Trier

We were invited with a group of friends to a Roman dinner in famously ex-Roman Trier. It started out at the Luxembourg railway station, whose main hall features this striking stained glass window depicting the old part of the city and also a fancifully painted vaulted ceiling.

Our trip to Trier involved a rollicking ride through the green and blossoming countryside of southern Luxembourg before continuing across the border and through the vineyards flanking the German side of the Mosel River.

At the Trier station, although only looking for a map, the staff at the tourist information kiosk suggested, nay, mandated a prescribed itinerary through the city. Feeling particularly anarchic, we headed off on our own way, taking in firstly the Basilica. This was built on the orders of Emperor Constantine at the beginning of the 4^th century. Through various incarnations, it is now used by the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland. After being heavily damaged by fire following allied bombing in 1944, the interior decoration was not reinstated, leaving exposed brick walls affording a wonderfully austere ambience which I found appealing - definitely not Assam brothers rococo.

Although not authentic, the rather splendid ceiling is said to resemble the original. So here is the mandatory ceiling photo.

We continued through the palace gardens which were populated by ducklings and locals doing what they do when the sun comes out – taking their clothes off. We passed the Imperial Baths, said to have been the grandest and most impressive Roman baths in the world, on our way to the amphitheatre. This was built in 200 AD for the usual gory entertainment involving gladiators and animals. We were able to access the cellar complex underneath the arena which apparently housed condemned prisoners and exotic animals. Of interest were the vomitoria, a colourful figurative description of how the crowd of 20,000 was afforded a quick exit from the arena.

So finally, we joined the others who had followed the shopping itinerary, for a refreshing white burgundy sitting outside the Weinstube Kesselstatt overlooking the glorious Cathedral of St Peter and the Church of Our Lady. The evening’s Roman dinner featured good company and, uh, interesting food.

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Am Tunnel

For a wet Sunday afternoon activity, we visited a most unusual art gallery. The BCEE bank here in Luxembourg has linked several of its buildings on the Bourbon plateau by extending part of the pre-existing underground casemates of the ancient city fortress. As a public gallery, the "Am Tunnel" hosts mainly works by local artists. It also houses a permanent collection of the Luxembourg born, American photographer, Edward Steichen (1879-1973). The works of Steichen were brilliant, the rest, a little less so.

The Hague

We spent a couple of days in The Hague together with Craig, Sophie and Elliot in what was best described as a “contained” apartment. Retiring to bed and morning bathroom rituals became, by necessity, precisely choreographed. As an added challenge, the apartment was accessed by a wonderfully geometric, vertiginous staircase.

  

The architecture of The Hague appears quite dissimilar to that of Amsterdam. It is much more like Brussels with many examples of Art Nouveau and Deco styles including a marvellous glazed ceiling shopping galerie.

  

One of the reasons for our visit to The Hague was to see the apparently amazing tulip display at the Keukenhof Gardens. Due to winter’s reticence in moving along, there were no tulips. Holland. Springtime. No tulips?  The closest we came to a tulip was this remarkable ceiling in a department store on the Grotenmarkt.

  

As with many other European capital cities, The Hague has its own controversial Richard Meier designed building. I have always admired his minimalist, ultra-clean white style and this was not disappointing. The city hall and library complex was also immense. The locals have nicknamed it “The Ice Palace”.

The Hague having been the haunt of the other Ingrid for a number of years, we were given a treasure hunt list of must-visit places throughout the city. As some of you might imagine, it seemed to include a lot of very impressive and uncheap shops and restaurants.

  

The Hague landscape is wonderfully punctuated by canals (of course), extensive parks and myriad squares. Whilst most of the latter are paved, some like the irregular shaped Lange Voorhout are delightfully tree-lined and still impressive in their wintry nakedness.

  

On the last afternoon, Craig and I took a wander around the port of Scheveningen which I recalled from a Half Ton Cup held there in 1979. On the yacht club pontoons we saw the usual suspects, but the most elegant “yacht” was the “Estrella”, a converted workboat now apparently used for charter and parties.

  

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Escher and Mondrian

The Hague has a number of world renowned art galleries and museums. The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, home to many works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Hals, Holbein, et al, was closed for renovation. Fortunately, the magnificent Escher Museum in the former Royal Winter Palace was open. Ingrid has always been a great fan of his work because of its mathematical connections, so this was a must-do on our itinerary. One is able to see his entire oeuvre and witness the development of his style from the original simple woodcuts to his mesmerising optical illusions and “Metamorphose” series. We highly recommend a visit.

Ingrid’s favourite was “Reptiles”, as she did a university paper on the mathematics involved in this. My favourite was a carpet woven in the image of the lithograph “Rimpeling”.

There was an interesting additional exhibition of “Seeing the world through Escher’s eyes” with some classic optical illusions. As well, there was a room of optical art. As often happens, the exhibits were either pretentious or spectacular.

Battling the unhelpful public transport system of The Hague, we then visited the Gemeentemuseum. It was built in 1931-35 to the design of popular Dutch architect H P Berlage in the modern style of that era. Whilst the exterior is linear and solid, the interior is pretty funky. It houses a very impressive, temporary exhibition of the old masters’ paintings from the Mauritshuis – no photos allowed, unfortunately. Vermeer’s “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” was apparently on holidays in Japan.

In its De Stijl Art Movement section, the Gemeentemuseum houses the world’s most complete collection of Piet Mondrian’s works.  As well as the iconic minimalist geometric works, there were many examples of his earlier styles including my favourite cubist style “The Flowering Apple Tree”.

The museum featured many of the “Neo-Plasticism” works for which Mondrian is best known, including his last painting “Victory Boogie-Woogie”. My favourite is the “Composition with Lines and Colour: III” below. In fact, I am toying with the idea of creating an homage to this for our living room.

As we have often found, the rest of the exhibits were, let’s say, not to our taste. It is always a mistake to read the accompanying descriptive texts – hyperbole is a polite description. Ingrid was particularly affected by a large installation of apparently scrap plastic hanging from the ceiling. Fortunately, the decoration of the building itself went some way to compensate.

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