Marvelously Modern Munich

i have to admit it, we're having a lovely time in munich, and i think it's in large part due to the fact that munich is a lot more like america than venice, or strasbourg, or pretty much any of the other places we've been so far.  the fact that megan and i aren't always the tallest people on the metro is deeply reassuring.  also, it really helps that there are lots of good looking men here, and they're not dressed like extras from a 1989 video. 

i fear all that makes me a shallow person, but i'm dealing with it.

today we went to some museums.  our plan was to go to neuschwanstein (sp?) castle, which is about 2 1/2 hours outside munich.  it's ludwig II's place, and it's the castle disney based the sleeping beauty castle on.  however, by the time we got ourselves together, and got some laundry done, the soonest the train could get us there was 3 and it closes at 4.  and there's a long line.  and there's scaffolding covering the entire west side of the castle, and the main reason to go see it is so you can take lots of pictures of how awesome it is from the outside, since you're not allowed to take pictures inside.

i could go on, but you get the gist.

so we went to 2 museums in town instead, which was really fun, and then we tried to go to a restaurant called 'hofbrauhaus', which is a famous place, but we couldn't find it and were cold and hungry, so we went to a different beer haus, which had terrible food but good strudel.  so - not the day we planned, but a very nice day nonetheless.

i'll tell you something about german museums that's  annoying (you're welcome), or at least at the ones we've gone to in the past few days.  we've been to 3, and each one was a really nice museum, nicely laid out with amazing art and not too expensive.  but they have a security guard in each room, who just stands there and stares at you.  on the rare occasions that one guard has to cover 2 rooms, they follow you from room to room and stare at you. 

also, about 8-10 inches in front of each painting/statue, there is some kind of laser alarm, so if you get too close to it, the guards come in and act like you've tried to spray paint a smile on american gothic.  now i get that they don't want people touching the art, but there are a lot of paintings that we wanted to get close to to see what medium they were using, what the textures were like, etc.  in one case, there was a dog in the painting and i thought its head was turned one way, and megan thought it was another, so we were pointing at it trying to explain what we were seeing to each other. 

the security guard came in and stood Next To Me and just hovered until we moved on to the next room.  it is NOT a pleasant or relaxing atmosphere in which to view art.  megan and i left feeling like they were gonna send out a memo to all the other museums about the two close-art-standers.  i don't know if they've had a rash of art vandalism or what, but if you really love art and want to get up close and see what's going on, apparently munich is not the spot for that.

that being said, we had a grand time.  we have very different taste in art, so it's fun to see what the other person sees.  she loves contemporary, non-representational art, and i love hyper-realism and the pre-raphaelites, and all the sparkly religious art.  we both pretty much agree that klimt is super-cool.  i think there's a klimt museum in vienna, which i'm very excited to go see. 

let me share with you another dirty art secret.  i think cy twombly is full of crap.  i never heard of the guy before this trip, but there were a few of his pieces in peggy guggenheim's gallery, and there were entire floors of him at one of the museums here.  to me he represents why people hate 'modern art'.  he scribbles some stuff, and then sells it for millions. 

they had one room full of paintings with various blobs of color, and then paragraphs about how it's a metaphorical representation and exploration of a famous turkish sea battle...blah blah blah.  here's a link to his work:  http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cy+twombly+images&qpvt=cy+twombly+images&FORM=IGRE#x0y689

i'm not a fan. 

also, ironically, at the guggenheim gallery, there was a painting that i had seen about 25 years ago at the philadelphia museum, after which i wrote a short story that ended with the character going to the museum and seeing this painting, and feeling like she's totally out of step with everyone, because she just can't understand it.  the painting is called either 'the rose' or 'rose', and it's a cream colored canvas about 5x5 with narrow black lines creating a grid on it.

that's it.  it's basically graph paper on a canvas.

makes me grit my teeth.  then i get over it.

tomorrow we leave for vienna.  i can't believe we're in our last few days.  it's been such an amazing trip, and though i'll be glad to get back to my everyday life, i'll be really sad when it's over.  it has definitely been a celebration of life tour, and i've continued to feel family and friends with me SO much throughout. 

there's been a lot of missing mom, which seems to be getting a bit more intense as november creeps up, but although there've been lots of tears, i always end up feeling grateful and happy.  happy that i knew her and had her for almost 40 years, grateful for our family and friends, and grateful that i was able to be back there with her and all the people who love her those last few months.

a few times i've missed her in the past few days:

watching megan braid her hair when it's wet, and remembering mom sitting and braiding my hair for hours when i was in middle school so it would be kinky the next day.

drinking coffee or tea

eating fruit and yogurt and granola for breakfast.

looking out the window on the train

using the writing paper at the hotel because mom would never let such nice stationary go to waste

looking at all the icons in the museums

looking at all the pencils in the museum gift shops

putting on my fabulous flowered socks from a shopping spree years ago

looking at my hands (mom was admiring my hands years ago, and was shocked when i put them up to hers and showed her that they're exactly the same)

going past a window with lots of beautiful germanic-looking knit sweaters she would have loved

a hundred thousand other moments. 

it's great - there are so many moments where i'll get really teary and then i'll picture her rolling her eyes and laughing and saying "oh, mer!" at how silly it is that i'm getting teary over a croissant because i remember mom liking croissants. 

reality-checks are important.  :o)

well - it's taken me significantly longer to write this than i expected.  (as it has Every Time i write something.)  we're on the train on our way to vienna, and there's free wi-fi.  we just had a very mediocre meal in the dining car, which was made wonderful by the fact that we're sitting on a train, having a beer and eating lunch while we look out the windows at the beautiful countryside rolling by. 

life can be so good!

i hope all is wonderful on your end and that you're having a glorious weekend!