My European Trip 9 -- Cologne

在科隆的每个傍晚，我会点一瓶啤酒。然后微醉地沿着莱茵河畔 走回旅馆。 夕阳洒在身上，暖暖的。 －－ 题记

The highlight of my trip in Cologne is the dusk. I used to order a different beer with dinner all three nights there. Then I would walk back to my hotel along the Rhine river, slightly drunk. The sun was still high at 8pm in the summer. Walking in the merry sunshine, I felt satisfied. Sometimes I lingered at the restaurant facing the Rhine, watching those happy people and innocent children.

Cologne Dom and Deutze bridge at the sunset

The hotel I lived was right beside the Cologne Cathedral. Wherever I went, I always first passed by this pointed architecture. Hence I got the chance to see her beauty from various angles.


The dom is simply tooooo high! I had to crawl forward to get her complete beauty.

Close-up of the statues on the side door.

The tower penetrates into the clouds. I named this photo "the Imagination of the Sky".

I am not an Christian, and have no religious faith. But I believe in the existence of an unknown invisible mighty power and a sincere heart. In this cathedral, I lit a candle for my mom and dad, as I always did in many trips. As the single daughter in the family, it's a great pity that I couldn't accompany them in the past ten years, though my heart is always with them.



The old town of Cologne (Altstadt) is composed of abundant narrow alleys, hiding in between are good bars and restaurants. This Italian restaurant is named "Pinocchio". Does it remind you of the wooden puppet whose nose grows whenever lying? ^_^ Another childhood happy memory.

Grinheads. All over the old town you see them on the facades of old houses, those grisly stone masks called "Grinkopfe". In medieval times they served a practical purpose where their lower jaw should be a hole to hold the pole over which a rope was thrown. By means of this simple mechanism barrels and heavy weights were heaved into the cellars.

Outside Great St. Martin's church you will meet Tünnes and Schäl -- well-known Kölsh characters. Tünnes (Kölsh for Tony) is a harmless good-natured fellow whose rural cunning should however not be underestimated. His big, fat nose shows signs of constant rubbing, as grabbing hold of it is supposed to bring luck. Schäl (Kölsh for squinting, but also meaning bad or nasty) is a shy old fox. He is even more workshy than Tünnes, full of bluster, and enjoys a drink and a good punch-up. He has a kind of love-hate relationship with Tünnes; in fact, neither can get by without the other.

The famous Chocolate Museum

Statue in the old market: a Boy and a Girl

Photographed by Jennie Bai.

Copyright ©Jennie Bai. All Rights Reserved.

Next Stop: Amsterdam

My European Trip 8 -- Bonn

Bonn has a charming old town. After a 20-minute express train from Cologne, I walked out of the central station (Hauptbahnhof) and pleasantly found that I was embraced by lovely small houses. The sign to the Tourism Office clearly guided me to an alley with an air of great antiquity in two minutes.

Traveling Tip 4: Always stop by the Tourism Office. There you can usually get a free map with most places of interest and well-designed walk tours. The staffs' encyclopedic knowledge of their domain seems indispensable, especially in heritage-rich areas such as Aveyron or museum cities like Frankfurt and Bonn. Moreover, I am growing increasingly fond of speaking with people in the storefront of the Tourism Office.

Great! I have a map now. Follow me!

This is the old town hall of Bonn. Every Saturday the plaza afront holds a big farmers' market.

I don't know why, but fresh fruits and vegetables bring me great excitement all the time ever since I was a little girl. I enjoy seeing them well-stacked in the grocery store. I love to see so many vivid colors! The texture, color, and taste in my mind, are immediately associated with vigor and satisfaction.

The map told me there should be the Beethoven house at this corner. Why couldn't I find it anywhere? Walking back and forth along the street for three times, I finally found the door hiding among other buildings. Here it is, the place where Beethoven was born and spent his youth hood.

Bonn University. This building used to be Electoral Prince's Castle, now serves as the main building of Bonn University. It's beautiful and grand, isn't it?

I love many European towns and small cities like Bonn. Here and there you can find colorful flower stores, delicious bakeries (Boulangerie in France), and original Cafés.


An ornament in a flower store.

