Continental Clementine : POP!

Finally, I can check Germany off of my list of countries to conquer. This Saturday the 18 of October my entire house went on a trip to Cologne, Germany. Since it is only two hours away, we took a bus and had a wonderful time!

After a few hours on the bus, we arrived in Cologne and had a bit of free time, Most of Cologne was destroyed during the second World War, so it is a very modern city. For an hour, we walked around the city and it was mostly shops and a few restaurants. For lunch, I had my very own Bavarian pretzel with cheese and it was yummy!

Pretzels are the best!

With full stomachs, we visited the Cologne Cathedral. According to legend, the church houses the bones of the Three Wise Men and the entire church was built to honor them. The church, like many other Gothic churches, has beautiful stained glass windows but there was one in particular that really stood out. Since some of the church had to be renovated after World War II, one of the windows was blown out and replaced with regular glass. Instead of recreating the old stained glass window in 2007 a new, modern stained glass window was placed in the cathedral. Instead of depicting scenes from the life of Christ, it is a geometric grid of colorful squares, the same colors present in the other windows of the church. In this church, this window has been a point of controversy, since it does not fit the style of the church. I however, found it to be beautiful and felt it fit the church well in combining the old with the new.

Cathedral of Cologne

The highlight of Cologne was certainly the Ludwig Museum of Art, which houses a collection of modern art. Inside the museum are Russian avant-garde paintings, Picasso masterpieces, a gallery of photographs, and other works of modern art. For me, the best thing about modern art is the way it makes me think about what I am seeing. Not only that, but modern art usually incorporates the viewer into the piece, and I find the interactivity to increase its appeal. The special exhibit was all about pop art. In this exhibit, they showed pieces from Andy Warhol like the Campbell's soup cans and his screen prints of Marilyn Monroe. There were also pieces by Lichtenstein and installations by Robert Rauschenberg that were wonderful to see in person, Honestly, I loved the pop art and could have spent hours wandering through the special exhibit. My favorite work of the day was Jasper Johns "Map 1967-1971." It is a large work of a map cut into triangles and rearranged. If you ever visit Cologne, the Ludwig should be the first stop on your trip!

Jasper Johns "Map 1967-1971"