A Bonn Voyage
Mitsuko Uchida commands the keys: Sir Simon Rattle conducts: The Berlin Philharmonic follow instructions and the Largo of Beethoven's Piano Concerto N0 1 in C Major, Opus 15 fills my room......
In Germany (Memories of a Nation) Neil MacGregor writes that, No river, not even the Danube, runs so deep in the German imagination, is freighted with more cultural, historical or musical associations, than the Rhine. It is the Rhine that flows peacefully in the evening sunshine as Heine's Lorelei combs her golden locks and lures sailors to destruction......
Well, I cannot speak for the evening sunshine, but, as we slip downstream from Rüdesheim through misty clouds I am certainly filled with cultural, historical and musical associations. Here is Wilhelm Camphausen's 1859 painting of General von Blücher and the first Army of Silesia crossing on the Rhine near to Kaub on January 1st 1814. [Looks bloody cold, Ed.]
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And here, as we again pass the golden-haired Lorelei, is Friedrich Perlberg's 1880 painting (after a steel engraving by Carl Ludwig Frommel which had been printed 50 years before) of the River Rhine with Loreley:
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| Well, it’s a marvellous night for a moondance, (Van Morrison) |
At the beginning of the 19th century English writers such as Byron and Shelley travelled through the Rhine Valley on their way south, excited by the scenery, the history and the legends they encountered. For instance:
The river nobly foams and lows -
The charm of this enchanted ground,
And all it's thousand turns disclose
Some freezer beauty's varying round:
The haughtiest breast its wish might bound
Through life to dwell delighted here;
More could on earth a spot be found
To Nature and to me so dear -
Could thy dear eyes in following mine
Still sweeten more these banks of Rhine!
George Gordon, Lord Byron
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage III lv 4
And this aroused the wanderlust in the Inter-railers of the day, and inspired tourism, which was further encouraged by the introduction of steam navigation in 1827 so much so that in 1830 the region received 16,000 English visitors. In turn this led to a demand for pictorial souvenirs and artists such as George Clarkson [Surely not? Ed.] Stanfield, John Forbes Hardy and James Webb cashed in on this, and they soon became an obligatory feature in the annual exhibition at the Royal Academy....
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| St Goarshausen - George Clarkson Stanfield (1860) |
Then, as we approach Koblenz, Burg Stolzenfels looms out of the grey:
Built by Archbishop Arnold von Isenburg of Trier, this castle was used to collect Rhine tolls until 1412. Then, in 1689, the French destroyed it during the War of the Palatinate Succession. Later it became the property of the city of Koblenz until, in 1823, the ruins were given to the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia who rebuilt it as the epitome of Rhine Romanticism. [Portmeirion on Rhine, perhaps? Ed.]
And so we pass the monstrous equestrian statue of Emperor Wilhelm I at Koblenz's Deutsches Eck (the German Corner, where the Moselle flows into the Rhine) and dock. This statue was one of many dedicated in 1897 in gratitude for Kaiser Bill's unification of Germany.
The statue was dismantled and melted down by the French military government immediately after World War II, and only the plinth was preserved as a memorial. However, following controversial discussions after the reunification of Germany, a replica of the statue was erected on the pedestal in 1993.... [O tempora! O Mores! Ed.]
Anyway, just by our mooring, there is a more contemporary take on the state of the union by mother and daughter team Laura and Christel Lechner.....
And not far from here there are three segments of the Berlin Wall placed close to Wilhem's memorial. Lothar de Maizière, acting President of the GDR at that time, was present at the opening ceremony in June 1990. A bronze plate on one of the segments is a reminder of the victims of the German division between June 17th, 1953 and November 9th, 1989.
Koblenz (in German the stress is on the first syllable) was founded by the Romans and the name derives from the latin for confluence. It is a city of some 115,000 people, who mostly live in modern housing as almost all the old houses were destroyed in WWII. There is a vast castle above the East Bank of the Rhine here, which may be reached by cable car....
