On Sunday, we visited Museum Insel Hombroich and Raketenstation Hombroich near Neuss. On the way there I saw a tractor tilling a field. It reminded me of home! Hombroich is out in the country and is an artist haven. It's full of modern architecture that houses several artists who display their work all around the grounds. Sunday was beautiful weather, so we strolled leisurely through the parks to see all the beautiful architecture and art. I've posted a few pictures on getjealous. The architecture was extremely modern. They were all either brick or glass with edgy designs. One structure that was different than the rest was the Musik Palast at Raketenstation Hombroich (a former NATO base). This abstract building was going to be exactly what it sounds like, a music palace for musicians to live and perform in. It is, however, not finished because Karl-Heinrich Müller (the founder of this artistic corner of the world) died. Construction will hopefully resume soon, but funeral preparations, ceremonies, and mourning have been first priority for some time now. Müller was a musician and is now buried on the grounds of Museum Insel Hombroich. One of the artists living there built bird houses all around his grave "so he will always here the music of the birds".
At Raketenstation Hombroich, there is an amazing garden. The garden has a cement wall probably 7 or 8ft high built all around it. The wall goes about 17in into the ground to keep pesky rabbits and rodents out. This wall virtually eliminates wind in the garden, so it gets very warm. It's a perfect environment for growth. The layout of the garden is in a Japanese style with a maze of stone pathways through the vegetation and a large square pool of water in the center. The garden has only existed about three years, but it already produces spectacular plants. The produce like pears, tomatoes, grapes, apples, nectarines, and squash are all extremely large (and delicious looking)! The lady that was working in the garden was very passionate about her job. She was so excited to share all the information she knew about the plants and the museums. She would dash from plant to plant having us try different herbs and vegetables.
We ate lunch in the cafeteria at the Museum Insel Hombroich. They had delicious potatoes, breads, and homemade marmalades from the fruits of the garden at Raketenstation Hombroich. YUMMI! Then we meandered around through the modern buildings, looking at the different art displays. There were large displays outdoors like "Parliament" (a large circle of huge metal chairs) and a ring of stones with pictures carved into them. The mixture of nature and art made a delightful Sunday afternoon.
Ginette decided to take me through Düsseldorf on our way home to see the modern architecture of the Harbor. These were huge office buildings with very unique styles. One building had interesting patches of color in the glass windows. Another had these strange colorful creatures crawling up the walls. Pictures of some of the more interesting things are on getjealous. The craziest of them all were the three buildings side-by-side that were built by architect, Frank Gehry. Their shapes are out of control! One is white and one is a reddish brown color, and right between them is a building that knocked my socks off! It looks like waves and is covered in chrome plates that have interesting dents so it reflects the light in all sorts of directions. These buildings made me dizzy. I would get lost inside them. We drove by a more classical building that is an art institute. Ginette said they put on a big open-house every winter and that we will definitely go see it. Then she showed me a street of city houses. On one side of the street it looks like a place you should avoid at night. On the other is a row of houses painted with murals and bright colors. One house had very realistic bugs painted on it. Others were cartoon characters. The story behind this area is neat. These buildings were abandoned at one point, so a few people moved into them and fixed them up. They weren't paying rent because nobody knew who owned them. When the city started getting things together they came knocking on their doors saying they needed to pay rent, but the residents refused. They fought for a long time and won. They still don't pay rent. They only pay for their utilities, as opposed to the other side of the street. Ginette has a friend that lived there.
So after a wonderful weekend of site-seeing, I'm back in my German class trying to remember which article goes with which noun. I'm just not sure what they were thinking when they decided to stick random articles on nouns without any rules! I've also decided that Germans have officially overused the "sh" sound. I was looking in the dictionary for a word starting with sd today, and in a normal dictionary you get to sch and you start going one page at a time because you know you're close. Not so in the German dictionary. Sch goes on FOREVER! It seems like ever other word in conversation is sh this and sh that. It makes picking out different words even harder. But I've been really trying to learn as much German from this class as possible so I usually spend several hours trying to memorize vocabulary words. I fell asleep in the process today.
Good stuff Emma, keep it up!
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