Vitra Campus

For another rainy day activity, we had discovered that there was a design museum in Weil am Rhein, on the outskirts of Basel. Vitra, a Swiss furniture manufacturer, has a unique factory complex comprising buildings by various world renowned architects including Nicholas Grimshaw, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Alvaro Siza, Herzog & de Meuron and my favourite, Tadao Ando.

The Frank Gehry designed museum is the centrepiece of the Vitra Campus, but strangely, it was the most underwhelming of the buildings. It appeared to eschew the edict of form following function with its profligate use of “look at me“ twirls and random angles. Subsequently, this made it very easy to photograph.

I have been an admirer of the Japanese architect Tadao Ando ever since I recognised his 1981 Koshino House in Ashiya, Japan as “my” house. My taste for shuttered concrete has been ridiculed over the ensuing years, but it has stood the test of time. Just being in and around his conference pavilion here at Vitra has confirmed my fascination with Ando’s brutally beautiful simple style. This visit had the same spiritual quality as my pilgrimage to the house and studio of Alvar Aalto in Helsinki.

The VitraHaus, designed by Herzog and de Meuron in 2010, is the flagship store for the Vitra Home Collection. The exterior appears as a random stack of graphite black, pentagonal tubes. The interior quite cleverly guides the visitor down through five spectacular levels of the company’s products like a very up-market Ikea. The furniture on display was often intelligent, invariably ultra stylish and expensive. But, I am afraid that I was more taken by the building itself, especially the delightfully sculptural staircases.

The Zaha Hadid designed fire station displays none of the hallmark fluid shapes of some of her other famous projects, but its angularity is highlighted by zig-zag, shard-like shapes of shuttered concrete panels. I loved it.

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Black Forest

We spent a long weekend in the Black Forest. At this time of year especially, it should be called the Green Forest. We know why it is so green – it rained all the time we were there. We took the (in)famous B500 Hochstrasse from Baden-Baden south. This road always features in lists of the world’s best driving roads. It is 65 kms of fast smooth sweeping sections interposed with hairpins through dense forests and elevated sections with ridiculously panoramic views. Ideally, you don't want to be driving a puny Fiat Punto.

We stayed in the chocolate boxy village of Simonswald, about 20 kms out of Freibourg. It was well endowed with typical Gasthauses which reminded us of what we missed about living in Germany – cheap, hearty evening meals accompanied by cheap reasonable wine and really good beer.

  

We lodged at a very affordable, traditional local hotel, complete with the mandatory gargantuan breakfast. By necessity, we found that we had, in fact, learned some German in our three years in Munich.  There was a lovely little chapel situated on the side of the mountain just above our hotel. Because of the rain, we never did get to visit it.

  

Boris (our GPS) was being his usual berserk self, miffed when with we programmed in “no highways”, he would send us down some apparently remote but wonderfully picturesque goat tracks.

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Orval

A couple of weeks ago we experienced a rare beautiful sunny Sunday, as all Spring days should be. Hence we took off through the rolling pastures and forests of the Ardennes to the west of here, destination Orval. We were accompanied by any number of midlife-crisis Harleys and an almost operatic accompaniment of Ducatis and high revving Japanese bikes.

Orval Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in 1132 which has a rich history involving the Priory of Sion, the Knights Templar, buried treasures, gold ring retrieving trout and Nostradamus.

It is an operating monastery which provides the monks, who chose this Cistercian vocation, a “life which is ordinary, obscure and laborious”. To laymen, their best known labours involve the production of its Trappist beer, the profits from which go to charity. This thought tends to augment the feeling of benevolence whilst consuming this lovely beer.

Although the monastery itself is closed to the public, the extensive ruins of the medieval abbey are open as is the museum in the undercroft of the church, the beer museum and the gardens. Another bonus - there is a seniors’ discount on the entry fee!

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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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