Red and white balloons. Are they hurrying for a wedding?

Door handle

Oh, Rose! She is waiting for somebody? Someone just left? Or she bought it for herself?

My mom usually complained that I took many pictures each trip, but she hardly saw pictures of me. Well, that's probably true given the limited situation of my solo traveling. More often, I am represented only by my shadow.

But this time I got my own picture in the Modern Art Museum of Bonn. One exhibit used projector to show hundreds of photography works. Putting my camera beside the projector and choosing the automatic mode, here I am! Together with a little African girl. :)

Next Stop: Cologne

Photographed by Jennie Bai.

Copyright ©Jennie Bai. All Rights Reserved.

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Note: I will move to New York City from Chicago this afternoon (August 25) and start working in September. From now on I will update this blog only on weekends. Thank you for your continuous attention and reading!

My European Trip 7 -- Frankfurt

Nobody would recommend Frankfurt as a place of interest before my journey; they said that Frankfurt is just another Manhattan in Europe. It possibly is in an European's eye; but the city still brought me surprises at the first sight. And the unforgettable memory on my last day in Europe.


To be exact, the city should be called by its full name "Frankfurt am Main", since there is another Frankfurt (significantly smaller) in Germany. Situated on the river Main, Frankfurt is one of the largest financial centers in the world, also the residence of European Central Bank and several large commercial banks such as Deutsche Bank.


I stayed in a hotel across the central train station, which is close to the financial district and the river Main. The time I went out happened to be rush hours when people got off work. So I saw many professionals -- with business suites and ties -- riding bikes. Here bicycling is simply a transportation tool rather than a sport. To tie the fluttering lower pants, someone used amusing red threads, someone chose colorful clips. Other bikers include women with extra long skirt or with miniskirt. So many bikers along River Main! What a scenery!


The old town square, Römerplatz.

The Logo of a Nutcracker Soldier Store.

Another logo of a tourism store.

Fountain of Justice Goddess who has a simple balance with hand showing fairness.

A street in the old town.

Many Europeans are natural gardener, especially the Dutch. They always use beautiful flowers to decorate their balconies.

The Euro 2008 champion tournament final was in two days, between Germany and Spain. Everywhere I saw the national flags of Germany, in the balcony, on people's faces and bags. Someone even wrapped her puppet with a Germany flag.

Frankfurt is the only city in Germany with many high-rise buildings. Let's now see its modern side.

Frankfurt is a city under continuous construction ever since World War II.

The first good impression on Frankfurt is its taxi. Getting out of the train station, I saw a long waiting line of taxis. All of them were Mercedes-Benz, with a color of beige, and with their Benz logos shining in the sun. In the late July I also visited Stuttgart, residence of Porsche and BMW. As far as I know, Germany on the whole has the best taxi in the world.


Indeed, German men are said to love their cars better than their wives, at least spending more time with cars. Do you believe so?


Smart cars. Like them or not, they can at least easily find a parking. :)

Next Stop: Bonn

Photographed by Jennie Bai.

Copyright ©Jennie Bai. All Rights Reserved.

My European Trip 6 -- The Smurfs

Sketching at the Comics Museum

Have you heard about the Smurfs?

They are my childhood's happy memory. And after twenty years I saw them again at smurfs' home, Brussls' Comics Museum.

The Smurfs, Blue Imps, Loc Pitufos, As-Sanafir, die Schlumpfe, Smerfy, 蓝精灵, Smrkci, ... Whatever you call those little blue dwarfs, les Schroumpfs were invented by the Belgian comic artist Peyo in 1958. And NOT by some French guy like everybody seems to think.

This year 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Smurfs. The Comics Museum in Brussels holds a special exhibition to celebrate it. I was lucky to be there and I wish this article could bring you childlike smiles.

