The original plan was to go back to the Ludwig Museum (outstanding building, important German expressionist paintings) but your trampess read in her guide book that it was only recently that the collections of the Ludwig family and Ferdinand Franz Wallraf had been separated that that each was now in its own museum. The Wallraf-Richartz-Musuem (Richartz having funded the first building) was in a new building finished in 2001. If the Ludwig Museum merits a visit the WRM merits a dedicated journey - quite possibly the best museum of its kind your trampess has ever been to. The tramps spent a full 4 hours in the museum (with a break for lunch) – while the trampess has a higher tolerance, the tramp’s normal preferred time span in a museum is 1 hour on the basis of maximum concentration, maximum benefit, and no visual fatigue. He is more than willing to return, but unlikely to stay much longer. Four hours is a statement. The hanging is superb, the explanations are interesting and on different levels (both historical and technical), the paintings are clean and well lit, the composition of each room is well conceived, the path through each floor is clear and the sequence of floors makes sense (well it is Germany – but after the gross disappointment of Hamburg . . .). Oh, and by the way every room is a different colour selected perfectly to match the period and the paintings in the room.
The tramps spent 2 hours on the first floor alone and began to wonder if they would have time to see the whole collection. On the other hand if the rest was anything like the first floor there was no question that they would stay til closing time (or later if the guards didn’t forcibly throw us out). Instead of being numbered (though they are that as well), the rooms are each titled, and while at first blush the titles may seem a little more like advertising headlines, they are in fact very apposite and enticing. The first floor (there are three) covers the Middle Ages (we spent 2 hours there!) and begins with The Invention of Art and proceeds onward. For example, the 4th gallery is Beauty as Style and has a number of crucifixions (with sub-headings such as Multimedia in the Middle Ages, and the Lead and the Extras – explaining how a great number of people, not necessarily from the period, come to surround the crucifixion, and what they represent). And on to the Baroque floor and then the 19th century floor.
The tramp was sent at the end of his 4 hours to the museum shop to find suitable gifts for the young children of the family we stay with in Austria (a really good museum almost always has a really good gift shop and this on was no exception), while the trampess dashed down to the special exhibition in the basement: Alexandre Cabanel – The Tradition of Beauty – with exhibition architecture by Christian Lacroix. What, one has to ask oneself, is exhibition architecture and what is a dress designer doing in a serious museum? Cabanel, it turns out, was the Alma Tadema of France – sumptuous paintings in a pre-Raphaelite style of ancient myths and contemporary heroes and great beauties from all ages (including, of course, Cleopatra). I raced through knowing that the tramp would be chomping at the bit. As I was about to dash out, the guard grabbed me (not the normal sort of behaviour from a museum guard, but then this is no ordinary museum) and told me I had missed a room. OMG how could I (I had hoped he hadn’t timed my whiz ‘round as he surely would have thought me the Philistine of Philistines, not realising I was beginning my fifth hour)??? I thanked him and dutifully went in the direction he pointed. I am still not sure why Lacroix was necessary (maybe he helped fund the exhibition?) but what was clear was that this was every bit as fantastic in every way as the rest of the museum, basement exhibition or no. What is impressive about the whole WRM is the total quality of content, description, and display. As the tramp related over supper that night, he looked (but really looked) at every single painting. Have you ever said that about any museum?? So it was not totally surprising that the tramp, proud of the presents he had found, also asked, somewhat sheepishly, since he is opposed to buying any books any more (as opposed to books on Kindle which he has the trampess order with abandon) if it was, please, all right to buy the catalogue - explaining that it had every picture and every wall text (all of which are in both German and perfect, literate English). Since it is not the trampess that has banned book buying, it was pretty easy to say yes especially since he wanted the English version. So all in all a stunning experience. And so stunning that there was no time for much else – some shopping was squeezed in (Cologne is an easy place to spend money and it was good that our shopping time was severely curtailed by our cultural dedication) before heading back to the WLW.
The next morning after an early breakfast, the WLW headed in total confidence torward Mellau. If there is one village we know how to reach without 5 maps, both GPS systems geared up, and the trampess on the verge of a nervous breakdown, it is Mellau. So with Parsifal in our headphones we set off. (Please note the perfect choice of music for the pre-Easter rush to the mountains.) The arrival was as easy and happy as anticipated. Presents were pulled out the bag from the WRM for the children (which they immediately – and most satisfyingly – began to play with) and a bottle of wine was handed over to our friends; another was opened and the prospect of long days in the mountains and no more struggles with maps or GPS systems or unplanned factory visits lay before us. Of course, nothing but nothing ever goes as smoothly as one hopes and the first small obstacle thrown in our path (others were to follow) was that the local lift does not begin to operate until the 1st of June. But happily, the new lift (which last summer was closed for much needed refurbishment) in Bezau is already zooming up and down the mountain (what determines the different opening dates for the spring season of two villages approximately 2 miles apart? Do they have different ski seasons as well??? Did they simply agree that the new lift in Bezau was so expensive that it should have a clear 2 months of revenue before neighbouring villages with higher peaks started to compete in the supply of lifts????). While the lift was running in Bezau it was not yet the official spring season – so a trip from the top of Baumgarten down to the parking lot (my daily hike is to the top station) is 10 euros!!! From the middle station, the cost is a mere (!) 5 euros (the tramp’s preferred hike). Since a season ticket is 40 euros and goes until October, this is clearly hiking robbery! A family of about 10 (from grandparents to grandchildren) were a little stunned when they got on at the middle station and said they wanted to ride to the top, but were told they had to ride down to the bottom to buy full tickets for the journey (so much for encouraging exercise in the great outdoors! Or maybe it is designed to encourage exercise – hike up, hike down, attain total fatigue and maximum calorie outlay.) Luckily extravagance was mitigated by a 10 point ticket (effectively giving a 20% discount) and a long weekend in Zurich for a family wedding! But not before a few adventures.
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