A Museum visit during a pandemic

 Although the museums reopened after a few weeks of lock down, it is still quite an enterprise to enjoy the ones in other towns and cities. I have a railway card, a season ticket  which I paid for and which includes 10 days of almost free unlimited day travel a year. Because of all the restrictions since March, I had hardly been able to make use of my card. The same applies to my museum card. There are many interesting exhibitions, planned long before this disastrous year for the Arts, and I would love to see some of them. The method is to book immediately the museums are open, as only online tickets with a time slot are valid, even if the entrance is free with a season ticket.

Bartje, a character from a well-known childrens book, standing in front of the museum, corona proof!

There is a very interesting exhibition of paintings by a well-known Dutch artist, Henk Helmantel in the Drents Museum in Assen, a train ride of almost 2,5 hours from where I live.  In order to get my daily dose of exercise I walked to the station, a 35 minute walk, bringing my packed lunch, a ryebread sandwich with cheese. Of course, one can’t eat nor drink anything on the train as mouth masks are compulsory at all times on public transport. A friend joined me in Amsterdam. Once arrived at Assen, our destination,  we bought a take-away coffee at a stall. Although normally there are tables and chairs, all restaurants and café s are closed, which means we were not allowed to sit down except on a public bench outside to drink our coffee. In November this isn’t always an inviting idea, so we drank our coffee on the hoof, out of necessity, knowing that the very attractive museum café with its delicious cakes and sandwiches, would also be closed. Fortunately the powder rooms were open!

Details form larger paintings

The exhibition was worth the long train journey. We spent almost 3 hours there, admiring and taking in the astonishing paintings. When we were done, lunch was far overdue. Normally my friend and first go for a coffee with a treat, then do our museum tour, after which perhaps some shopping may be included, followed by a nice meal in a place which had taken our fancy, before setting out for home again. Alas, given the circumstances this was no option, so we headed directly back to the station, eating our late lunch, a packed sandwich, on the way there. Back in my hometown, I grabbed a microwave dinner and walked home again as the buses don’t go that frequently.

At least the exhibition was well worth the effort and discomfort. Besides, there were some health benefits as well as I had taken over 14.000 steps, and done almost 10 km’s, not at all bad.

Food for thought?

I thought the exhibition was wonderful - for those who like contemporary figurative art. Perhaps not interesting for modernists, but I was in awe. Having had no lunch, his larger than life painting of cheeses, originally for a cheesemaker, and his crusty loaves, made me hungry! Most paintings have a grey blue background, and often he uses red as a striking contrast. Living next to one of the many historic churches up North, his church interiors have a certain serenity. Helmantel plays around with light, shining on and through old glasses and bottles. His fruit and vegetables, eg. onions in a cardboard box, can almost be plucked from the paintings. He has an amazing eye for the smallest detail. Some of the paintings are large, and they were given the appropriate space so that they could impress even more. But also the very tiny ones, paintings of dead birds for instance, moved me. Such a waste, a  delicate and colourful bird, even more beautiful in death.

In spite of the limitations, it was a day well spent.

 

The kindness of strangers

It isn’t easy to go on long walks now that all facilities are closed. Just imagine doing a 15 km walk, on a very foggy and chilly day, and not finding suitable shelter along that route. After some 10 km, passing through a tiny village a woman addressed my friend and me and asked if we would like a cup of tea! We must have looked cold and a bit weary. She was just going out, but invited us into her warm and cosy kitchen, made us tea and even gave us a big piece of apple pie, fresh from the oven, which she had baked to celebrate het husbands birthday. We kept the prescribed  social distance, but she wasn’t concerned about catching this virus and just welcomed us unconditionally. It gave us a new impulse to set out on  the last leg of our  walk. So many people now are scared of receiving a guest in their home, even family and friends. This complete stranger gave us what we needed at that moment. An angel on our path???