"It's true. The characters that I've created are not tough guys at the outset. The strength they express isn't spontaneous. Peewit [Jennie's note, pronounced Peer-loo-ee], for instance, is resourceful. As for the Smurfs, they are constantly in danger. They became strong together by being united."
---- Peyo

The Smurfette （蓝妹妹） was created from a magical potion by the wizard Gargamel. Do you know what ingredients Gargamel used to make her in the laboratory? Is that a definition of "Woman"? I found the answer is interesting. The list of ingredients includes "Sugar and spice but nothing nice...A dram of crocodile tears...A peck of bird brain...The tip of an adder's tongue...Half a pack of lies, white, of course...The slyness of a cat...The vanity of a peacock...The chatter of a magpie...The guile of a vixen and the disposition of a shrew...And of course the hardest stone for her heart..."

Fortunately, that definition is turned around by Papa Smurf. After a successful operation of "plastic smurfery", Papa Smurf transformed the ugly (and unhappy) brunette Smurfette into the blond bombshell as she is today.

As I remembered, these little blue creatures (three apple tall) always win the powerful wizard. Perhaps the reason is like what Peyo summarized, they became strong by being united. Smurf for all, all for smurf!

In the comics museum, I also met another famous figure, Tintin.

I always wonder why so many people love Tintin. His face is made up of a few very simple features. It's almost expressionless. Probably, the fact that Tintin is nobody and his face is neutral makes him the ideal recipient for the emotions felt and projected by readers.

Finally, enjoy the Smurfs theme from YouTube!

Next Stop: Paris

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Note: Before my Paris stories, I will recall those in Germany, my first few stops in Frankfurt, Bonn and Cologne. After Cologne I started my Holland visit.

My European Trip 5 -- Brussels

If you don't know which beer is to your taste,
If you happen to be in a country famous for the diversity of beers,
Which beer would you choose?

The sign of a beer house.

Jennie's answer is ---- she bought five different bestselling beers under local people's suggestions.

Also, she bought them in a grocery market. Traveling Tip 1: Grocery stores or supermarkets are always cheaper than tourist shops for food and souvenirs. They all sell a few of the six Trappist beers (Chimay, Ovral, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren, Achel) and good chocolate like Cote d'Or or Jacques.

And she brought five bottles of beer to the top floor of Parking 58, which offers a 360 spectacular view of Brussels in open air! It's free to enter, just take the elevator to the 10th floor. There you can see as far as the Atomium, Brussels' landmark like the Eiffel in Paris. Traveling Tip 2: The rooftop of Parking lot in big cities provides you a FREE panoramic view.



How to behave like a local in Brussels? Eat and drink a lot! Brusseleirs are called the "kiekefretters" (chicken eaters) because, according to legend, they preferred eating to fighting during the Middle Ages. :)


Well, it's lunchtime! Let's have some genuine Brussels waffles. Remember, a real Brussels waffle is square, and a Liégeois is round and caramelised. If you really want to behave like a tourist, order extra chocolate or strawberry.

For dessert, I'd love to share with you real Belgian Chocolate. Taste so good!

A marionette chef in the window of a chocolate shop.

Th Pissing Boy

"Is this it? He's much smaller than I thought!" Indeed, the pissing boy called MANNEKEN PIS is the ideal national symbol for a country that is also very small and absurd. In 2007, for example, he did not pee for one day, with a sign warning for prostate cancer. His suit is changed a few times per month. Go to see the City Museum on the Grote Market/ Grand Place for the last 804 costumes, from Mozart to Mandela.

The pissing boy's dress on July 3, 2008

After saying goodbye to the little boy, I kept strolling along the streets. All of a sudden, I was caught up by a series of beautiful sounds ending up with four solid chimes. I realized that it was 4:00pm now. Following the chimes I found a big wall clock.

So if you happen to have no watch or clock with you in the journey, how could you know the time? This situation has applied to me for many times. And Jennie has found quite a few tips! Think about your solution. I will release Jennie's answers later.

Photographed by Jennie Bai.

Copyright ©Jennie Bai. All Rights Reserved.

My European Trip 4 -- Kinderdijk

Birdsong brings relief / to my longing.
I am just as ecstatic as they are, /but with nothing to say!
Please, universal soul, practice/ some song, or something, through me!
-- Rumi (from Birdsong -- translated by Coleman Barks)


Kinderdijk is a small village unique for 19 beautiful windmills dating from the 1500s. The name Kinderdijk is Dutch for "Child's Dike". The folktale says that during severe flooding in 1421 people found a wooden cradle floating, and a cat jumping back and forth in the cradle trying to keep it in balance. When the cradle eventually came near the dike, someone fished the cradle out and saw that in it a baby slept quiet and dry. This area hence got the name, Kinderdijk.

