(DAY 2)

The purpose of leaving Belgium the day after we arrived was business: Eric and Stefan wanted to meet their developer who happens to live in Germany, a mere two hours from Brussels. And the reason I tagged along was to glimpse a bit of a second European country, if mostly through the train window. Had I known that the tickets would cost 82 Euro per person each way and that I would not get a “Germany” stamp in my passport, I might have stayed in Brussels and visited a couple museums there instead.

I’m happy I didn’t realize the price until we were headed home. Watching landscapes float by through train windows is one of my favourite things. The overcast sky that day made the green fields look greener. There is no “Welcome to Germany” billboard, so I didn’t notice we’d changed countries until we had to transfer in Köln (Cologne). By ducking a bit you could see the Cologne Cathedral right from the train platform.

In Düsseldorf, we were slightly confused by the subway system– you had to buy your tickets on the subway train itself. It was a bit of a rush to figure this out and buy three tickets before our very near stop, but we made it to Altstadt (Old Town) intact. Once the boys found each other and picked a restaurant, I had a perfect little grainy bread sandwich and rushed off down the street to see some art.

First, I went to the Kunstverein (contemporary art museum). The Harry Flynt exhibit was entertaining, but I found the rest of the stuff absurdly crappy. I left within 30 minutes, crossed the street to the K20 (Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen) and filled the remainder of my afternoon seeing a special exhibit on Gillian Wearing (whom I’d never heard of before), plus several Picassos, a Matisse, a Pollock, Léger, Magritte, Miró, Andy Warhol and so and and so forth.

Of their collection, the K20 website says:

Founded in Düsseldorf 50 years ago was a museum which today features a singular selection of 20th and 21st century art. Among the undisputed highlights are key German Expressionist works, paintings by Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, and Jackson Pollock, and installations by Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik. Found alongside these well-known icons of advanced art are numerous outstanding examples of classical modernism, of American art after 1945, as well as major installations and photographic, filmic, and video works by contemporary artists.

After strolling back to meet the boys, we got a brief tour of the Altstadt and then drank some mulled wine before heading back to Brussels.