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Caspar David Friedrich is one of my rare modern faves, by which I mean
post-16th-century, so the exhibitions in Germany to celebrate his 250th birthday
were a temptation. The following trip takes in a few of them, and his
birthplace, but the biggie, which was on at the Alte Nationalgalerie, finished
on the 4th of August. So I'm also hoping that the works from the Berlin biggie
will be back in the permanent collection meantime. To the Heathrow Hilton Monday night, as is my habit. Checking in I was asked again to pay a deposit for anything I might order and consume. Refused again as I'm only sleeping. Refusal accepted, with a different explanation as to why it's thought necessary. This time some guff about customers being unhappy bringing their credit card down to the desk if they order room service. Tuesday 20th Berlin Met our tour manager Marion at check-in and then breezed through check-in and security, relatively speaking, and so was sitting with a black Americano and an almond croissant by 8.30.  The
10.35 flight was not too delayed
so we arrived around 2.00 at Berlin Brandenburg, a brand new, spacious and shiny
airport. After clustering at baggage claim we met Tom the tour guide outside and
coached it in the sunshine to our first visit.The New Pavilion is a green cube-shaped thing of loveliness built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, next to the Palace of Charlottenburg. The inside decor and furnishings are not so much to my taste but there is a marvellous collection of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, worth the trip in itself, especially The Garden Terrace (see right) and a very Friedrichy painting of a huge spooky cathedral which is not by him but lovable nonetheless. The scary architectural theme was continued when we got to the Monbijou Hotel. Our group were all in the new wing, which involved taking the lift to the second floor, navigating a long corridor with a kink, looking for another lift, going down in it and getting completely lost. Our first group meal was at an Italian opposite the hotel. This was fine for me as being a veggie means eating Italian when in Germany anyway. Roasted veggies and cheese to start was followed by veggie pasta or veggie pizza, so I plumped for the latter, which was topped with roasted veggies, but was fine. For dessert we had mixed platters of panna cotta, tiramisu and creme caramel to share. Being at the end of the table next to someone who was lactose intolerant increased my fair share nicely. Wednesday 21st A crack-of-dawn departure (8:00!) from the hotel for a day trip by coach to Greifswald, Caspar's birthplace, the coach ride taking three and a half hours! On arrival, around 11.30, we started at the Pomeranian State Museum, which has surprisingly no exhibition space devoted to dogs, but did have a special exhibition, centred around Caspar’s famous The Chalk Cliffs of Rügen (see above right), on rare loan from its current home in Winterthur in Switzerland. Several smaller gems made for another unique treat. We had a local guide from the gallery who knew his stuff and delivered it well in faultless English. And showed us a big famous tapestry too.  The
included lunch was in the Museum restaurant and was
tasty but not bulky, thankfully. The main course for the carnivores was
meatballs with half a cooked beetroot, each with a circular divot carved from
the centre. My veggie main course was beetroot risotto, embellished with little
semiball's of beetroot!
Following lunch, we took a stroll around Greifswald, taking in Caspar's birthplace and some of the architectural highlights he would have grown up around, including a visit to the church of St. Nikolai. The coach then took us to Eldena Abbey (see right), just outside the city. A favourite and characteristic collection of ruins much reused by Friedrich in many of his paintings, which proved yet another highlight. We got back to Berlin around 8.00 and I headed off to Alexanderplatz Station and the nearest Burger King, as in Germany they do an even longer selection of plant-based burgers than Italy, including, among the multideckers with odd additions (macaroni cheese?) a plain small cheeseburger. Man cannot live on roasted vegetable platters alone. A vegan cinnamon scroll was picked up from a doughnut shop on the way back, and lo it was good. Thursday 22nd A blissfully later start this morning, 9.45, and a walk to the Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie) where we first looked at some impressive Romantic stuff by contemporaries of Caspar, including Schinkel. Then we met up with Sintje Guericke, a curator of the recently-closed CDF exhibition here. The gallery floor with the room devoted to Caspar was yet to reopen after his works from the exhibition had been moved back, but they were all hanging and ready, so our group was snuck behind the barriers and we had this always-special room to ourselves, with the curator as our guide. And some works sent to the Dresden exhibition left gaps which had been filled by paintings by our man Schinkel. Another trip highlight, possibly the highlight, and a life highlight too. The curator was a mine of information about not just