack had visited there with his family back in the 60's when they lived in Germany. Cliff, Jack's dad, had driven up there to find his relatives' graves before they had to report to Bremerhaven and the military ship that would take them back to the States.

Jack remembered it as a wind-swept, desolate place. As we drove through the countryside, we did not see that kind of scenery. These small towns had pretty little houses, lush green countryside and very good roads. It looked like Germany was very prosperous, at least in this part of the country. There were rolling hills, filled with corn or wheat, or dairy cows munching on the grass. Everything looked so peaceful and pleasant. I have included some photos of the cows, the land full of crops, and the dozens of modern wind mills. Many of the dairy barns had solar panels installed on their roofs. At least in this part of Germany the people seemed to be well off, though they probably worked very hard in the fields.

We drove to Sandel and found the church; no Luehrs there. We found a maintenance man and asked him about the name, etc. He said he had never heard of that name. We began to study the map. Jack had remembered that his dad always said Sande, not Sandel. Sande was another small town, not far from where we were but closer to the harbor. We drove over to Sande and found another church. Lo and behold, we were in the right place. There were lots of Luehrs in the church cemetery. The name Luehrs in German is really Luhrs, with an umlaut on the "u". We spent the next several minutes taking photos of the different headstones. I was so glad that we found this church; I think Jack was glad that he was able to trace his relative, though we wandered why they moved from this beautiful country to Michigan, many years ago.

We found that the church was open. Jack remembers that his dad found a Wilhelm Luehrs name on the list of those from this parish who had died in WWII. Cliff's first name was William. Sure enough we found the plaque and the name. The fact that there was a William Luehrs fighting against a William Luehrs in the Second World War was very sad indeed, but I am sure that this example was one of millions throughout the world.

We took several more photos the spot - I even found a woman named Cornelisen buried there. My maiden name is Cornelison, so similar that I had to take a photo of that grave also.

The next couple of days we traveled the coastline of northern Germany, someplace I never expected to see. It is really like Holland, especially the windmills and the low, flat countryside. We drove to the North Sea; there were lots of people spending their last days of their holiday biking, hiking, camping and just enjoying the scenery. When we got to the sea I was shocked - there was no sea! It was mud flats everywhere. The North Sea is so tidal that it literally disappears. Then I realized how the Dutch and the Germans were able to claim so much land and hold back the sea because of the intermittant disappearance of the water.

We spent about five days in this area and then we were heading south and east to Hameln, the city of the Pied Piper fame. I spent my last hours studying the map and marking a plan to get there. I planned to get a better map as soon as we got to a bigger city.

Jack was experiencing an allergic-type problem: his nose was completely stopped up and he could not breathe. I thought he was allergic to something in the air or the cool, rainy weather, and I insisted that he take some of my allergy medicine. But none of that seemed to help. We were just in Jever for a few days, but he was really suffering and wondered if he could stay in this kind of atmosphere. He was very discouraged and wondered if we should just head back to Dallas, if he was going to be in such pain.

We decided to skip Hameln and go directly to Gottingen to see if we could find a doctor.

Gronningen, Holland July 28 - Aug 2, 2010

Well, we were expecting a short trip up north from Arnhem to Gronningen - just about fifty miles. The train station in Arnhem was torn up, but only for those trains that were going south. We were told that we could hop the train with only one train switch north to Gronningen. We got to the train station fairly early, about 10:30, bought our tickets and trudged up the stairs to the platform.

After a few minutes, all of the train information blanked out and we were standing there, wondering if anything happened, or was it just a momentary glitch. Jack said, oh, nothing is wrong. I, the pessimist, decided to ask the conductor. He told me that the electricity went out about five kilometers from the station and there was no way to get to Gronningen from Arnhem that day. All these trains run by electricity, of course. I said, please come and tell my husband, because he will not believe me if I tell him the trains are not running.

The nice trainman explained it all to the two of us: the trains could not run from this station, period. We would have to take the bus to a neighboring town, board that train, go to Utrecht, and then change again in Utrecht. We had a good idea of the geography of Holland by now, and we realized we were not headed north but just zig-zagging from west to east and back again. Eventually we would be someday heading north. The trainman even helped us drag my suitcase up the stairs and around the station to the bus.

We took a half hour bus ride to the little town of Ede, hopped on that train and headed to Utrecht. We had been in the Utrecht train station many times, so we knew our way around. I wasn't sure of the next leg of the trip. I asked at the information desk; he directed me to track 11. We headed down there. I asked another train - woman this time - about this train. She said, yes, get on this train and get off at some town, but be sure to get on the last cars of the train. The front cars would be going to Belgium, but the last cars would be going north to Gronningen. I followed her directions to the T; at this point Jack was not sure where we were headed but somehow he trusted me.

We finally got to Gronningen and to the hotel. We thought that we would have a pleasant trip north; it ended up as an adventure. But we were safe for the night. The hotel was very nice, another NH hotel. It was in easy walking distance of the town, and we immediately found nice restaurant for our evening meal.

The next day we headed into town and looked up the tourist information bureau to see if they had a walking tour. They did and off we went, looking up at this and down at that. This town is so far north that I thought noone even lived here, but it is a very lovely town, with lots of nice restaurants, a pretty good town hall and a nice cathedral. We checked the cathedral first and found they had Friday noon organ recitals, so we made plans to go. This was a university town, and they have a pretty big music school.

