Goodbye, Dolly.....

Down with the Blue Sheep (Blaue Schafe)

Alle sind gleich - jeder ist wichtig
[Everyone is equal - everyone is important]

There are so many things to see in this world, but where do we start? And where do we finish? As Dolly Parton smiles goodbye, I am cruising on the River Main, in Germany, and, while the world is filled with clichés and tears, I also feel bereft.....

She would have loved these sheep, and their message..... Someone from Locust Ridge in the Great Smoky Mountains would have known full well what it was like to be one of twelve children in a cabin in the woods, and how each individual had a value, whatever their strengths or weaknesses. 

Then, overhead, there sails a Steinadler, (Golden Eagle), the broad-winged apotheosis of Germany, ragged and careworn, and (probably) lacking in state support.....

Gentle as the sweet magnolia
Strong as steel, her faith and pride
She's an everlasting shoulder
She's the leaning post of life
She hurts deep and when she weeps
She's just as fragile as a child
And she's a sparrow when she's broken
But she's an eagle when she flies

Eagle When She Flies
Dolly Parton

Let us face it. The world is not always as we would wish it.  There are differences of opinion:

Communist youth, forward!  Fight fascism

There are myths and misunderstandings:

There are plenty of legends and appropriated stories, sometimes appropriated to fit someone else's narrative:

St George/Heiliger Georg

And there are baroque ceilings to crane your neck to which may or may not make sense.....

Of course there are treats like organ lofts in cathedrals:

And pastel shades in alleyways:

And palaces that go on for ever:

The Würzburg Residenz

With ceilings in vast stairwells:

The world's largest continuous ceiling fresco, in the Würzburg Residenz,
painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo between 1752 and 1753

 

And chandeliers in ballrooms:

To crane your neck to:

And windows that frame your view:

Or which concentrate your vision:

Or which tease your imagination:

I am on a River Cruise through (a largely reconstructed) medieval Germany..... For a while I thought I was going on the Rhine (again) and, with news of drought and record lows on both the Rhine and the Danube, I expected to be cancelled (as most, if not all, river cruises on those rivers in August were this summer), but, I was mainly (?) on the Main and as luck would have it, the Main was not affected.....

The River Main is a 525-kilometre-long (326 mile) waterway entirely in Germany and the longest tributary of the Rhine. It has two sources: the White Main (Weißer Main) which rises in the Fichtel Mountains in northeastern Bavaria and the Red Main (Roter Main) which rises on the eastern slope of the Franconian Jura (Fränkische Alb). Apparently the rainfall (and perhaps snow melt) up there has been sufficient this year to keep the water levels up, but the river is also controlled by a series of locks (with recycling systems which preserve 60% of the water).....  On this cruise we actually touched four 'rivers' - the Danube, the Danube/Main Canal for over 100 kms, the River Main for 384 kms and then finally the Rhine where we disembarked; in total we  covered 590 kms and went through 52 locks:

Our itinerary started in Regensberg, then near Kelheim we visit Weltenberg Abbey, the oldest monastery in Bavaria, where we drink a delicious (well I thought it was) black beer (Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel) brewed in the Weltenburger Klosterbrauerei, the oldest monastic brewery in the world......

The Abbey sits just by a dramatic limestone gorge through which the Danube squeezes:

The next stop is Bamberg, where some years ago I lost my hat in a rainstorm. I search for it in vain, then seek solace in a glass of Rauchbier (smoked beer), another enjoyable example of why it is always stimulating to travel....

 

Then we stop in Nuremberg, infamous for Hitler's rallies and then later for the trials:

Here I visit Albrecht Dürer, the inventor of the logo:

Whose medieval house (he lived here from 1509 until his death twenty years later) was slightly damaged by aggressive aerial behaviour in October 1944:

Though it has since been patched up and was reopened in 1971 to celebrate the artist's 500th birthday:

I am shown round by Agnes, Albrecht's wife, and feel quite at home. She tells me that her husband was the greatest Northern European renaissance artist, that he revolutionised printmaking and that he was also a formidable entrepreneur and a polymath to rival Leonardo.