Holland is a country of windmills. The Dutch invented the world's first windmill in 1229. These windmills however, are not used for the purpose of agriculture as you think, but rather for pumping out of water to keep the soil dry. Remember, Holland is a country most of which is below the sea level.

The weather changed dramatically. The above photo was taken before a thunderstorm. Ten minutes later however, all colors magically switched and generated the following picture.

Along the canal, the vigorous reed stretches out.

In Amsterdam I unexpectedly met an old friend, also an alumnus of Fudan University, whom I have known for ten years. He generously offered to accompany me first to Leiden, and then to Kinderdijk. -- Thank you, my friend! We talked, talked and talked, surprisingly finding that we had so much to share. (When I was writing this, I ran across another alumnus in MSN who now stays in Belgium. He sent me a message, saying "it's so good to catch up with an old friend after so many years". :) ) My feeling is the same.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?"

It's the middle of the afternoon. The sun is shining after a hearty thunderstorm. We're sitting on a small deck, hanging down our feet towards the water. It's a beautiful, mild day filled with the sounds of birds singing and the smell of crisp breeze. There seemed to be a tacit agreement. We simply sat there, silent and totally relaxed.

(the scenery in front of us when sitting on a small deck)

Life is really unpredictable. Two straight lines have been parallel for ten years, and all of a sudden they crossed at an abrupt point. The track then is no longer the same.

Next stop: Brussels

Photographed by Jennie Bai.

Copyright ©Jennie Bai. All Rights Reserved.

My European Trip 3 -- Vincent van Gogh

月亮和六便士都在眼前，是为一份六便士的生活疲于奔命？还是为仰望心中那轮明月而有所放弃？ 其实门一直都开着，问题只在于我们的脚步去留不定。
---- 题记

Before visiting Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, I only know that this Dutch artist created some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive works. What I don't know is his diligence, passion, tragic life and friendship. Van Gogh's Life, this special exhibition presented me how this great artist devoted his life to painting.

Please first allow me to express my respect and admiration with this sunflower picture, which I took in France. (The museum prohibits using cameras. So let me use this as a substitute.) Vincent, you would still love these brilliant sunflowers, wouldn't you?

Sunflowers in the countryside of the Loire Valley, France

In 1880 Vincent van Gogh decided to become an artist. He was 27 years old at the time and had already been employed in a variety of professions, as a lay preacher, a schoolmaster and an art dealer, none of which had proved a great success. However, his evolution from an inept but impassioned novice into a truly original master was remarkably rapid. Ever since then, he produced 900 paintings, 1,100 drawings and 800 letters in the last ten years of his life. Most of his best-known works were produced in the final two years till his suicide in 1890.

In December 1888, Van Gogh cut off a piece of his left ear following a breakdown in his friendship with Paul Gauguin. After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide at the age of 37. "I feel like a failure," he wrote, "I feel as though this is my fate, and that it will no longer change."


Passion

Van Gogh's earlier need to serve people, arising from his religious calling, eventually became -- as he himself wrote -- a strong desire to leave "a certain souvenir" to humankind "in the form of drawings or paintings, not made to comply with this or that school but to express genuine human feeling".

His oeuvre, inextricably tied to the tragedy of his life, is still an invaluable source of inspiration to many. If you have further interest, you could see two movies Lust for Life, and Van Gogh.


Selected Works

(I did no shopping throughout this European trip, except hundreds of postcards and posters. I reproduced the following pictures from my posters.)

Van Gogh created a highly distinctive style of painting -- using expressive brush strokes and vivid colors.

I really like his BEDROOM and the idea behind when he created this painting. He wrote that he wishes this painting, with the simple forms and bright, contrasting color planes to represent "rest" and "sleep". "I want to make it really an artist's home -- not precious, ... but everything from the chairs to the pictures having characters. "

"This time it's just simply my bedroom, only here color is to do everything, and giving by its simplification a grander style to things, is to be suggestive here of rest or of sleep in general. In a word, looking at the picture ought to rest the brain, or rather the imagination." ---- Vincent, in a letter to his brother Theo.

