Culture Sunday.Kultur Sonntag 15.05.11

  It was really chilly when I woke up this morning. It was drizzling outside and the weather was dreary. Today is Culture Sunday and most of the museums entrance were free. Pita had confirmed that she and her friend Franz would join us together. The weather was suppose to be nice but it rained and rained. Claudia was not able to go to the musuem with Kate because she fell out of the bike. She wasn't feeling well. Kate is such a nice mother, she packed most of the goods and Claudia's favourites as a care pack.

  Later then, Kate drove me to the Huemarkt and I had to walk to the chocolate musuem. I was lucky that the rain wasn't really heavy when I was on my way and I prepared an umbrella with me. I saw a handfull of people standing next to the entrance of the musuem. They had no umbrellas. Poor thing. The Germans are so punctual that they don't even bother to let the visitors in although it was raining heavier. It came to an extend that it hailed. It was really dumb. A German guy himself had pulled out a sarcasm over the punctuality his kind while he was striked by particles of ice. The wind was really strong too. Finally, they allowed us to enter when it was exactly 10am. It was ridiculous. 

  It was a really nice tour in the chocolate museum and we tasted the waffles dipped in warm chocolate from the fountain. It was really tasty. We wanted to buy some chocolates but it was too expensive. I realise a really interesting culture in Germany. They sell items that are soon expiring with a really cheap price. Even the chocolates. I could afford to purchase but I just can't afford to finish that whole chunk of sweet poison. Then We saw the chocolate dispensing machine from the earlier days. Chocolates were used earlier as a medicine for cold, cough and deworming. The spices like peppers, cinnamon and cloves are used widely in chocolate production. Chocolate was once as expensive as silver and pirates were actually hired to steal the kakao beans. 

 After that we went to visit the Ludwig museum. I finally visited the museum that owns a relatively large amount of Pablo picasso's work donated by Peter and Irene Ludwig. There are not only his works but others too. It is hard for us to understand what exactly the artist are expressing through their art work. Especially modern art and Pop art. I saw a really funny art work with the title, 'Burning Pain'. It was small piece of lightly toasted bread. There was a few rounds of metal wire around the bread against a block so that the bread was upright. a small part of the bread was burnt. In front of the area burnt stood a fire lighter. It made me laugh because it was something that I didn't expected. It was simple but nice and well expressed. The sculptures were really interesting too. Near the entrance of the exhibition stood a huge sculpture of a fat lady supporting her weight by tipping her toes with her left foot. I find it funny.

It was a pity that Pranz had to leave after we visited the Ludwig museum. Pita and I then went to the romanische-germanische musuem where they place artifacts dug out from the area in Cologne.  There were really cool items from the romans and parts of the romans building. The most intersting and beautiful items were the mosaic floor and the carvings on the stones or graves. The romans were really artistic. We couldn't learn much from this museum because there was too much information for us to know.

Pita was really hungry after our visit to the chocolate museum. She was looking for a Backery. However, we ate after 2 hours. She and I bought a Laugenbrezel from the famous franchiase Bakery - Kamps. I realised that I really enjoy eating the salted pretzel here. It tastes so delicious. We went through the Hohe strasse to Neumarkt and went home.The weather was nice then.

When I arrived home, the weather was not getting any better. It rained and I felt really cold. Kate and I wanted to go for concerts as planned but it didn't work out because I was late and she forgot about it. It was still a nice day when I was able to have really warm dinner in such a chilly weather. I watched a tatort that Kate and I didn't understand the story. Maybe I need to keep watching the series to understand it. :)