Dürer undertook three long journeys to Italy and the Netherlands, and became famous in his lifetime throughout Europe. He produced between 4,000 and 5,000 prints of his 1515 woodcut of a Rhinoceros (an animal he never saw), which was a veritable money-spinner (a rare surviving example of it was sold at Christie's New York in 2013 for $866,500).....

We cruise on. It is tranquil on the water, the banks green, though the surrounding fields and woods show the dry browns of thirst.  We pass agricultural villages, sleepy places where people fish, or nurse their babies, waving to the passing foreigners:

We pass industrial towns, where barges quietly disgorge or pick up bulk cargoes:

We glimpse onion-domed churches and dominant monasteries:

Then, as evening falls, 

The river seems to fall asleep:

Then a new day breaks, and the river gently stretches and steams under the banks:

Part of the fun of travelling is people-watching.  Observing customs and costumes:

Würzburg is the centre of the Franconian wine country, and it is traditional to drink white wine (preferably Sylvaner) on the Old Bridge:

Though some may prefer spritzers:

Or just smiling:

Or perhaps not:

This voyage is nearing its end, but we stop briefly in Wertheim, at the confluence of the Tauber and the Main, and I climb to the top of the ruined castle for the fine views:

Then we moor at Aschaffenburg, an uninspiring town with a massive fortress (but an excellent Bierkeller) before completing the itinerary at Mainz, one time home of Johannes Gutenberg, who, in the mid fifteenth century, made a breakthrough that puts all subsequent Information Technology into the shade.....

Though Gutenberg was by no means the first printer in the world, he revolutionised printing by inventing movable metal type and by developing oil-based inks. He also benefited from the local wine trade employing an existing wine press to stamp the images of his reversed letters onto parchment or paper. His printed bible - the first of its kind - could be reproduced 180 times in the space of time that it took to create one in manuscript....

And so with that touch of religion, the news breaks that Dolly Parton has passed away.  

From here to the moon and back

Who else in this world will love you like that?

Forever and always, I'll be where you're at

From here to the moon and back

From here to the moon and back

I'd blow you a kiss as I wish on a star

Counting my blessings for all that you are

Thank heaven for you and to God, tip my hat

From here to the moon and back

And I'll spend forever just proving that fact

From here to the moon and back, 

Who will love you like that, 

From here to the moon and back

From Here to the Moon and Back

Dolly Parton

Juliusspital, Würzburg

Oh All this blue it ain't sky and sea

Some of that blue's gonna fall on me

Oh, the future's looking bright

There's a better day!

Look away, look away

Better Day

Dolly Parton

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With many thanks to Jorge and Zara of Riviera Travel, Captain Balint, and particularly Vladimir and Okan

But, whatever  the relevance, this is especially for Dolly:

Look around and see what's going on

Everything just seems to be so wrong

If we'd just open up our eyes

We could see a better life

I still believe.

There's a place for all of us

If we'd reach out

And touch the love

Nothing's gonna ever change it much

...if we don't

If I don't, if you don't,

If we don't, if I don't.

If you won't, if we don't.

If We Don't

Dolly Parton/Linda Perry

Down the Rhine

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.]

 

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:

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....

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.  Perhaps this is related to Erinnerungskultur (memory culture in which the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime are commemorated) - a word I have only just learned but which I had seen evidence of in other cities.....

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....

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

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.

Am Rhein (Along the Rhine) - Emil Nolde (1906)

But outside it is Christmas....

And everyone is having fun:

So I join in:

And wake up in Bonn.....

Where the writing is (literally) on the wall:

Just outside Beethoven's house:

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....)

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:

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).....

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:

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.....

*****

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

*****

Dedicated to someone I know who likes 4711

*****

And, should you be interested, this is the link to my earlier piece about Cologne:

https://www.richardpgibbs.org/2019/07/ode-to-cologne.html

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