The BLOSSOMING ALMOND TREE may not be Van Gogh's best known painting, but surely is my favorite. This is a painting with deep love and hope, devoted to his newborn nephew.

On January 31, 1890, Theo (his younger brother) wrote to Vincent of the birth of his son, whom he had named Vincent Willem. Van Gogh, was greatly moved and immediately set about making him a painting of his favorite subject: blossoming branches against a blue sky. As a symbol of this new life, Vincent chose an almond tree, which blooms early in southern regions, announcing the coming spring.

This painting remains a tour-de-force, both the product of Vincent's fondness for the child as well as for the Japanese art which he so greatly admired.

"My work was going well, the last canvas of branches in blossom--you will see that it was perhaps the best, the most patiently worked thing I had done, painted with calm and with a greater firmness of touch. " -- Letter 628 Vincent to Theo, April 15, 1890.

Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin

Van Gogh’s SUNFLOWERS is probably one of the world's most expensive paintings. This painting, as you may not know, was first hung by Vincent as a welcoming decoration in a bedroom that he had prepared for Paul Gauguin in the famous Studio of the South.


The Studio of the South is located in Arles, a provincial town in the south of France, which witnessed the intensely dramatic and nearly fatal relationship of the two of the greatest artists in modern art, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Few men have struggled so manfully with their demons or suffered so much for their art.

Initially, Van Gogh invited Gauguin, because he hoped that they could reinvent and reinvigorate art outside the established Parisian art world. However, as Gauguin wrote in his 1903 memoir, "Between two such beings as he and I, the one a perfect volcano, the other boiling inwardly too, a sort of struggle was preparing.'' On the Christmas Eve of 1888 a frenzied Van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a straight razor and then hacked part of his own ear lobe off and collapsed.

In 1890, Vincent committed suicide, heartbroken. Gauguin, although more outwardly attractive and successful, ended up spending the next fifteen years searching for an imaginary lost paradise in Tahiti - syphilitic, broke and ultimately alone. Yet he continued to write with special affection of Van Gogh who was his friend and of his appreciation of Vincent's genius.

The story of their relationship is well captured through Irving Stone's bestseller "Lust for Life". For an vivid artistic description of their relationship, I recommend this website. Also, there is a special exhibition using original masterpieces to portray the complete stories in the South of the Studio, please click here.

Van Gogh and Gauguin's story remembers me of another painting, IRISES (1890) by Van Gogh, which he emphasized an effect of enormously divergent complementary colors, and said "[whose] contrasts makes them stand out all the more strongly". Does it exist such a relationship of "making them stand out all the more strongly, but in a harmonious way"?

Harmony? It may well persist in an artist's works, but rarely exists in his personal life. Many years ago, I by chance read a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence. It is said that the novel was adapted from Paul Gauguin's real life. The story tells about the miserably rocky road of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stock broker who abandons family and wealth abruptly in order to pursue his desire of painting.

The moon symbols the starry sky, while sixpence is the smallest currency in England at that time. It is said that a friend ever joked with Maugham that people tend to forget sixpence at their feet whereas looking up the starry sky. Maugham found it interestingly fitted the theme of this novel, then named it so. The moon and sixpence, the ideal and the reality.

With the choice between the moon and sixpence, will you run off your feet for a living? Or to give it up for the chaste moon in your heart? The door is always open. The only obstacle is your hesitation.
-- Jennie

Epilogue: It took me extra time to write this article, far beyond my expectation. Reading through Van Gogh's life again, especially the triumph and tragedy in the South of the Studio, I was deeply touched so that had to stop writing and thinking for several times. Still, I felt I failed to depict a whole picture of Van Gogh. I could only extract my feelings to some words and share a little with you, personally. Again, let me present these sunflowers to this great artist.

The photo was taken in the south of France

According to a friend's suggestion, I put a YouTube video here. It is a song called Vincent (also named Starry Starry Night) by Don Mclean. This song is perfectly melt with representative paintings by Vincent van Gogh. -- Thank you, Willy!

Next stop: Kinderdijk