the Friedrich exhibition gossip, but also the 1945 Flacktower fire and the urban myth that some paintings reported destroyed may have been stolen by the Russians and even now lurk in a corner of the Hermitage basement. For lunch I promenaded down the Unter den Linden, had a flamm cuchen and a rhubarb soda in the cafe where we used to take breakfast on my last trip, and strolled back via the new Humboldt museum. After lunch a coach took us to the Kulturforum Kupferstichkabinett, to admire some Friedrich prints and drawings propped up on easels specially for us, including the famous self-portrait drawing. The same building houses the Gemaldegalerie where we looked at a variety of Old Masters, me mostly Italian, but also Flemish stuff, van Dyke and Vermeer. For our last night in Berlin, we set of for Il Punto, a restaurant patronised by Angela Merkel in her youth, judging by a photo on the wall. It was a cut above the Italian of our first night. Friday 23rd Dresden At 9:00 we checked out of the hotel, for a three-hour coach journey to Dresden, with a stop for what Tom persists in calling 'biological comfort'. On arriving in Dresden we stopped by the Albertinum to admire views Dresden, the very modern synagogue, and a modern memorial to Caspar, and then took a short coach trip to the Trinity Cemetery to admire his burial place, trying to ignore the red plastic tape and the workman, and the intrusive modern representation of a ruined wall and gothic placed behind the tomb to commemorate which said jobsworth workman was working on. Our group lunch was taken in a actual German restaurant, and microbrewery. I had a jacket potato with cream cheese and some very nice Weiss beer. After lunch a little wander, taking in the baroque architecture of the new town and visiting the sweet little house Museum of the Romantic, also 18th-century, a visit more for context than great art, admiring portraits of Caspar's associates and friends. A little bit more exploring of the historic centre of Dresden took us to our check-in at the Hyperion Hotel, which is so central as to seem part of the Royal Palace. It is very new with a huge lobby and large rooms, if mine is typical, like upmarket cafés. All very plush but oddly with the sink unit in the bedroom, with frosted glass doors behind into the loo and shower. Having what's known as an Independent Evening I went for an explore, a McPlant, an almond and lemon gelato and a shop in a swanky chocolate shop, settling on some marzipan from Strahlsund, and two chocolate bars, one flavoured with cinnamon and the other with pear and almond. Back to the hotel for a cup of redbush tea, with a bag of complimentary peanuts, two mini bars of bitter chocolate (why DO they put them on the pillows?) and a shower. Saturday 24th This morning to the Albertinum, first for an look at the permanent collection of Dresden artists and colleagues of Casper, even up to the impressionists and Otto Dix. Then sweet relief with the exhibition Where it all Started, which only opened today. In this case the starting point was Dresden. The works were equal in quality and highlights to other shows we've seen. Opposite the themed bays, which also featured artists who had inspired Caspar, was a long wall hung floor to ceiling with works by his contemporaries. The booklet detailing these works had a quote on the cover from Caspar saying how much he hated such hangings. After Tom had finished with us we had comfortable time to explore the exhibition more, before our independent lunch. I found a bakers that did tasty rye rolls with mozzarella and tomato and rocket with a dollop of pesto/mayo dressing. In the afternoon we had a look in the Frauerkirk and then Kupferstichkabinett, (Dresden Museum of Engravings and Drawings) for an exhibition of Caspar's drawings. Back to the hotel for a rest, and the we gathered for our last night dinner in the hotel restaurant. Sunday 25th In the morning we strolled not far stroll to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, which includes Raphael’s Sistine Madona, Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus, Liotard’s Chocolate Girl pastel, and two Vermeers, including The Girl Reading a Letter, recently restored with the discovery of a painting on the wall behind her (see right). So not a collection to be missed. Back to our hotel at 12.00 to collect our luggage, check out and buy a mozza/tom panino for lunch, and a stollen, in nearby bakers, before boarding our coach back to the Berlin Brandenburg airport. Some jams on the road back, but we got checked in in comfortable time, the flight was even early into Heathrow. Following fond farewells at the carousel, I was on the Elizabeth Line train soon after 6.00 listening to apologies that our train was going nowhere soon due to ‘trespass issues’ at Paddington. So I resorted to the good old Piccadilly Line and was still home before 8.00 A superior and memorable trip then, seeing and appreciating more CDF paintings and drawings in five days than in my life so far. Also, thanks to Tom, I learnt two new words: dorsala – a plain painted background to a portrait, and acribic – the meticulous rendering of tree branches, for example. |
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