On the last leg of our walk, the fog became more dense

Day 5 Paderborn

 

PADERBORN

To get the most out of a short holiday it is best to visit a town or place on the way home which one has never visited before and make it an extra holiday. For us it was Paderborn, just an hour’s drive North of Brilon. It took us some time to find our way into the center within the city walls, as our satnav stopped at a critical point. However, once there we were very pleasantly surprised.

Our first view of the "Dom"

Paderborn has a cathedral (Dom), but apart from that many interesting churches, a University and a beautiful park with a cluster of streams, formed by 200 springs which together form the source of the river Pader, the shortest river in Germany. The park is attractive, with its colourful flowerbeds, winding paths, bronze sculptures, seats and park benches galore, and a wide choice of bridges across the various streams.

It was again a beautiful day, so we enjoyed coffee and cake on a terrace overlooking the Cathedral before exploring the town.

In the Cathedral, the Dom, a service was in progress for the schoolchildren who are starting a new year in this rather difficult time, with so many restrictions due to this pandemic. They were present with their parents. We decided to postpone our visit till later and started with the church opposite, an old Romanesque church with a very clean, sober and modern interior which emphasized the lines of the structure, the Gaukirche St Ulrich. 

One of the entrances to the Gaukirche

We wandered around the back of the Cathedral, past the busy entrance of a school, towards the Evangelische Lutheran Kirche Abdinghof, ignoring the big and important Museum in der Kaiserpfalz. Paderborn has several interesting museums, but we did not have enough time to visit them. Besides, the weather was too glorious to spend time inside. Our visit was just a superficial first impression.

The Abdinghof church of St Peter and St. Paul is also a Romanesque church, begun around 800-1000. From 1015 -1803 is was a Benedictine monastery. In 1803 the monastery was disbanded and became a barracks for the Prussians. It is now a church again, and most interesting with a crypt, and a chapel for the Abbot in one of the towers, which connected the monastery with the church.

Above: The Abbots chapel

The church with its two spires, towers over the park and source of the river Pader. The park looked very attractive on this warm day, with old and young enjoying it, the many streams giving it a very relaxing feel. Near one of the springs is a group of bronze sculptures, true to life, depicting the village scene as it once may have been, of women doing their laundry in the clear springs. They seem to have been doing that here till the nineteen fifties. It is a scene sometimes still seen in remote villages in Italy. Although perhaps hard work, gossiping together might have been one of the attractions and may have been a very good form of bonding.

Alas, we couldn’t stay long in the park, so we made our way up into the town again, to the Market Place where with the Town hall, another beautiful building. We could not go in, as their was a wedding party going on. Not far from the Town Hall we hit upon the Market Church, a former Jesuit Church and College, now part of the Theological Faculty of the University. The church with its splendid high altar is very impressive. But so are the adjoining buildings, with its various ornate entrances, fit for the Jesuits I think, who were never modest but proud, and of course learned. One can’t possibly overlook these buildings.

The Town Hall

The Market Church, formerly belonging to the Jesuits

The high altar of the Market Church

The ornate pulpit

Detail of the high altar

On our way to the Cathedral we came across this statue of a remarkable man

Last but not least we explored the Cathedral and the cloisters. It was now relatively empty, so we had time to look around. In the cloisters we found a very colourful memorial for the dead of WWII, quite unusual.

Paderborn Dom

One of the many side chapels

Crypt. The relics of St. Liborius are kept here

Amazing mosaics in the crypt 

The brightly coloured war memorial in the cloisters

Although there was a lot more to be seen, we had to leave. It was 5 o’clock and we still had a 3-hour drive ahead of us, and needed time for a meal as well. It took some time before we left the parking garage, as I stupidly tried to feed the machine with the wrong ticket. Till my friend pointed out where I might have left the correct one! You can’t imagine the relief when we found it. Can you imagine parking in any big city in Holland and paying just €7.50 for almost 6 hours?

A drink before leaving in a cafe behind one of many sculptures and fountains

Once in our own country again, we found a restaurant in a village I love and had a delicious al fresco meal of sea food, before setting out on the final leg of our trip. It was a worthy end to a surprising midweek.