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| Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, Koblenz |
But I find myself (having - on this occasion - passed by the Ludwig Museum) in the ultra modern Forum Mittelrhein:
Which houses a brilliant art gallery, concentrating on the art and history of the region:
The display covers sculptures from early Christianity to pictures from the present day. I am particularly struck by this self portrait by Herm Dienz, subtitled My Way Back. Painted in 1945, having denounced Hitler's destructive politics of violence (in Der Gefreite vermichtet die Welt - The Private Destroys the World) this picture reflects his personal, desperate, situation directly after the end of the war
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| Selbstbildnis - Mein Weg zurück - Herm Dienz (1945) |
The explanatory notes, in German and English, are very informative, and with the place almost to myself, it is possible to be immersed in a colourful and stimulating world.
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| Am Rhein (Along the Rhine) - Emil Nolde (1906) |
But outside it is Christmas....
Though he's not in - he is feeding the birds in the market place:
Ludwig only lived here for three years, and obviously took his furniture with him when he moved on. There isn't much of a view from the window:
And the garden is a bit gloomy, filled with grumpy statues:
But it is worth a visit - the last time I came here it was closed....
However, it is time to sail on.....
To Cologne (where the Oh! comes from....)
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| Rheinauhafen: The Crane Houses (2009) |
Where the people (Cologne has a population of about one million and has approximately six million visitors every year) are crammed into the Christmas Markets:
And the Cathedral could do with a brush up:
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| The gothic Catholic Cathedral of St Peter |
I have visited before (if interested please see the link at the end to my previous blog piece published in July 2019).....
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| The Golden Bird sculpture by H A Schult above the City Museum |
And there is a familiarity about the place. So I duck into the Brauhaus FRÜH am Dom for a quick Kölsch..... And I am welcome:
So much so that almost without thinking I find myself dancing with a buxom lady in the Museum Ludwig:
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| Black Nana - Niki de Saint Phalle (1968/69) |
Better that than standing outside George Segal's 1967 Restaurant Window 1....
Or falling asleep in the stairwell.....
It is an enormous gallery, with a labyrinth of corridors and rooms, housing a collection that includes the most significant trends of twentieth-century and contemporary art. It was founded in 1976 with a donation of 350 works of art from Peter and Irene Ludwig. The building, conceived by Cologne architects Peter Bussman and Godfrid Haberer, was opened in 1986, but reorganised and reopened in 2001.
There's too much. I feel I am in one of Cy Twombly's enormous canvases.... Time to move on.....
And, so, passing the last German Emperor (Wilhelm II, or, to give him his full name, Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert of Prussia) on his high horse at the beginning of the Hohenzollern Bridge....
I weave through the crowds to the east bank of the Rhine and make my way back to my ship, admiring the views as I go:
It has indeed been a Bonn Voyage. At 760 miles (1230 kms) the Rhine is the second longest river (after the Danube) in Western Europe. I have just been on a short trip up and down the Middle Rhine, and even here it is a formidable flow of water. It is a chilling thought, however, that, according to the International Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine Basin (CHR) the changes in our climate may cause the river to massively decrease in volume, or even dry up completely within the next 30 to 80 years, which is why I will leave you with this suggestion:
And so, as a torrent of notes from Stephen Kovacevich ushers us out with Beethoven's Piano Sonata No 21 in C Major, Op 53, Waldstein, I wave goodbye to the Rhineland- Palatinate, and thank my friends Sue, Jenny and Valerie for their company, Tour Manager Scott Shillington, Riviera Travel, and the Captain and Crew of the SS Geoffrey Chaucer for looking after me.....
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The river descends rapidly and winds between hills, not high, but steep, and of beautiful forms. We saw many ruined castles standing on the edges of precipices, surrounded by black woods, high and inaccessible. This part of the Rhine, indeed, presents a singularly variegated landscape. In one spot you view rugged hills, ruined castles overlooking tremendous precipices, with the dark Rhine rushing beneath; and on the sudden turn of a promontory, flourishing vineyards with green sloping banks and a meandering river and populous towns occupy the scene.
Frankenstein, Chapter 18
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
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Dedicated to someone I know who likes 4711
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And, should you be interested, this is the link to my earlier piece about Cologne:
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