We took it easy here; there wasn't too much to see and we had actually come this far north to get a car and drive into northern Germany. We enjoyed our few days here, wandered around the town, explored the markets and had our usual wine break in the early afternoon.

The town had its usual pedestrian walkway with its stores of shoes, eye glasses, electronics and telephones. But the stores were, as a rule, very junky and I would not buy anything from any of these stores. The merchandise was just not interesting, and the clothes stores were really bad. I am not sure why I say that, except the presentation was just not interesting.

We took our walking tour and saw a lot of the university buildings; school was not yet in session, so this part of town was pretty quiet. It was a pretty little town, and we enjoyed our time there. But we were ready for our next adventure: getting our rental car and driving over to Germany. I had gotten a pretty good map and so I was ready.

We got up early on Monday, August 2, got a cab to Hertz rental company, got the car - little Ford Focus hatchback - and off we took to Germany. It was a beautiful day and we were in good spirits. We had enjoyed our three months in Holland. It is a beautiful little country with lots of history, lots of canals and lot of windmills. We were glad that we had taken the time to explore Holland, and we had a good appreciation of its art and and its geography.

Arnhem, Holland July 19-28 Part 2

Our most important reason for going to Arnhem was the WWII battle fought there, "A Bridge Too Far", and we had explored all of the history of it for several days. But there were two other interesting sights we wanted to see: the Koehler-Muller museum and the Het Loo Palace.

Koehler-Muller Museum

Not far from the city of Arnhem, just a bus ride away, was the estate of Mrs. Koehler-Muller. She was a rich German woman who had married a Dutchman, Muller, and they built a beautiful hunting lodge in the middle of probably the only woods existing in Holland. Her father was an industrialist of some sort who hired Muller to run his business. Muller made it into an even more profitable business, and, he married his boss's daughter.

In the meantime, she, - I keep calling her she because I can't remember her first name - was very interested in art and had a good friend who was an art dealer. He kept an eye out for good product, and he had a chance to buy several of Van Gogh's last paintings. This was probably in the early 1920's. She and her husband designed and constructed a huge estate in the middle of these beautiful woods and intended to spend their days there. As part of the estate, she established an art gallery for her works that she purchased.

However, as the economy began to slip in the 1920's, she realized that she may lose everything she owned, so she willed her lodge and all of the art work to the Dutch state. As a result, we now are able to visit this wonderful estate and see Van Gogh's work.

Most of the Van Gogh was done around 1890, and so many of his very famous pieces are there: a lot of his outdoor work, as in the wheat fields and, of course, his cafe at the forum, which I love. There are other wonderful works there - I think some Mondrian's - mostly modern art. The house itself is great, and the grounds are open for biking and hiking. We spent the whole day there and had a wonderful time.

The Het Loo Palace
The royal family of the Netherlands had a royal palace, Het Loo, in the country, away from their official home in town. It was fashioned after the Versailles, but on a much smaller scale. Sometime in this century, the royal family willed the palace to the state, so now it can be enjoyed by all. Again, we took a bus from downtown Arnhem to the town of Appledorn, just a few miles away. From its central bus station, we caught another bus out to the estate. Of course, I had to question the bus driver about the place to catch the bus back to the central station, which he did very graciously.

We walked into the grounds of the palace. The entrance is right on a busy street in Appledorn. I think that it must have been way out in the country once upon a time, but now that it is open to the public, things grew around it - like hotels and restaurants and busy streets.

The estate is also in the middle of some glorious woods, so the walk up to the entrance is quite beautiful. We stopped at the little coffee shop and had coffee and a brioche, then made our way to the entrance. It was probably about eleven o'clock in the morning, so there wasn't too much stirring. We had found that the Dutch are not morning people; we had the place practically to ourselves.

There were two things: the house and the gardens. We decided to go through the house first and then enjoy most of the time in the gardens. The house itself is quite beautiful, though not extraordinary, like Windsor, with its huge ballroom and dining rooms. This was really a country estate for a family. The rooms were not huge but very comfortable. When Queen Wilhelmina gave over the crown to her daughter, she moved here permanently, and her rooms were kept as she had them until her death.

Ok, now the gardens. The royal family had designed this garden to copy the gardens of Versailles. They weren't nearly as large, but they were certainly beautiful. They were very French: laid out very symmetrically, with lots of water - fountains and running waterways, and lots of colorful flowers. There was a garden on the side where the queen had her rooms, and another one of the side for the king. The whole gardens stretched out about three football fields. We were so lucky that day; it was sunny and bright, with lots of lazy clouds in the sky. It was a perfect day. I have included a few photos of the gardens. I can just imagine strolling through these wonderful grounds, or setting up for a wonderful party. They are beautiful and serene and just the perfect place to enjoy the afternoon.

Our time in Arnhem was coming to a close. We had a wonderful hotel room, with a great setting of the Rhine right outside our room. We had seen very interesting and beautiful things almost everyday. We found some good restaurants in town, and we had taken a lot of photos. I guess we were ready to head to northern Holland. We headed to the train station for the short train ride to Gronningen. We left Arnhem with lots of good memories.

Photos: Jack, Het Loo Gardens, the full moon outside our hotel room, overlooking the Rhine, and Het Loo palace.